Benefits of longer VSL?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
I think Dusty pretty well nails it. If you can't reach the chord, the tone is irrelevant. Tone can be altered in many ways that are independent of VSL. All the dulcimers I make have a 25" VSL. My basses and baritones have a very rich tone with plenty of overtones. I attribute that to the fact that my tops do not contact the neck and all my dulcimers have an inner or double back. You are certainly not afraid to think outside the traditional design and building constraints, so I think you can get the best of both worlds with a little experimentation. I have also made solid body electric micro basses with VSL's in the 23" range that sounded pretty acceptable.
With the use of electronics, virtually any sound is possible at any reasonable VSL. My latest smart dulcimer has an "octaver" effect that puts in overtones up to a full octave above or below the note you are playing. Plus eleven other effects to alter the basic sound.
Bob,
it is a pleasure to see you back, after not hearing your insight for a stretch. I would love a link to any blogs or anything similar resources about this 'octaver'
Suffice it to say the concepts you approach with your instruments are not available to me, but provide important data and concepts for me to bastardize/appropriate
. I am pretty curious what strings that old might sound like, hopefully they don't just snap. Unfortunately, during the original assembly by the person who gave it to my friend, the boards were reduced to smaller sizes than the instructions directed, as he just glued the parts together then sawed off the excess. so if will not be possible to assemble according to the directions, however this should only affect the precision of the box and hopefully it will still sound good. This definitely seems to be a dulcimer kit that has only passed through the hands of people who really didn't care one way or the other about woodwork or the instrument, and sadly I might have overlooked it a bit too long as well.
made it even weirder, gave up, and then had it sitting around for years until he found out I play dulcimer so he dug it up to give to me. Between some of the original pieces being lost, and the things done wrong, I still haven't gotten around to putting it together.
