Forum Activity for @nate

Seems that Cello pegs or a good wrench are both way better options than making my own. Thanks
Nate

This question might be really dumb but I've been wondering this for years. What is the cultural link between hammered dulcimers and mountain dulcimers? To me the instruments couldn't possibly have much less in common. Their 'sweet sound' namesake  seems to be the only thing. From what I have heard in the past, hammered dulcimers are hundreds of years older, and it's mostly a coincidence that mountain dulcimers are called the same name.So why is there such a noticeable cultural overlap between hammered dulcimer people and mountain dulcimer people? Shops that build both or sell both, MD groups with a HD player, or vice versa. Even here on this website are a bunch of pictures by MD builders of gorgeous hammered dulcimers they have built. I feel out of the loop haha.
Thanks
Nate

Thanks for the info. I have seen some chinese ones on ebay for 15 dollars each for the reamer or shaver, a couple times less. I assume theyre less precisely made or less durable than nice ones. Still, if premade pegs only cost 1.50 that would take a lot of pegs to be worth getting the kit. The main reason I might want to make my own is that I find pegs with a very large flat head to be much more comfortable than the smaller ones on a violin.
Nate

What do y'all think of the pencil sharpeners designed for friction pegs? Are these a good method for creating tuners, or just an artetfact of a tradition?

Thanks for the information! I was hoping that's what you guys would say . 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.
Nate

Hello folks, a couple of years ago a friend gave me a half assembled kit dulcimer along with an instructional booklet, as well as"four & twenty" and a plastic sleeve with some strings. The booklet is made by The Dulcimer Shoppe and the strings are McSpadden brand, so the kit might be as well, but I can't say for sure. It was given to my with some of the work already done wrong, my friend tried to fix it without consulting the booklet, 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.
I'm hoping some folks here might know more about this kit and maybe just how old some of this stuff is. I cant tell if the books are just stylized to look late 70s folky or if it all might actually be that old. My friend indicated that it could be decades old, but he really had no clue beyond that. 
Thanks
Nate

 20230321_091836.jpg - 249KB

My experience with the dulcimer community on this website is a very altruistic desire to share information and music. So many on here have taken quite a lot of time out of their day to write long posts to help me or someone else or folks in general with understanding and appreciating the dulcimer, and I'm really grateful for that. At the end of the day I know that all the help I've gotten is proof that dulcimer people love helping and sharing with others, so I know they will always find a way to do it

I am not a regular reader, but I've pulled up a TON of random articles over time. Sorry is this question is out of the loop, but will there be any type of replacement, maybe a less frequent digital newsletter or something more manageable?  It's a real bummer though, for someone like me who isnt really connected to the culture of dulcimer playing, DPN regularly exposed me to ideas I'd never have even known to look for, including techniques, historical information, etc.

Hey Ken, I thought the instrument was super interesting, especially how the traditional ones have handles on the front, so you can basically hold it like a plane yoke while you play. My next one will too. The one I built has the saddle sitting on two coffee cans in a plywood box. I sort of just winged it, didn't really measure anything or use plans or whatnot. Intending to build another one now that I know what to expect.

Haha! Thats why some guy invented the harmonica holder ! 

https://youtube.com/shorts/Xl1pDlMtGbM?feature=share
The Gambian Kora is a really clever African harp. I think one would probably sound incredible with the dulcimer. Made one attempt and building one DIY style and still have no clue how to play it. Working on building a much nicer, louder, and prettier one using what I learned.

Wow I didnt realize how many of the folks here are left handed! It's neat to think about how both hands are doing tricky stuff and both need a lot of practice anyway. I feel that playing musical instruments has made me noticeably more ambidextrous over time and there are a ton of things I can do with my left hand that I definitely couldn't before I started practicing instruments. 

Thank you @strumelia for the useful details and thank you to everyone else for all the input in general. This has all helped me a lot to get a better perspective on the what's and why's

Nate

Was the bridge originally glued, or did it simply fall off when string tension was lowered? If it was already glued it could be possible to see on the fingerboard where it was previously, based on color difference/glue residue.

Irene makes a very important point though. Its also been my experience that placing the bridge improperly is somewhat common, so be very careful that you find the absolute best spot for it before gluing, or maybe just see how it sounds unglued. It might be good!

A fixed bridge can be very convenient though.In the dulcimer group I used to play in, pretty much every time I tuned up a dulcimer I'd check the octave and I'd say over 20 cents off was the standard. Their problem, though, was that they had floating bridges and werent being careful while restringing. A little bump here and there can destroy intonation pretty fast.

A fixed bridge can be nice if you know exactly where you want it to be, but be careful, or you could end up making another one of the dulcimers irene describe. Especially, be careful if you do end up using a book or rock or something makeshift to clamp it while the glue dries. The smallest little shift to the bridge caused by applying the pressure at an angle could move the bridge slightly and could make a big difference in the intonation, and you wont know til the glue dries!

Nate

Nate

A big factor when securing your frets, in my opinion, is what you expect from the instruments lifecycle. Super glue works well, but can be a serious pain if you are wanting to refret it later. It is common with guitars to use hide glue because if can be heated to soften it up if you later want to remove the fret. Also, what @dwain-wilder suggested is very clever.

That is all that really matters @shootrj2003! Luckily if you ever do want to know more (and believe me it took me a fair bit to grasp keys at all) there are some really well informed folks around here who like to help.

A quick follow up about this post, I was very new at the time and would often just pluck around the melody string until i heard what sounded like the first two notes, and then just figure the rest out through trial and error. This resulted in me sometimes starting my songs on the 3rd fret, and then figuring out the entire melody in the key of G. I had a vague understanding that the 6 or 6+ frets are just two different 'types' of the key of D or different modes.This made me very confused because technically the notes I was using were all in  'D mixolydian.' The big problem with this was that the drones didnt harmonize with the melody. A simple fix would have been to just move the whole melody down three frets, but I was really underinformed at the time, so instead i just added chords to the entire arrangement in what I now know was the key of G. Big pain in the butt, but Ive since fond that the key of G is common at jams so at least it wasn't for nothing.
Nate

Hey folks just wondering what reasons people might have for preferring a longer scale length. I started off building dulcimers around 28-30" VSL, having heard that longer dulcimers are louder. Over time I've gradually made them shorter to make long stretches more comfortable, the most recent one being 23.5"
To me the tone of a longer scale seems a little fuller, but maybe I'm just convincing myself of that one.
I also appreciate the ever so tiny bit of extra space that you get between the frets in the second octave. A big downside to long dulcimers that I've noticed is that the packs of strings designed for dulcimers will be at a much higher tension than typical when brought up to Dad tuning.
So anyway just wondering what some benefits are for long dulcimers compared to short ones. Whether it be in the sound characteristics, practical reasons, play-ability, just anything that you tend to prefer on longer dulcimers. More perspective would help me to figure out what VSL I want to build at going forward.
Thanks
Nate

really terrific @alegre1 . One of my absolute favorite things about the dulcimer, that a couple people brought up in this video, is the low barrier of entry. So many people who don't consider themselves to be musically inclined find joy in making music with a dulcimer. Many times folks have expressed to me that they don't consider themselves musical and as soon as they learn to put enough pressure on the fret to get a clean note, they're enjoying playing music. It's cool to have an ambassador such as yourself for our lovely instrument. 
-Nate

If you mean tabs for guitar chords, you can go to a website like ultimate-guitar.com then find a song you like. For example here is a link to 'Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver"
https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/john-denver/leaving-on-a-jet-plane-chords-32979
at the bottom of the screen you will see a white box that reads
"FONT -1+1 CHORDS AUTOSCROLL TRANSPOSE -1 +1"
you can transpose the tabs to a key that is better suited to your dulcimer by clicking on the +1 to transpose it up a half step or the -1 to transpose it down a half step. For example if you found tabs in the key of E, but your dulcimer is tuned to D, you could click the '-1' button twice.
This chart might then help to translate the chords into dulcimer chords https://everythingdulcimer.com/tab/chord_chart_dad_major.pdf

I don't know of a way to directly convert the kind of tabs which show all 6 strings, other than to just convert those tabs into their notes, then convert those notes into dulcimer tabs. This can be quicker than you might think with a chart like this
As Lisa mentioned, your biggest obstacle at that point is the chromatic frets, which might not be a problem at all if your dulcimer has a lot of frets. Quite a lot of pop music is mostly diatonic so if you are willing to put in the time to translate the guitar tabs into their notes, then transpose those notes into a key you can play on your dulcimer, a lot of times its very rewarding, but sometimes it can be fruitless if you dont have the frets you need.
Hope this helps
-Nate

Hello Jim, I found this YouTube video showing one way to play it 

This is interesting. Tried looking into this more but don't know nearly enough about chemistry or physics to really grasp much. I might have to throw on the safety glasses and see what they sound before they break at what I assume will be a very low tension. I wish I had an ornamental instrument to put them on; they look much more like decor than like actual strings.

Hey folks, a few years ago I learned about an experimental dulcimer called an 'Aquavina' which uses a metal bowl filled partially with water as a resonator.

Without actually hearing any, I devised a dulcimer that I hoped would achieve a similar effect by using a bundt pan built into a wooden body dulcimer. Over time I've built 5 similar dulcimers. This video is a demonstration of how water changes the tone of three different dulcimers
The first is plywood with a moderately thin pan Tuned DAd with a 26.5" VSL
The second is particle board covered in acrylic paint with a thicker pan tuned EBe 23" VSL
The third is birch plywood with a very thin pan tuned Fcf 23.5" VSL

what an interesting idea. They were both still in their envelopes but the tub they were in has 75+ random strings of random compositions. I can spot red blue and yellow spots on these strings and as much as I want to try tuning them up, they are spiraled like a slinky when I hold them up and I think they would probably break.

 20230226_111603.jpg - 14KB

I've had these  silver plated classical guitar strings sitting in their paper envelopes in a bucket of spare strings for probably 3 years now. Finally decided to sort through it a bit and I found two separate strings which had each turned rainbow colored! The variety of colors is crazy and I was wondering if anyone knows more about this. Ive heard of strings getting a duller color over time, but these look like a full on art project. Thanks in advance,
Nate

 20230226_102928.jpg - 28KB

these are SUPER neat!

Hello, I have built dulcimers from 21" to 30" VSL and in my experience playing a shorter VSL dulcimer isnt much different at all than just playing further up the fretboard on a high VSL dulcimer. If you like chording there are definitely long stretches that can be made much easier on a shorter VSL dulcimer, but if youre anything like me, you may prefer a little extra space between the frets in the second octave. The difference of an extra 1/8th of an inch can make a really big difference for my fat fingers lol.

Having several dulcimers of the same VSL is definitely a bit more convenient than having them of different VSLs, but I think it's worth it to get your hands well experienced with adapting to different dulcimers.

One more added advantage to choosing a specific VSL and sticking with it is that you'll be able to use the same string packs for all of them, rather than needing different gauges or tunings for each one.
-Nate

That a really neat piece of culture I wasn't aware of thanks for filling me in

Just wondering if anyone knows. It is a pretty weird name. 

Also, is a false bottom considered a possum board, or does the term only apply to the accessory which is not attached to the dulcimer?

Certainly whoever was the builder whether amateur or professional, they knew what they were doing. There are aspects of this dulcimer such as the bridge that connects to the soundboard instead of the fingerboard, and the bizarre hole in the strum hollow that are very neat to me. Thanks for sharing.
-Nate

By the way its worth noting that the vast majority of string instruments have intonation issues way up the neck. I'm not sure if this is because of how much a small imprecision can affect the tonality, or if it is simply the nature of string instruments that ideal intonation at the top of the fretboard is not the same as at the bottom.

All I know is that most of the guitars, dulcimers, mandolins, and every other string instrument I've ever looked at close with a tuner tends to be less well intonated further up the fretboard.

Hello John, it is more common to see doubled bass strings, but having a thin string there is perfectly fine. It is most likely intended to be tuned an octave up from the bass note, which is the same as the melody note in a 1-5-8 tuning(if you were tuning D a dd, this would be Dd a dd), but if you are playing in a 1-5-5 tuning then perhaps this is different and someone else might know if that is still correct.

I can't recommend any sites specifically for noter playing, however I have found many tabs on dulcimertab.com and everythingdulcimer.com which are suitable for noter style. Really most of the tabs I see for 1-5-5 tunings such as DAA are well suited to noter drone.

Also, if you can read sheet music or are willing to learn, I have noticed that the majority of popular vocal melodies of the last hundred years are diatonic and can be transcribed to dulcimer and are readily available online. This is a fun way to bring contemporary songs into your noter drone playing.

-Nate