Forum Activity for @nate

Vintage Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I also noticed that the 'f holes' that run along the edges of the fingerboard terminate at big round holes on the side pieces. Does anyone know anything about this?
I hadnt heard of this 'floating bridge' concept until just now. I was able to find this older FOTMD post about a 'howie mitchell floating bridge' 
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/instruments-discuss-specific-features-luthiers-instrument-problems-questions/35304/dulcimer-queries


So now I understand a bit better what I'm looking at with this dulcimer, and I am very curious if it's better. I have recently been really interested in how anchoring the strings in different ways and places affects tone. 

updated by @nate: 06/15/23 01:55:58AM

Vintage Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I am a bit confused. Visually, to me the gap between the tailpiece and the box looks very jagged and rough, like when glued surfaces get pulled apart. It also looks like there is some residual glue visible in the pictures, but that might just be dust and lighting. There is a chewed up little ding on the corner where I assumed they would connect, which I assumed is what split them.

Vintage Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

The more I look at it the more I wonder if the dulcimer was intended to be hung on a rod. The headstock almost resembles a clothes hanger hook. I doubt well ever know, but I do like the idea of the builder having rows of their creations across a wall.

Vintage Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

@ken-hulme I cant help but wonder what the intention was, since I'd Imagine it took some effort to do. Then again, maybe the piece of wood that became the headstock was originally cut for something else, and the maker repurposed it. Ive done that with furniture pieces a couple times with some strange looks. 
@dwain-wilder Am I understanding you correctly that you are saying the string pins should be mounted to the tailpiece like in this drawing, so to not apply upward force to the break?

thanks,
Nate

Vintage Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I find the headstock really interesting. The shape of the cutout seems very specific, as if it was for a purpose. I cant imagine it would be much good for hanging the dulcimer as the notch seems really shallow. Maybe it was for hanging one specifically on a shaker peg or something like that? Also, I see a knob at the bottom for a strap, but none at the top. Anyone have any ideas? Is that type of cutout on other dulcimers as well?

Converting a 4 String Dulcimer to a 3 String

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

 I set up my 4 string dulcimers so that the inner-most of the two melody strings is equidistant with the middle and bass, and the outermost has the same distance to the edge of the fretboard as the bass string. On a 1.5" fretboard this is usually 
7/32" | 1/16" | 1/2" | 1/2" | 7/32" with the lines representing strings.
For what it's worth, removing the outer string can put you further from the ends of the fretboard, but removing the inner string can give your thumbtip slightly more space on the melody without touching the middle string. It really doesn't matter much, unless youre like me and not very precise while playing.

Benefits of longer VSL?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

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

fret scale chart of a mountain Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Well whatever his question was, probably at least one person has answered it by now haha

2023 Hindman Dulcimer Homecoming online link

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

If youre not busy, hop in!

fret scale chart of a mountain Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Dwain please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I think you may have increased all those notes by an octave(or two with A5 and decreased by 1 with F3 relative to the other notes) though I am not aware of GFG being a normal tuning, perhaps you meant GDG, (one full step down from AEA or a 1-5-8 in G major?) with normal tunings being d4d4A3D3 A3A3A3D3, G3G3D3G2 which are normally notated as D-A-dd (mixolydian tuning) or D-A-AA (Ionian tuning) GDGG (baritone mixo)
Also I think you meant to say that a diatonic scale is like a piano without the black keys, not a piano without the white keys.
updated by @nate: 04/13/23 02:47:08AM

fret scale chart of a mountain Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I believe he is referring to the 1.5 and 4.5 frets, the 1.5 I think is the minor pentatonic blue note in D, both allow for the melody string to play a d minor scale, the .5 fret also helps with minor scale chords

updated by @nate: 04/12/23 11:37:06PM

fret scale chart of a mountain Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Are you asking for a list of fret measurements for chromatic frets? The stew mac calculator can be set to 'electric guitar' and will then show placement for all 12 frets in an octave.
Are you asking for a chart which shows scale degrees and how to fret them? I am not aware of one for chromatic, but this chart has the diatonic frets and you could add onto this yourself.
https://everythingdulcimer.com/tab/chord_chart_dad_major.pdf
For every fret that is not included on this chart, you can identify it's note, then identify the notes of the other frets you are playing and with a chart like this 
https://www.michael-thomas.com/music/class/chords_notesinchords.htm
you can determine what chords you are making with these frets. So whichever frets you have, I promise it's a pretty quick process to transcribe your fretboard into a chart of scale degrees in various keys or letter notes.

Connection Between Hammered and Mountain Dulcimers?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Do you by any chance still have this article? I am sure i could find an online resource for how to build one but I have become very fascinated with how people would convey building ideas over print. The first dulcimer I built was from a Reader's Digest "traditional skills" book. It did not explain anything nearly enough, but my un-intonated dulcimer with absurdly high action did sound so bad it made me want to actually learn about building dulcimers, out of desire to produce something better.
Anyway, if possible I'd really appreciate a photo of this article, or details that could help me find a digital copy of it.
Thanks
Nate

Connection Between Hammered and Mountain Dulcimers?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Those are really interesting details Dulcidom. I didn't mean to suggest that dulcimers were named after hammered dulcimers during the folk revival, I have just observed that the communities of fretted and hammered dulcimer players seem to maybe have become interwoven around that time. It makes some sense to me that many uncommon folk instruments would end up falling under that culture (zithers, wood flutes, etc)

Connection Between Hammered and Mountain Dulcimers?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

thanks for some insight Dusty. Do you think this might relate to the folk music revival of the 70s? If I recall, you might be someone who dabbles in hammered dulcimer?

Change out friction pegs?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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

Connection Between Hammered and Mountain Dulcimers?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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

Change out friction pegs?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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

Change out friction pegs?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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?

International Appalachian Dulcimer Day

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

How Old is This Dulcimer Kit/Stuff?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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

How Old is This Dulcimer Kit/Stuff?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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

Benefits of longer VSL?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Dulcimer Players News demise

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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

Dulcimer Players News demise

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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.

Kora

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

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.

updated by @nate: 03/15/23 03:07:30PM

Left handed playing

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Haha! Thats why some guy invented the harmonica holder ! 

Kora

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

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.

updated by @nate: 03/14/23 06:31:49PM

Left handed playing

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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. 

Benefits of longer VSL?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

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

How to re-glue a bridge

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

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

Harmonica?

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

playing dulcimer with harmonica can be very fun if you ever feel up to it. Lyle Rickards is one player who I enjoy that plays both. here is a clip 

Nate

Benefits of longer VSL?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Could you be more specific please? What tunings and keys do you prefer for what scales? Am I understanding correctly that you prefer shorter length scales for playing with others? if so, why?
Thanks

Nate

updated by @nate: 03/12/23 09:54:53PM

Slots for frets loose

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

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.

How do I know what key I'm in?

Playing and jamming difficulties...HELP ME!

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

Benefits of longer VSL?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

thanks for sharing, i really like the sound of that dulcimer. Havent heard that song. is it typical that baritone dulcimers are a longer scale? I guess I assumed they were just strung with heavier strings.
updated by @nate: 03/12/23 12:11:48AM

Benefits of longer VSL?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

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

International Appalachian Dulcimer Day

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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

How to Convert guitar tab to mt. dulcimer

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

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

Search for a tab of "Let There Be Peace On Earth"

Dulcimer Resources:TABS/Books/websites/DVDs

You are probably right. I haven't ever experienced that side of it. I feel that knowledge should not be owned and the idea that a knowledgeable musician could easily replicate a piece of music that they hear, but cannot share the information of 'how' with others makes me sad.
One could go to a friend and have him show them note for note how to play the melody, but one couldn't pass that along to others online, and if one didn't have that friend, they'd have no such luck. 


updated by @nate: 03/03/23 11:50:37PM