Forum Activity for @lilley-pad

Hey Dusty

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Hello kids. I know I know not Jon again. I have a tuning question. For example, let's say You want to tune your Bass string down a half step. Do you tune it to D flat ? And tune it to C for a full step down?

Well kids it looks like my experiment didn't work out.  Boy was that a waste of money oh well live and learn. The idea was to find a nice streamlined solution to be able to snap a guitar strap on and off smoothly, without a bulky solution and be able to plug in an amplifier Jack. Tried the Musicnomad acousti-lok strap lock adapter output jack. Which just doesn't work. The distance between the output Jack and the button is too close so it interferes when trying to plug the amplifier Jack in and out of the instrument. The Musicnomad was an interesting design and I had big hopes for it to work but they just don't give you enough space. Back to the drawing board I guess I'll just have to live with the old way. Just thought I'd post this so if you were thinking of going in that direction I would rethink it.Before you throw away some money. 

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My original quick release strap was the one from Folk roots it's okay but a bit bulky and you cannot interchange it with other dulcimers. so I decided to upgrade and add a little bling and spice to my life. Decided to upgrade to the Dunlop Straplok 

System, So I can use any Guitar strap. And Levts Have some great patterns hard to choose just one.  Also Ernie’s not too bad, but I think I'm leaning towards the Levts brand.

The good thing about adding the Dunlop Straplok System is you can use one strap and go from one instrument to the other great design love it I just thought I'd throw this out for those who are interested in using guitar straps that are easy to switch back and forth Very streamline system not bulky at all I give it two thumbs up. Just thought I'd share for those who are interested 

Hi kids, just me Jon again. I just thought I would pass on something that I just learned from Dean Robertson. I was watching one of his videos and I noticed that he put his middle finger on top of his ring finger to do bar chords. Hey it works pretty darn good feels a little awkward at first but much easier for me to do bar chords this way, just thought I'd share.

Hey kids, here we go again. I think this musical journey is starting to hurt my head. any one out there know of a good website or link about strings.  Looks like there's 80/20 bronze, phosphor bronze, nickel bronze,  flat top, nickel wound, XS plain steel, XT plain steel, and so on. Then of course we have gauge sizes.  I think my brain is starting to swell 

Hi kid's once again it's me Jon Lilley. with one more of those silly questions. I just recently obtained my second instrument, a Terry McCafferty dulcimer, wonderful  instrument. but here's my question: if you are going to store an instrument for any length of time, should you loosen all the strings?

Hello everybody once again it is just me Jon trying to pick everybody's brain. I was looking into getting a Gary Gallier Dulcimer

I'm intrigued with his innovative design. Anyone out there have one and what is the V.S.L. on these things?  I noticed that he Gary is not really big on communicating. Thanks again

Hey thanks you guys are the best. I’m sure glad I asked the question first before I started messing around with them.  I could have made things a lot worse, that's the problem about doing something that you don't know what you're doing 

Hi kids just trying to increase my education here I noticed a pair of tuning pegs. I was wondering what they are called and what are the little adjustment screws on the end for?Are you supposed to loosen the screw and then tune the string and then tighten the screw back down tight, I don't get it.  Seems like an awful lot of work if that's the case. Hope the photo was attached

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Hey Dusty, Thanks I did try to do a search and came up with nothing, but I'll try your link.

Hi kids, just Jon Lilley here from cyberspace. I was hoping to get people's ideas and thoughts on something that I have no idea about. Never seen one, never touched one, never played one. It has to do with the five string and the sixth string dulcimers.  What are your opinions and thoughts about that? It's too hard to play, love it, hate them,  why bother. Well that's it, I was just hoping someone would give me their two cents. thanks. 

Anybody out there know anything about the New Harmony instruments bridge? The main question I have is about the Accutune module bridge. Any idea can you adjust the action and then lock everything into place so it doesn't get out of adjustment? Or you just adjust it for intonation, and no option for action, and it has a tendency to move out of place? 

(The Wayback Machine) 

Now we are really showing our age. Rocky and Bullwinkle (Really Rock) Smile 

Hello everybody, does anyone know if Don Neuhauser is still making instruments? His Dulci-Bro Resonator.

Going by the pictures I've seen on the internet looks like he makes a pretty good quality instrument. The bad thing about the internet is there's no real time stamp so you don't know if the information that is out there is really old or new 

No that " groovy Strumelia". SMILE

Hi kids for anyone that's interested and hasn't seen it you may want to check out a DVD from your library called Hearts of the Dulcimer. a documentary basically of the dulcimer movement in California. I had no idea there was such a following in the Santa Cruz mountains at that time. It is a very interesting DVD. I had no idea that it took place in my backyard. Of course back then in the late sixties and early seventies the only time we ever went to Santa Cruz was to go surfing and hang out at the boardwalk, hoping to meet women. Up here in the San Francisco Bay Area at that time period the folk music scene was kind of being phased out, it was still a little bit popular but for the most part was moving into rock. 

We were more interested in going to the Fillmore West sitting in the back on the couch smoking a joint and listening to Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull. Driving home across the bay bridge in the rain in a car with no windshield wipers we would have a string tied to the wiper arm and the driver would pull in One Direction and the passenger would pull in the other direction. Okay I'm rambling on again sorry about that.  Anyhow check out the video If you haven't seen it yet you may find it interesting. You should be able to get it from your local library 

Looks like I pasted the wrong link SORRY but still some interesting info. about Vince Farsetta & David Schnaufer.

Well kids I hope everybody's doing well just thought I'd pass along this link For those who are interested  https://dulcinews.com/profile-vincent-farsetta/

Well it looks like I was a little premature in posting my question a friend of mine just informed me that Yamaha now makes a CD player with a integrated USB port and it will also work with my "Teac amplifier" for those who remember the 1980s, Oh happy happy joy joy Sorry for wasting everybody's time reading this post. I'm trying to keep up with technology, sometimes it can be frustrating 

General Music Discussion i quess

Well it looks like I'm being slowly pushed into the present and that's where I am having a problem. Can everybody's out there help. I enjoy sitting in the front room sipping a cup of coffee and listening to Music on my CD player through my stereo receiver. And here's where the problem lies: it looks like more and more artists are no longer selling their music on CDs and forcing you to download their files. The problem is I'm not really big on listening to music on my laptop. Laptops no longer have CD players so you can't even burn a CD anymore.  and I do prefer to listen to the music through my stereo receiver. I can always put the files on a thumb drive USB but then the only way I know would be able to play the music is through my Blu-ray player through the television which means the TV is on all the time and the quality of the stereo is not as good as going through my  stereo receiver. Any ideas out there how to solve this problem I also must say that my receiver does have the old RC jacks on it. and yes I finally did get rid of my rotary telephone smile. oh for those who are not familiar with that type of phone you'll need to Google it, we used to use those back when there were typewriters smile Any suggestions out there on how to solve this problem 

"OOPS"  I will look in to

Thanks again Dusty after I posted this questing I found this web sit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykL2JYGP3CM 

Have not explore this site but at this point I do like that it gives you the Key and Tempo. I look in to Bings sit as well. 

Thank again Mr. Dusty :o)

First I just want to say I hope everybody's happy and healthy well at least happy

 anyone out there have any resources, know where to find backing tracks preferably for free.

For practicing, playing along with?

Hi kids, just me Jon here again have a question. Not another one, yes it is true, hoping to get some kind of feedback. I have just found a bluegrass group that tries to get together once a month to jam. My question has to do with trying to play along with a  group since the dulcimer is not very loud. Is it better to just jam with other dulcimers and not in a bluegrass situation where you're trying to play with louder instruments. I hope I'm making some kind of sense anyhow. Your feedback would be much appreciated. Take care everybody, keep those fingers limber and thanks again for your opinions. 

Bing Futch 342

I happened to be surfing the internet Looking for the tab for Black Mountain rag. And came across this video. what I find really interesting about it is that the way the camera is set up and the lighting you can actually see the bass string vibrating amazing just thought I'd post the link in case somebody was interested in seeing how much the bass string actually vibrates 

Tuners Hi kids, I hope everybody is doing well and had a good Christmas. I have a question about tuners and what your experience is with the one that you have, or the one that you can recommend. I have the Snark tuner, mainly because I don't know any better. It seems to work okay I guess.  But If I compare it to the one I downloaded on my phone the phone app says that I'm a little flat compared to the Snark. I have heard that the Peterson strobe Is a better unit what is your opinion out there. THANKS

Howdy kids, just Jon Lilley here again. I have a question. I'm starting to play around with a four string equally spaced setup. My question has to do with how do you do chords with that setup. Any feedback would be appreciated. I have noticed that there are many good books online about using chords, but in the book description it doesn't have four strings equally spaced. as far as I can tell without buying the book. So how do you play chords with equally spaced strings 

Just stumbled across this web site.  I thought it may be of some interest to some of you out there.

The Musical Instrument Makers Forum   mimf.com

Thanks Butch looks like a good resource (Dulcimer players news) I just downloaded the article. OR did I uploaded It, never could figure if I'm downloading or uploading SMILE

Just thought someone may find this interesting.  History and tradition of the mountain dulcimer.  By Robin Clark

Thanks everybody I think you're right I should just leave well enough alone if the instrument plays fine, I have no issues with the way it sounds at all, And it sounds really good. I think I'm just getting caught up in all this technical stuff, one of the drawbacks to YouTube I guess. Thanks Nate and Ken

Hey thanks Nate. It does have a fixed bridge. Is that why I have heard that one should only go up or down one size string size

once you sent the action?

Thanks for getting back to me I was just curious.  About a year ago well not quite a year ago I bought a folk roots instrument from Folkcraft. My friend just loaned me his StewMac digital string gauge that he had and I decided to check the action on the instrument that I got from  folkcraft Just out of curiosity not knowing any difference whether it was right or wrong looks like the melody string was set at .028, The middle string was set at 0.31, And the base string was set at .016. Since they Folkcraft are professionals I was curious was that a correct setting or should they all be set at one uniformed distance. so I'm guessing they're setting was way off thanks for all the feedback. Guess I'll try the Nickel Dime trick 

Hi kids just a question about string action I noticed there was something about action in The Forum but I didn't see anything addressing my question of uninformative for lack of a better

Word.  Also I know that it's all a matter of personal taste. Some people like white wine, some people like red wine. Hopefully this makes some sense. Let us say hypothetically at the 1st fret you set the action of the bottom of the melody string at let's say .020 now. Should you also set the middle string and the bass string at .020  as well ? So the action is uniformed across all three strings at the first fret.

Just found this on that wonderful invention YouTube. a tapping techique on a dulcimer. Not really sure how to use it in a tune. but that what improvisation is for. Have fun Kids

Hi kids hoping to pick everybody's brain. has to do with nut and saddle Material 

I know folk craft uses (plastic) nuts and bridges, Micarta, Delrin.  My question has to do with the material, are These materials better than bone? or is bone a much better material ? Okay that's it kids thanks again for all the good information.  So what do you think 

Here's a link of a close up of his finger work. I hope someday I can get my fingers to work like that.  

Oh yes thanks Dusty for the Info

Hello again kids, how's everybody out there in cyberspace? I hope everybody has survived. all of those fireworks. My dog went completely nuts. But that's not why I'm writing, I just stumbled across the song Deireadn Fomhair that I love. I'm not quite ready for finger picking and I don't know if there's any dulcimer tablatures out there for this song; it's composed for a guitar. looks like you need pretty Nimble fingers maybe down the road. the name of the song is Deireadh Fomhair played by Stephen Wake tuned to DADGAD. Do you think that there are any dulcimer tab. Out there

sorry looks like it didn't work :0(