More or less overtones
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
Nate:
Straight forward, yet ambiguous. Does a presence of many overtones make an instrument sound
More "clear" or "full"
More "nasal" or "broad"
More "refined" or "ambiguous"
More "bright" or "warm"
All the words convey opposite meanings, but "overtones" are used to describe both.
On the dulcimer, what does the term "overtone" say about the tone?
Yes. And on the dulcimer, the term means the same as on any stringed musical instrument, though the exact quality on the dulcimer will of course be different, just as a viola played by plucking will be different from a guitar.
Overtones are created by any string. If you want to hear just the fundamental, pluck the string at the octave. That will get you the least overtones. Plucking it at the second octave (the 14th diatonic fret) will yield another fundamental.
Plucking or picking anywhere on the string will result in various families of overtones being accentuated. If you watch a classical guitarist, the right hand is all over the fingerboard, not just down by the soundhole, and the results are spectacular.
The same kind of effect can be achieved with the dulcimer, so get out of the strum hollow and have some fun!
There are also three other influences at work in the voicing of the dulcimer.
The first, of course, is the construction of the dulcimer itself. There are some that sound harsh, some that sound mellow, some that can be anything in the range between, depending on how they are played and how they are strung.
The strings themselves have two different modes of affecting tone and brilliance/warmth.
The first is the string itself. A wound string is liable to be warmer. And that might be accompanied by the 'whizz' of fretting, if one slides the finger from fret to fret. So there are 'squeakless' strings, in which the string winding has been milled flat. But then the string may not have enough brilliance.
So brilliance itself is determined not only by the string's character, but also its tension. A high tension string will have more brilliance than a string operating at low tension.
In choosing strings for a Bear Meadow, I keep in mind the sort of voice that best fits the needs of the musician. And having settled on the balance between loudness, playability (the force needed to fret the instrument), brilliance and warmth. Once I have one string that fits those needs I will choose other strings suited for the tuning scheme (usually DDAd, AAAd, CCgc, etc.), and operating at the same tension as the first string I chose.
When strings operate at the same (or closely similar) tensions, the brilliance will be in the same 'family' of overtones. Strings that are not matched in tension will be performing differently, sometimes subtly, sometimes jarringly, depending on all the above (including the design of the dulcimer).
updated by @dwain-wilder: 01/07/26 04:09:47PM
