Forum Activity for @richard-streib

 A picture of a new dulcimore beautifully crafted by Dulcimore Dan. This is his Dulcimore model.

Poplar body with cherry stapleboard, tuning pegs, headstock and tail block. Traditional with staple frets, fiddle edges, no extra frets, set up and tuned Gdd. A real beauty to the eye and to the ear.

If they ever develop a vaccine for Dulcimer Acquisition Disorder, I'll refuse to take it.

 Dulcimore by Dulcimore Dan.jpg - 63KB

¡Muchas gracias, amigo!
¡Acabo de disfrutar de un delicioso chile relleno después de la iglesia!

Es muy bueno, Juan!

Maple is so beautiful, nice instrument. She should love it!

Another great build, John!  Bravo!

I think she's going to love it, John-- it looks great!  

que bella!

A new maple Galax dulcimore, built for a lady in Vancouver, Washington.

 maple galax july 21 001.JPG - 337KB

Is it "wise" to replace the McSpad friction tuners with Whittner pegs?  Probably.  There are other "planetary tuners which look more traditional -- Perfection and Knilling.  Geared pegs will not affect how the instrument sounds.   

One thing to know is that the McSpadden tuning shaft holes are parallel, not tapered, and the Whittner pegs are tapered.  For proper fit and function you should reame the holes with a standard 1:30 tapered instrument reamer.

The Whittner website WITTNER® - Finetune-Pegs, Made in Germany (wittner-gmbh.de) gives you the necessary tech specs for each of their models.  At a glance it appears that their models for 4/4 and 3/4 violins are the size you'll want.   Similar information is available for Perfection and Knilling planetary tuners of course.

I acquired a 1973 Mc Spadden M12 it has non-geared tuners where the tuning tension is adjusted by tightening or losing a screw the the knob.  I find these tuners difficult to use.

  My brother gave me a junk shop find three string and no 6 1/2 fret hourglass dulcimer with a broken and repaired by splint head.  It had wooden pegs which were a difficult to use.  I replaced them with Whittner finetune pegs.  They work very well and very easy to install.  The dulcimer sounds very good (as good or better than the McSpadden - I tune CGg), and has a label inside "MADE ESPECIALLY FOR JOANNE M.   WITH LOVE AND CARE MICHAEL".  I have no idea who Joanne or Michael are but the dulcimer was found in Minnesota.

Now to my question - Is it wise to replace the tuners on the Mc Spadden with Whittner tuners and if so what size should I use, the peg hole is about 8.27mm.  Also the McSpadden does not sound bad but not as good as I thought it would.  It may be me, the tuning, my playing noter style using my fingers or are there some other recommended changes.

Jim

I'm very happy Don! 

Strumelia thank you so much i looked at the links you provided and I think they are going to be a tremendous help to me I book marked your blog and will use it to teach my wife

such helpful souls on this site i only wish some of the other forums would follow suit in some ways my journey learning to play mandolin and banjo may not have been quite as hard

@don-smith I send all good wishes to your Robbin and to you!  

The links Strumelia provided, links to her noter/drone blog, can be of great help on yours and Robbin's mountain dulcimer journey.  

@don-smith , maybe the first, simplest beginner tunes from my noter/drone players Blog would help:

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-player.html

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/02/dulcimer-land.html

Wishing you and your wife all the best...

Thanks Robin its funny my wife's name is Robbin she was diagnosed with dementia in 2011 and we have been dealing with it ever since she was also hit by a hit and run driver in april 2019 which increased her dementia 10 fold it try to play her music every day on my mandolins or banjo just to keep her smiling I had never seen or heard a dulcimer before and something told me to read up on them while reading about them I thought that would be a great instrument to try to teach her and keep her mind working 

@don-smith I lived with my folks for some years because my dad had dementia.  And sometimes, I just had a hard time thinking.  Still do.    

well i could do that but sometimes i have a hard time expressing myself

Rather than clicking a button, Don, why not take a few extra seconds to tell a poster what it is you like about their post.  That's one thing that frustrated the heck out of me on Facebook -- likes.  Tell me what you like!!

Welcome to FOTMD Greg. Like the others, looking forward to seeing how your project turns out. Sounds like you've got some good hands. Should be a great instrument.

@glp1958 Good to have you here, Greg!  Have fun building your mountain dulcimer!   

I grew up right close to US 23 and not far from the mighty Scioto River in Central Ohio.  Friday nights and Sunday nights always saw lots of traffic on Route 23-- headed south on Friday nights and headed north on Sundays.   

Good luck with your build, @glp1958. Make sure you join the Dulcimer Making Group , for folks there will have lots of advice for every stage of the project.  Some of that advice might even be helpful!

Hi there friends and neighbors!  My name is Greg Pennell, and I live just south of Pikeville, Kentucky, alongside US Highway 23 (The Country Music Highway). I’m a retired US Army First Sergeant (combat engineer), with over 22 years active duty service.  

I have always been a crafter, growing up helping my grandfather and dad in their cabinet shop. Currently I build flintlock longrifles from scratch, do leatherwork, weave straps on a homemade Inkle loom, and make powderhorns and all the accoutrements necessary for shooting my flintlocks. 

I've always been interested in the arts and crafts of these Appalachian Mountains, and have finally worked my way around to mountain dulcimers. While I’ve made a few cigar box guitars, and one “real” six string electric, one thing I’m not is a musician. I hope to change that before too long!

My first dulcimer is currently in the planning phase…I’ve ordered hardware, and have a nice piece of curly maple that was given to me by a late, dear friend.  I’ll probably cut out the peg head and tail block today, and start carving the scroll on the peg head. Wish me luck!

Glad I found you folks!

Greg

Dusty, that sounds like a super fun time!

i do realize what i stated would be tapered holes i have to deal with them when i build my gourd banjos

ok now that's a little clearer i was not sure if you were talking about friction pegs or what i do not know what the size of your new tuning machines are but i do know most banjo tuning machine require a 3/8 inch hole to mount them on the banjo not sure about uke tuning machines

Yes, it's a bit different, and certainly quite different than Facebook too. 

Don- unfortunately, a typical hole reamer and a peg shaver are both intended for tapered holes and tapered pegs. We are talking about straight holes for the (straight) metal tuner shaft. A reamer would create a tapered hole in which the metal tuner shaft would then wobble.

ok thank you i did not realize you could only like a whole topic and not individual replies to a topic its a little different compared to other forums i visit than you

Good suggestion Strumelia,  will think about it but don't want to sand a bit more then I should, no redo on the holes. I know about sanding a little at a time, I just did that with the nut and bridge. It's through this site I even knew to use the hair dryer to loosen 50 yr. old glue holding them both. 

Thanks Richard but I don't want to ship the dulcimer, it's not worth the expense but makes a good dulcimer for learning how to repair problems.

You are right Don, learning on my own as I try things out would come with risk of creating a hole to large - planning on going slow and not trying anything I am not ready for. As far as hammering - was not talking about the buttons, they are not a problem but tapping the new gear in - which I decided against. 

Thanks all for the suggestions

BTW you can 'like' a discussion or a photo or a video etc, but you cannot 'like' an individual post in a discussion.
Thus, you will see the green Thumbs Up button at the lower left corner of this discussion (to like the discussion), but you won't see a Like button on Skip's individual post, for example.

I am a banjo player but the @marg your question has confused me

I know on banjos friction pegs you can use a hole reamer and peg shaver to adjust the size of the pegs or adjust the size of the peg head holes either you have to be careful as you can get to big of a hole or to small of a peg

if you are talking about just the buttons on the tuning pegs they are not all the same and no I would not take a hammer and beat the buttons on as they will literally shatter

Lower left corner of the post is a thumbs up icon.

Can someone tell me how to like someones response or someone post I have serarched everwhere and I am just not seeing it and I do know there has to be a way to because i see things that say so and so liked something

Some banjo players have successfully enlarged a pegbox hole that was 'a hair' too small by wrapping some fine sandpaper around a pencil and carefully working it back and forth in the hole a little at a time. That would certainly be an option with a dulcimer that is not terribly valuable, and for holes that 'almost' fit your new tuner shafts.

One of the builders on this site might be willing to fix the holes so the new tuning machines will work. Would involve shipping dulcimer and tuning machines and waiting to get it back.

In 2015 I purchase just the buttons (Banjo tuner buttons), they worked fine.

I tried replacing the whole tuner set since I can't keep the tuning from slipping & wanted black buttons.

The new tuners (Uke pegs) do not fit in the wooden hole, they are just a hair too large.  I can't find a shop near me that carries banjo or Uke peg sets, so I thought the Uke ones would work. they don't & not sure if the Banjo ones would or not, so after mixing the the new shaft & black button with the old gear, I'm back to the way it was & the new Uke set is off on the side.

I thought about using violin peg compound on the gears - would that help in holding the tuning or just gum up the hole?

  Running in circles & getting no where other then learning about repair work. I also took the old bridge & nut out (50 years of glue & dirt) and replaced it with new ones, I sanded to fit - good job on that but it took time using hair dryer, mat knife, pliers. & & & 

I'm confused about what you mean:

Did you buy a complete new set of geared tuners, or just the plastic buttons?

Are you trying to replace the whole tuner, or just the plastic buttons?

Is it the buttons that don't fit on the existing tuners?... or the whole new tuner shaft that doesn't fit in the wooden hole?

(rectangular shaft has 2 flat and 2 rounded sides)

The banjo button fit these shafts, does that mean the older tuners are banjo geared tuners or just geared tuners? the Uke tuners are round all around, not 2 flat sides

Thanks Strumelia for your help

My mistake, i did not examin the photo well- those older tuners are not 'planet' or plantetary tuners, they are regular geared tuners.

If you can't see a brand ID on the old tuners, the way i see it is you have two choices: 1) carefully ream the existing holes so that the tuners you just bought will fit,  2) try to find a website that describes various uke tuner shaft sizes, and 3) get an exact measurement of the existing holes diameter so you can look for tuners with the right size shafts to fit the existing holes.

For a dulcimer that is not greatly valuable, i would suggest option #1.  Just my own thoughts.  :)

(amber buttons are very good quality banjo planetary tuners)

The amber buttons (amber, vintage oval shape) were old and brittle and I replaced the buttons years ago (2015) with banjo buttons. Now I need to replace the tuners - can't hold the string tension - slips

The rectangular shaft has 2 flat and 2 rounded sides, does this mean it's banjo pegs & not Uke pegs?

Are all banjo pegs the same size or how do I order ones to fit the holes in the dulcimer?