Thanks I am on it!!!!!
Ken Hulme said:
Interesting. Veeerrrryyy long tuning head with a nice shape. Veeerrrryyy narrow waist, but that will make it easy to pick up in the center. Very long discontinuous fretboard. Looks like nice workmanship.
Now get busy playing!
Never let a dulcimer club tell you what you should or must or hafta to do! If they start that, find another club.
Thank you, You know you have to give credit to luthiers who not only have the skills and pour thier heart and souls into these intruments only to have to part with them. I couldn't I would want to keep them all.
carol anderson said:
That is truly a very beautiful instrument!
Thank you, I enjoy your videos and chats, learning a lot from FOTMD.
Carrie Barnes said:
Chuck, lovely! Can't wait to hear her! Congratulations@
Thank you, I am trying to learn how to read music too. A little overwhelming butgonna make it.
Jim Fawcett said:
Well, Chuck, That's one beautiful looking dulcimer. Great find on your part.
Can't wait to hear it...sooner than later...LOL
Thankyou and I will be bearing down on the lessons. Had a bad week at the dulcimer club I go to, in fact it was so bad that they wondered if I should keep "learning how to play the dulcimer on my bucket list" Just kidding they have been very helpful, I will keep pluggin.
Well, Chuck, That's one beautiful looking dulcimer. Great find on your part.
Can't wait to hear it...sooner than later...LOL
I found this dulcimer on craigs list and went to see it the next day. It was built in 1989 North Country Dulcimers Robert and Yvonne Hutchinson and is beautiful, never thought I would have one like this. A part of the nut broke off and he put a nail in to hold the melody strings apart is the only falt and I am going to leave it alone for now. I tell you it sure has a voice.
Interesting. Veeerrrryyy long tuning head with a nice shape. Veeerrrryyy narrow waist, but that will make it easy to pick up in the center. Very long discontinuous fretboard. Looks like nice workmanship.
Now get busy playing!
Tell ya what. That sucker is SMOOTH! I love those flowing lines and the obvious work that has gone into finishing it out. The peg head is pretty unique. I haven't seen one just like it, but I like it. That thang is purty!!!
Nice! Will be looking forward to hearing it when you get a song or two "down."
Rob
Just bought a dulcimer that I am very excited about, now I need to get serious about learning to play.
I have been a Folkcraft dealer for over ten years. I can tell you that a 25 percent discount would not leave me much of a profit. Perhaps if I sold a hundred of them a month I could do that, but I only sell around eight a year at the present rate. Of course I do not advertise nor do I do Internet sales. I do discount the dulcimers I sell. One of the reasons Folkcraft is behind on production is that almost all of the instruments being sold these days are custom instruments and not stock models. If I want to have stock models like the FSH series on hand, I have to special order it.
My sassafras dulci is 22 years old, and the smell is still there, though not nearly as strong as it was it was in 1990. A little extra humidity seems to bring the smell back somewhat, a couple weeks in Waikiki helped mine. Mine is all sassafras, it sounds nice, but it doesn't take well to hard strumming. It responds better to delicate strumming, and to finger picking. Other factors besides wood type may be part of that.
I've built a dulcimer or two using Sassafras. A number of builders are using it very successfully. It makes a very good dulcimer whatever wood it's combined with, or as a total build. The Clemmer dulcimers I've heard are good modern deep-mellow instruments in comparison to the high-silvery sound of old time traditional dulcimers.
Try to get a lock on delivery time. Folkcraft has been running 1 to 2 months behind. This goes for second party distributors too. I ordered a Folkcraft kit being sold by Jenny Wiley dulcimers on ebay a couple months ago. I got an email last week that it was being shipped. The seller and I had canceled the order over a month ago.
I can't say as I have heard of them. So I can't say one way or the other about them. But I have dealt with Folk Craft. with the experiences I have had them I will happy order from the again. The price is about the same plus you would be dealing with the people that built it. and very nice people they are. No I don't work for them but when a company goes out of it way to help me I go out of my way to tell people. any way here is their link if you want to check them out.
Stephanie, I would love to find a tab of Angel Gabriel!!!
DAc tuning is my favorite tuning (so far). I'm still learning how to play the dulcimer (I play noter/drone style). Here are 3 tunes I'm working on: Which Side Are You On, Yigdal, and Van Diemen's Land.
My favorite tuning. In additional to the songs already mentioned - Wondrous Love (also can be played in DAg), Blackest Crow, Star in the East and Angel Gabriel.
Here's enough for a complete set of Aeoliantunes:
Shady Grove
Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie)
Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair
The Foggy Dew (Irish)
Star of County Down
The Parting Glass
When Johnny Comes Marching Home -- a really eerie and mournful version
Wayfaring Stranger
Hey Dennis ... I was tickled to see this thread. I love DAC and wish I knew more songs to try in that tuning.
Or even DAc, as we nit-pickers call it
john p
I totally agree with Strumelia's point about the strong resonance of the open strings in this tuning. So much more expressive and powerful than the sound of capoing on the first fret in DAd to play Aeolian tunes. A lot of the "soul" of the dulcimer resides in this tuning!
Cool, Dennis!
DAC can give just that right haunting sound to some tunes.
It's really sooo easy to switch back and forth from DAd to DAC and back, and such a nice lonesome sound! I also like the 'open string' resonant sound much better this way rather than putting a CAPO on fret 1 and playing in E minor.
Congrats on trying DAC and having fun with it, Dennis!
Most of the songs I play in a minor are in the Aeolian Mode or 1-5-7 so since I'm in C mostly I use CGBflat.
I don't know many "Old Time Tunes" like Cluck Old Hen, but here's a list of the songs I do in Aeolian
Donna, Donna
The Foggy Dew
Nonesuch
The Parting Glass
The Peat Bog Soldiers
The Star of the County Down
I do several songs in Hebrew that are also in the minor such as HaTikvah, Erev Shel Shoshanim, Dodi Li, Shalom Chaverim, Yerushaliyim Shel Zahav, and Artsa Alinu. It's interesting that though many of these tunes are minor they don't evoke a sad feeling. Positively joyful for Artsa Alinu and romantic for Erev Shel Shoshanim and Dodi Li.
Enjoy your experience with Aeolian. It is a lovely mode.
I went to a workshop on saturday where we tuned to D-A-C. We played Cluck Old Hen. Really enjoyed playing in this minor tuning. Looks Like I might try to learn more tunes in this tuning.
Dennis
Interesting and informative post Robin. Having made HD's for many years before dropping back to my first love, MD's, I am well familiar with piano wire ( have got miles and miles of it) but have never considered its comparitive merits with 'shop bought' guitar strings ! Any chance of sharing how you 'make up strings' from it for use on a MD, as I am sure there are others here who use both instruments !
John
Robin Clark said:
That's a pretty accurate summary Paul of the guitar/banjo string industry.
There are a few exceptions, Newtone Strings here inthe UK being one. Malcolm Newton who runs the company (and physically makes most of the strings!) worked for a wire rope firm in the Midlands and learnt about wiredrawing, plating, winding etc from there. Malcolm is very particular about the wire he uses, and his strings are always in short supply as he won't make them if the wire is not perfect. I buy about 1200 strings from Malcolm a year for my guitar business but the wait can be frustrating!!! I doubt you'll find them in the US.
Strings do make a differnce to tone.
For my Ed Thomas replica I use German piano wire from Heckscher, who started up in 1883. It seems likely from what I have readthat steelpiano wire was available quite widelyin the US from about the time of the Civil War and it appears as a mail orderitem in the earliest Sears & Roebuck catalogues I have been able to research. I know that John Mawhee used piano wire for his dulcimers made just after the civil war (guage #8 on a 25" scale tuned right up to G,d,d) and on my Ed Thomas Imake up the strings from Gauge #8 wire for the bass (0.020") and gauge #4 for the middle and melody (0.013). Piano wire feels slightly softer than modern guitar strings and so perhaps settles to pitch at a slightly lower tension - though I don't have the ability to measure this. The tone is different - is is a little morebass and top with less mid - like a telecaster twang! A number of my most recent recordings of my Ed Thomas replicahave beenmade using piano wire strings (you can find them in varios posts in the Old Style Drone & Noter section).
Although there has been plenty written about early dulcimer design, woods and building technique unfortunately little focus has been placed on the strings used - and yet they are an element that would have had significant impact on both the tone the instrument produced and the tunings selected. I have only been able to pick up snippets of information from here and there - and I'm always on the search for more if anyone has any!
Paul Certo said:For the record, it's the music wire that is made by only a few companies. It is used by a lot of companies to make strings, and some of these string makers make strings for other companies to package and market. I doubt if strings sold under an instrument brand name are actually made by those companies. Gibson, Fender, and Martin all sell strings, but I don't think any of them make strings.
That's a pretty accurate summary Paul of the guitar/banjo string industry.
There are a few exceptions, Newtone Strings here inthe UK being one. Malcolm Newton who runs the company (and physically makes most of the strings!) worked for a wire rope firm in the Midlands and learnt about wiredrawing, plating, winding etc from there. Malcolm is very particular about the wire he uses, and his strings are always in short supply as he won't make them if the wire is not perfect. I buy about 1200 strings from Malcolm a year for my guitar business but the wait can be frustrating!!! I doubt you'll find them in the US.
Strings do make a differnce to tone.
For my Ed Thomas replica I use German piano wire from Heckscher, who started up in 1883. It seems likely from what I have readthat steelpiano wire was available quite widelyin the US from about the time of the Civil War and it appears as a mail orderitem in the earliest Sears & Roebuck catalogues I have been able to research. I know that John Mawhee used piano wire for his dulcimers made just after the civil war (guage #8 on a 25" scale tuned right up to G,d,d) and on my Ed Thomas Imake up the strings from Gauge #8 wire for the bass (0.020") and gauge #4 for the middle and melody (0.013). Piano wire feels slightly softer than modern guitar strings and so perhaps settles to pitch at a slightly lower tension - though I don't have the ability to measure this. The tone is different - is is a little morebass and top with less mid - like a telecaster twang! A number of my most recent recordings of my Ed Thomas replicahave beenmade using piano wire strings (you can find them in varios posts in the Old Style Drone & Noter section).
Although there has been plenty written about early dulcimer design, woods and building technique unfortunately little focus has been placed on the strings used - and yet they are an element that would have had significant impact on both the tone the instrument produced and the tunings selected. I have only been able to pick up snippets of information from here and there - and I'm always on the search for more if anyone has any!
Paul Certo said:
For the record, it's the music wire that is made by only a few companies. It is used by a lot of companies to make strings, and some of these string makers make strings for other companies to package and market. I doubt if strings sold under an instrument brand name are actually made by those companies. Gibson, Fender, and Martin all sell strings, but I don't think any of them make strings.
For the record, it's the music wire that is made by only a few companies. It is used by a lot of companies to make strings, and some of these string makers make strings for other companies to package and market. I doubt if strings sold under an instrument brand name are actually made by those companies. Gibson, Fender, and Martin all sell strings, but I don't think any of them make strings.
http://mid.auctivacommerce.com/ from Shanghia, China sells extremely low priced musical accessories, including strings. In particular, they sell 12 tuners (6R-6L) for $6.00 (see 12 string guitar tuners.) Also, 10 packs of 10 gauge strings for $1.00. However, unless you plan to buy in bulk and can wait 4-6 weeks for delivery, I can't recommend them. As with any internet order, watch the shipping costs. I haven't been thrilled with their nylon strings (not a problem unless you play ukulele), but the steel strings are good. I always carry extras at festivals. If you bump into me, I am happy to share.
