Forum Activity for @robin-thompson

Hey, Kim! David Lynch's Sweet Woods student model is $125 and I've heard nothing but good things about it. Dave's a member here and so is his sister (folkfan). You can see a picture by scrolling down this page:

http://www.sweetwoodsinstruments.com/dulcimers.htm

Uh-oh, witness protection program stuff! I won't tell the coppers, I never saw nuttin!

Paul

For now, you can leave the old string on. After the nut and saddle are adjusted to the correct height, then take the old string off and put the new set on. You will probably be loosening and tightening the string each time you check the height of the new parts. Let the old string be the test unit. If it breaks before you are done, that's still a lot of wear saved from the new strings.When sanding, be careful to hole the part straight vertical so it gets sanded evenly. And keep your fingers clear of the sandpaper. Unless your job has to do with safe cracking!

Paul

Yes, you should be able to just remove the old nut & bridge. Don't take the string off, just slack them. Then put the new ones in place, set the strings in the appropriate slots and tighten up.

Then take a nickel and a dime. Put the dime next to the first fret. That's how low the strings should be there - just touching the suface of the dime. Balance the nickel on top of the 7th fret (not the 6+). That's how high the string should be there. If the strings are too high, slack them off and remove the nut. Put a sheet of 100 or 120 grit sandpaper grit side up on a flat surface like a piece of glass or a counter top and sand the bottom of the nut by pushing it back and forth 8 or 10 times. Put it back on the dulcimer, tighten up the strings and check the dime height again. Repeat as necessary until the strings just barely touch the dime. Then do the same things with the bridge and the nickel on top the 7th fret.

Got your address. I'll be back at the boat tomorrow or Wednesday (I'm housesitting for my Lady) and send the nut & bridge off then.

Kim; send me a PM with your address, and I'll send you a pre-made and slotted nut & bridge. I had to buy a package of six from Folkcraft awhile back, and have four left, adn you only need two. They should fit the slot perfectly. They will probably need sanding on the bottom to reduce the height and lower the strings to proper action height. I'll detail how to do that in my reply with the N & B.

And Kim ... please try to have patience ... it appears that you have made an excellent purchase. If the only thing wrong is the missing nut and bridge, I think you are going to be really happy with your dulcimer. Since the slots are cut, it takes the computation out of where to put the bridge. Try to get Kevin really good measurements on the depth of the slots as that height, plus the fret height and clearance, minus the depth of the groove for the strings is your 'action height'. It effects not only how easily your instrument is to play, but caneffect the tuning as well. I'll look back at the pics, but Kevin will also need to know if the dulcimer is 3 string or 4 (or more?).

I looked again. Four strings :)

How nice of you, Kevin! You're so right about the importance of properly fitted bridge & nut blanks.

Kim, the bridge and nut are a critical part of how you dulcimer will play and sound. They need to be cut and adjusted properly. If you would send me dementions, I could make you blanks that would fit ,but they would still need to be cut for the string set up and hieght adjusted.

Kimberly, if you have basic hand tools, you could do it yourself. I've got dulcimers with very basic nuts & bridges and one dulcimer on which they were very finely honed-- they all do the job.

Well, I just watched the episode last night on the Inspiration Network. John Boy had his own dulcimer in the beginning. He said it was made by Mr. Dulcimer.

Dana, from the brief glimpse I saw of it I thought it might be a Ledford. Jenny bought John Boy "the best dulcimer made by Mr. Dulcimer" as a going away gift. It had a light color sound board with a dark color fret board. The shape reminded me more of a Prichard (I've got Kevin's Prichards on my mind ). Do you have any guesses as to who the makers are of those nice looking dulcimers? I couldn't see the credits.

Folks, please no copying sections of Netflix or movie dvds and posting them here... copyright violations galore for FOTMD. Please think about copyright issues before posting any copyrighted or performance material on a public site.

Thanks!

Dana R. McCall said:

Judith if you can wait till Weds I found it on Netflix but they have to send me the disc. I'll post a clip of the song on here then.

Here is the photo I took of a picture of Richard Thomas (John Boy) playing a dulcimer. The picture did not show the entire dulcimer but notice he was using a feather to strum, http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/photo/photo-of-john-boy-girlfriend-and-dulcimer

We visited the Walton's Mountain Museum in Schuyler VA on Tuesday. I got a photo of a picture of John Boy playing that dulcimer. I will try to post it later. By the way, the Hamner home is not like the one depicted on tv. Also, Earl Hamner Sr. worked at the local soapstone quarry, cutting soapstone. The museum is small but has lots of memorabilia. All the cast members have visited that museum at least once. It was fun to visit. "Ike Godsey's" store is still there but modernized. It's more like a 7-11 and a small deli. Gas ain't cheap there.

Hey Dana Check the Credits on that. It should give the name of the song some where in it.

Judith if you can wait till Weds I found it on Netflix but they have to send me the disc. I'll post a clip of the song on here then.

Sorry I posted about the time you posted you had found it.

Here is John boy singing it.

There are minnows that nibble on your toes ... it's funny!

Me too.....I'm jealous! Unless the cost is losing body parts to biting things..... :)

... just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water .... duh, duh ... duh, duh .... duhduh,duhduh ... DUNT DUNT DUNT ............................

Hey Carrie, cottonmouths, snapping turtles ! Stop moaning ! It could be Sam in his skivvie's.............

John

Okay, enough already, i'm jealous !!!

John

Cheated yesterday. It's only a 5 minute walk to the swimmin' hole, but I was working on my ATV and had it out anyway (wiring in an inline fuse to the ignition) so I rode it over. Pretty clouds, water felt amazing .............

C'mon in ... water's FIIIIIIIIINE !!!

John Henry it is actually VERY hot and humid. That's one thing that makes the swimmin' hole so inviting. It's almost like bath water. I did catch your inference ... reminds me of a trip to Dolly Sods and Smokehole when I was a kid. It was with a group and one young lady and I were always the adventurous two. On a VERY hot day we came down from the cranberry bogs and stopped at a beautiful stream (it was full of trout). Shoes came off immediately but that just wasn't enough. I looked at Sandy and without a fare the well she said 'I will if you will' ... I did. We shucked down to scivvies and in we went. Now ..... back to your suggestion ... there's just no justice OR equality ... for as much as Sandy was ... umm ... enhanced (WOO HOO) I was ... erm ....... diminished by the ice cold water. The whole group did end up in the creek and it is a wonderful memory.

Dana ... This is on a river, but there is a sand bar and it is a nice clean place to swim. You would love it.

Sandy ........ uh ........ I mean ... er ... Cheryl ....... you have a standing invitaion.

Carrie ... pack light ... don't take much for skinny dippin ....

Thank you all for your wonderfully heartwarming comments.

So beautiful and peaceful!! And, I'd be in that water in one second flat. :) Like a fish...can't keep myself out of it. Was at a good friends wedding a few weeks ago and a group of us and the bride and groom stayed around late...ended up in the fountain splashing like fools. :) You can dress me up........

What a beautiful view, If I lived there I would stay at the swimming hole.

Thanks for posting Sam, I would have to go a long way to see anything remotely approaching that view, but ! it looks pretty darn cool there, not sure that skinny dipping would 'enhance my ego', if you get my drift...........

John

Nice sunset at th' swimmin' hole today ...........

... n-n-n-oooooOOOOO ... that's clunky plunk ...........

Well ... I'm certainly not going to try it ... I like it here too much

How can you be so sure? lol!

... and Lisa would be pulling my account.

One of the neatest things is, the minnows still nip at your toes and the hairs on your legs just like they did when I was a kid. It's a weird feeling. It would have scared the beejeebers out of me if I hadn't grown up there and knew what it was. I do miss the neighborhood kids though. So far, every time I've been I've had the place to myself. Growing up we didn't have 'walk-mans', game boys, texting, facebook, etc etc etc ... so we went swimmin!

Cysytal clear indeed, hence head and shoulders only Carrie !!!

John

Man the harpoons! lol

It is ... don't know about the cell phone though .................

LOL John Henry I was wonderin who he was dippin with but he is just good with a cell phone. Hope it is water proof.

... just turned my cell phone hind side before, CLICK! and ... there I was ..............