Forum Activity for @robin-clark

Hi Many and Lisa,

Even I, a nonTAB user, can see the benefits of some form of shorthand to get you going (I actually quite like Folkfan's 0,1,2,3 etc over the words of a song!). A little difficult to explain this concept but I would use TAB (or a simple version of TAB) to get someone to have the physical experience of playing. Because without that physical experience of making nice sounds that are related to one another, learning to play by ear may not get started at all. I think that a few folk have said that they use TAB to get going on a piece and then put it to one side once they have mastered whatever phrase or passage they were having difficulty with - and I can understand this. As I said, I tend touse a recording of the tune I am learning in the same way - once I have learnt the piece I'll put the recording to one side. I see that some may then refer back to the TAB if they forget the tune - I will play the recording of the tune again if I forget it or want to improve on where I am with it.

When I have taught I have used some form of TAB if needed. Not pre-prepared TAB but simple TAB (like Folkfan's)written in the moment with the student so we can learn a little passage and then turn the TAB over and keep playing. Once the TAB is gone this frees up capacity (the capacity that wasused for reading) for the student to start noticing other aspects of music like rhythm or timing or note intervals. So I will admit to TAB being a useful tool - it is just not one that I have ever used for my own playing.

My viewpoint, and I dabble a bit in each, not particularly good in any.

Visual; SMN for general or universal use, TAB for specific instrument, archives a specific variation of a tune/song.

Audio; storage devices [cd's, etc], individuals, archives a specific variation of a tune/song.

Both work, but not necessarily for everyone.

Each should be used as the situation indicates.

Stumalia hit the nail on the head in her blog.

Never understood why it has to be one or the other, both are useful to my mind.

I like to play by ear wherever poss. and can do far more from a tune I know or a sound clip than I can from TAB, and quicker.

Fine, if you can find exactly what you want, but sometimes you can only find some SMN, convert to TAB and then learn it by ear.

Point being that you may never have learnt the tune in the first place without TAB, even though you don't need to use it anymore.

john p

I wrote a blog post a while back called

"Tab....a blessing or an evil?"

First, this is a great topic!

I have really mixed feelings about this subject. I started out playing a banjo several years back with absolutely NO CLUE how to make music. Learning in the online environment only I relied solely on tab to learn tunes. I knew maybe one or two old-time banjo tunes and that's it. Everything else I had never even heard before basically. So tab's helped me learn. I became a whiz at reading tab and could get a brand new tune memorized in no time flat. So I learned to completely copy and basically "puke-up" tab. This helped me to actually hit strings and make notes come out in some semblance of order. So in that way it helped me. I have nothing against tab and still use it as a helpful tool in learning tunes, but I do not rely on it at all.

So on the other hand I think me relying solely on tab also hindered my progress. After about 2 years of just TAB-puking (LOL), I started to see people online (youtube and elsewhere) who were taking a different approach. Right at about the same time I really started wanting to try and sing while playing. So these people were playing the chords to the song while singing (using very few of the actual melody notes of the song) and then they'd take breaks where they'd play the melody notes. I found this arrangement really pleasing and knew that this was the way for me to go if I wanted to sing along with playing. So I put tab to the side and would think of a song I wanted to do and I'd look up the guitar chords for that song. Then I'd start a basic bum-ditty (on banjo) using those chords and sing along. I'd also pick out (by ear) a simple break (solo, whatever it's called) of the melody notes of the song. Adding all that in together and transitioning from playing bum-ditty to just the melody notes and singing is all very challenging and TOTALLY FUN to me. So now I feel like in the past 6 months or so my musical journey has really advanced light years ahead of where I would be if I was still relying on tab.

So if I had it all to do over again I think I would start without tab at all basically. I can't hardly believe I'm saying that but in my personal experience I feel that the tab held me back and that I would have a better understanding of music theory if I would have started using that second approach I mentioned.

The wonderful thing IMO is that it is YOUR OWN JOURNEY. You get to choose how to go about it all. You can rely on tab just a bit, a bunch, or not at all. You can take many different approaches and all of them are correct IMO. The problem I would see is if someone after a couple years of playing did not want to advance beyond tab. I understand SOOOOO much more now that I can relatively easily pick out tunes once I hear them enough to know them. The freedom playing by ear gives is unimaginable IMO. I really wish I would have started that way, BUT and here's a big BUTT (LOL).

If I would have started without tab I may have gotten quickly discouraged and QUIT playing. So I really do feel like tab has a place, I just personally hope that people try later on to get beyond tab. The music world has just exploded for me once I started stepping out beyond tab and I would want that to happen for everyone.

Now I'm sure that there will be folks who think I'm wrong (and it would not be the first or last time on that) but my main point is that it's your own personal journey and NO ONE should have that much power over you to influence you and how you want to learn something. I spent several years on another site that shall remain nameless being stifled and told that most of what I was doing was wrong. Well BLAH is what I say to all that, there are no rules IMO. I was told I would hurt myself because of bad form playing banjo and that just makes me chuckle right now. That was just one of many things I was told.

Some great ideas have already been expressed here and it really is interesting to learn how other folks have gotten to where they are today. Like many wise folks have said in the past - there's more than one way to skin a cat.

One point that I'd like to make as to the advantage in using tab and/or SMN, is with group playing. When you are playing with a large group, either all dulcimers or mixed instruments, if there is some sort of music to play from, the group is all on the same page, so to speak. A player can memorize the music and then play without throwing off others by playing something that is totally his or her own.

I've heard large jams where the players are all doing their own thing, shall we say, and all the audience hears is cacophony. Imagine a symphony orchestra all playing by ear. Every musician playing something by Mozart, for example, that he or she has made his or her own. Can you see the horror in the conductor's face.

All the tab that I currently use also have Standard Music Notation, so I am looking at that as well. My goal is to learn songs by heart, and I have a long history of reading music to learn songs from playing in band in grade school and singing in choirs in high school. To me the TAB is just a shorthand way of learning to play while figuring out which note is which on the fret board. I find it really easy to learn new songs this way, but I've also picked up a melody or two just by playing it because it's so familiar to me.

I sometimes learn a song from looking at tab, but even then I usually have the song in my mind a little first from hearing it. Other times I just pick the song out on my fretboard and learn it without tab at all. One thing I like tab for is when I used to know how to play a tune and have forgotten it over the years- i like being able to use the old tab to refresh my memory. I also like to have tabs arranged by mode so I can be better organized when I help other people learn to play.

In other words, I sometimes use tab to help me start to learn how to play something, but I really dislike reading tab as I am playing. If I'm going to learn a tune, I will put in the effort to learn to play it without having to look at the tab while I play. After I can play something without tab, I wind up adapting it here and there to my own way of playing it- that's really the most fun part anyway.

I take the same approach to tab in my banjo playing as well- I have lots of banjo tabs that help me get started sometimes, but my goal is to then learn the tunes without looking at any tab.

Mitch, you will find that whereas Robin, who never uses tab, representsone extreme, the other is people who can only play when the tab is right in front of them. And there are a lot of dulcimer players like that. Obviously, whatever way of learning a tune works for someone is the right way for them, but I do think there is an over-reliance on tablature in the dulcimer community.

You are right to think of the tab as a fake book, and most of us use tab to get the basic idea of a song but then we rely on our ears and eyes to modify or embellish the tab and make it our own. However, there are other uses of tab that center not merely on the bare bones, but the embellished version itself. Stephen Seifert, for example, has indeed published his Join the Jam series which is like a fake book, but he has also put out his DVD lessons and other material where he has painstakingly created tab for his improvisational work. That use of tab is aimed at helping us find our own ways to embellish the basic songs. And some tab is intended to demonstrate arrangement possibilities. I bought a book of tab from Nina Zanetti in my efforts to learn to play fingerstyle dulcimer. The tab is helpful not to learn the melody, but to learn how to add notes around the melody in order to create a song that moves in a steady rhythm without strumming chords and still expresses and expands upon the melody.

I have used tab in the past and I still do, almost every day that I play. But I never rely on it and I need to have a song "in my head" in order to learn it. Personally, and perhaps this comes from having played the guitar for years, I begin by trying to understand the structure of a song. Is it in AABB form or perhaps ABAB? What are the chord progressions of each section? Once I know that the song has, for example, an 8-measure A part in D major which is repeated and an 8-measure B part that begins in Bm but resolves back to D major, then I begin to work on the melody. I might consult the tab (or SMN) to get a sense of that basic structure or perhaps to help with some difficult parts of the tune. But for me personally, I have to hear the song in order to make use of the tab, and I end up learning more by listening than by looking at tab.

And once I learn a song, I never refer to tab again and take pleasure in the fact that my playing strays further from the tab as I play the song, hopefully creating a version that is really mine and not the creation of whoever wrote that tab that helped me in the beginning.

Good topic Mitch,

I don't use TAB at all. I prefer to "catch" tunes from CDs or other musicians. When I first started playing I watched other dulcimer players on YouTube and copied them, and so had a mix of vision and sound as my guide. But most of my new tunes now come from recordings made by fiddlers or banjo players. I use audacity sometimes to slow some tracks down if I'm having difficulty catching a phrase. Sometimes I use SMN to follow the rhythm or rise and fall of a phrase - I follow the SMN while listening to the piece to give me a mental "picture" of the tune. But TAB leaves me cold - it requires too much "thought" to be useful. I need to build up direct nuro links between sound and my physical movements to play fast and clean or to fit tunes with other musicians (adaptability). The lengthyTABprocess ofsight/cognitive processing/movement/sound is too restrictive and too darn slow to be useful to me. At least SMN uses non verbal patterns and so takes up less mental capacity (once learned) leaving more head room for actual playing. SMN also has way more usefulinformation than TAB.

Personally, I think that TAB sould carry a health warning (Warning - using TAB can seriously damage your playing) BUT so many folk swear by TAB that there must be something really atractive in it for them. I know I'm in a very small minority but TAB has simply passed me by LOL !!!!!

Now, if anyone want's to learn to play by ear, I'm more than happy to give a few pointers on how to do that

Robin

Mitch, The question with regards to tab for me has sort of yes and no answer. So let me take it in steps.

One: I start with a song that I can sing. I don't even bother trying to learn tunes as I need something to hang a melody on.

Two: Once I have a song in mind, I go looking for sheet music to get the general fretting pattern. As playing by ear eludes me, I need to see the notes to match to the rhythm in my head to fret numbers.

Three: When I have the fret numbers, I go to my word processing program and put in the words to the song with the frets.

Four: After playing and rearranging notes to fit the song as closely as possible to what I hear being sung in my head or on recording, I end up with my tab. Since I have a very poor memory when it comes to learning to play a song, I put the tab in a notebook and play it from that. Occasionally, I will actually remember a songs fret patterns, and be able to play it without looking. But this is a rare occurrence.

An example of my tab. So, I guess I'd have to say, No I don't learn tunes by playing tabs. I don't learn tunes at all. But I end up with a sort of cheat sheet type of tab so that I can play the song that I've learned to sing by hearing it, and can play by seeing it.

And to the second part of your question on style, I play a simple strum to the rhythm of my singing. So my mood determines my playing style is the way I think of it.

I figure out tunes by listening to them over and over and over until I can sing/hum or whistle the whole thing. Then I start to pick it out on the melody string, and as I go, I write that down (tab) simply as a memory device. After a few days of playing the tune (mostly without the tab) the written tab just disappears... Once a tune is in my head and fingers I can play it with emphasis and variations, making it "mine". I'd guess I've got a couple hundred tunes in my head, plus those that i don't know that I know yet.

I'm fairly new to playing, less than a year, and I am using TAB for just about everything. There are some songs that I've changed the TAB on to suit my ability as a beginning player, like changing the A chord from 4-0-1 to 1-0-1 for example. There are also some TAB that I've changed up a little because I didn't like the way it sounded, it's just an intuitive thing. As far as developing style, I guess my decisions will likely evolve into one, but I have a long way to go as I'm still learning the ropes!

Funny. A banjo named Lola just seems wrong for some reason. Jed, OK, but Lola?And Mr. Fiddles works for acartoon violin. Wally works for me, especially if it's a baritone or bass dulcimer.

Kimberly Moore said:

As far as the gender is concerned, I'm not sure why I refer to my dulcimer as a he. Actually, I refer to my fiddle as Mr. Fiddles. The banjo I play, however, is namedLola.

Dana, can we assume that Curly Sue is a girl and was not inspired by the Shel Silverstein/Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue?"

Dana R. McCall said:

My baritone's name is Curly Sue because of the really pretty curly maple she is made of.

My baritone's name is Curly Sue because of the really pretty curly maple she is made of.

How about Nutmeg , since Connecticut is the Nutmeg State?

I originally thought it odd to name instruments. I never named by guitar, my 12-string guitar, or my mandolin. But it's easy enough to say "the Guild" or "the 12-string." It's a lot harder to say "my six-string baritone dulcimette by Ron Ewing."

My sense is that folks who have lots of dulcimers give them names, but if you only have one, there is no need. When I was in college I had a cat named TC for "the cat." I saw no reason for a real name since it was the only cat in the household. I only named my first dulcimer when it became my first dulcimer, meaning when I got a second one. When it was the only one I had, it was just "my dulcimer."

But my question here is about gender. Why is your bike female? Why are most dulcimers female? Maybe they are not. The hourglass shape definitely seems feminine to me, but a teardrop? I don't know.

And what about Jim's football-shaped dulcimer? Maybe he should call it "Jim Pluck-it." [For those who don't know, Jim Plunkett was a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback with Stanford University who went on to win two Super Bowls with the Oakland Raiders back in the 70s and early 80s.]

B. Ross Ashley said:

That's odd, I never thought to name my dulcimer ... my bike is Madama Butterfly, because she is an Italian/Taiwanese hybrid (a Bianchi Boardwalk, built in Taiwan about 1987.) I probably ought to name the dulci. Hmmm. It's a stock Connecticut-built 1989 Folkcraft cherry teardrop.

Cherry Poptart? Yeah, right.

That's odd, I never thought to name my dulcimer ... my bike is Madama Butterfly, because she is an Italian/Taiwanese hybrid (a Bianchi Boardwalk, built in Taiwan about 1987.) I probably ought to name the dulci. Hmmm. It's a stock Connecticut-built 1989 Folkcraft cherry teardrop.

Cherry Poptart? Yeah, right.

There's got to be a name in your description, Judy: "beautiful honey blond buttery color." That sounds like a girl to me.

Judy said:

Fun topic! I just got mine and haven't thought of a name yet. I'd love some suggestions. She (or he) is made of cherry and sitka spruce-a beautiful honey blond buttery color. I'm anxious to hear everyone's names

Got one named Mae for Mae West. An early Berg with a very curvaceous body and wasp waist. Other than that, I have Magic, Comet, Thistle, Dearheart, Irish, Ivy (ivy leaves for soundholes) Flame, Flair, Starbright etc. These are all based on the soundhole pattern.

Please don't be offended. It's late andI'm a goofball.

Today my daughter said to me, "Daddy, I think you should give at least one of your dulcimers a boy's name. They can't all be girls." (Let's see, Rosa, Queenie, Lucinda, well she's a tomboy . . . )

If she were older, I might have responded, "But the curves, honey, the curves are just so . . . so . . . voluptuous and alluring."

And whoever said "Dragonfly" was a girl anyway?

And she named her dulcimer (an Eedy Beede with dolphin sound holes) "Splash!" A splash ain't got no gender, does it?

Among those of you who name your dulcimers, have you chosen male names, female names, or a combination? Has anyone stuck to those gender-neutral names like Carmen, Pat, Chris, or Alex?

Guitars have always been hermaphroditic, with a female body and a phallic neck. What about dulcimers? (And don't get me started on trombones!)

I cannot encourage you strongly enough to have the 1 1/2 fret added to your dulcimer! It opens so many doors. I usemine somewhere in virtually every song I play. I'll bet you will find that you do, too!

McSpadden makes a nice dulcimer. Some have more voice than others, of course, so it would be nice if you could play it first. However, short of going to the factory, you can only try one at a music shop or a festival. I hope you will consider trying one before you buy it. A number of my friends have not and were disappointed.

Good luck!

Dewey

Hi Barbara,

Yes - the Ionian set melody strings (0.012)can be tuned up to "d". It is something that I do all the time. They are stiffer than 0.010 strings but quite managable really. I quite like to run 3 strings on my McSpaddens by taking off the inner melody string to end up with 0.022 bass, 0.012 middle and 0.012 melody. It then becomes very easy to play in all types of playing style and tunings like that and has a very sweet, uncluttered"old time" sound. I think that those standard McSpaddens are a great workhorse - not the prettiest or most fancy dulcimer out there but alovely pragmatic musician's instrument and very versatile.

Robin

Hi Barbara,

I would echo what has been said here. I really wouldn't worry too much about getting a compensated bridge. McSpadden untertake the compensation because the string gauges they use for a pureD,A,dd set-up have a 4 gauge difference between the middle and melody strings. Because of this the middle string (a 0.014)pulls just a fraction sharper higher up the fretboard than the melody strings (0.010). But it is very, verymarginal and the reality is you can compensate with your initial tuning and playing style if your bridge is flat across (like 90% of us end up doing). Also, the standard Ionian strings that McSpadden fit (0.022, 0.012, 0.012, 0.012) for D,A,Awill go to D,A,dd with no problem anyway - and the compensation is even less necessary in that set-up.

The McSpadden bridge compensation is the "perfect" for D,A,dd and one specific string gauge set. A flat non-compansated bridge is the "perfectly acceptable" for all types of set-up and playing styles.

Regarding woods - Simply be led by your ears, hands and eyes when you go to choose your new dulcimer. All those standard McSpaddens are great instruments so just pick the one that really talks to you and you won't go wrong. There are differences between the various woods and also differences between two dulcimers build of the same woods because no two pieces of wood are identical- so just choose the one that feels right for you.

Robin

From what I have read from actual McSpadden owners, the bridge compensation does not make a very noticeable audible difference. Most dulcimers do not have compensated bridges and they sound pretty good. I myself wouldn't worry too much about it.

Every McSpadden I have ever heard sounds awesome- and most of them probably have 'regular' bridges.

Barbara, If you choose to call McSpadden, they are very helpful with questions like this. Never hurts to ask FOMD members for additional input to weigh your decision. Know you'll enjoy your new dulcimer. Linda

Paul you are right - the relief (or lack of it) on the fretboard will effect the action, feel and over all playability of a dulcimer. I do somewhere around 200 to 300 resonator guitar set-ups per year - fret leveling, setting relief, cutting nuts and cutting new bridges. And, to get it right, the sequence is relief first, then nut and then bridge. With a dulcimer the player can do nothing about the instrument's relief, unless you want to take off all the frets and sand and re-finish the fretboard !!!! The best playing dulcimers I get through my shop are those with just a touch of relief in the fretboard. I get to compare a lot of instruments side by side so feel pretty justified in saying that a little relief makes a big difference. You can run a lower action at the 7th and still have a beautifully clean playing instrument for chord melody style if there is a touch of relief in the fretboard.

BUT NOTER DRONE IS DIFFERENT FOR ME - Having a touch of relief remains the same - I want that on all my dulcimers. However, I run a much higher action at both nut and bridge. I want absolute clarityfrom my melody string, working off an in-strum lead and using very stiff picks (quills of wood strummer). I've just measured my own noter drone specific instruments - the ones where I have cut new nuts and bridges to set the action to suit my playing style - and my prefered action is way, way higher than nickle and dime. For example the Prichard replica I have, which I cut a new nut and bridge for, has an action of 1.5mm 'above' the first fret (I could sit a dime on top of the fret) and 3mm above the 7th. I'm using 0.013 gauge piano wire for the melody string on that instrument. I have an old dulcimer with the action even higher but the fret pattern is visibly shifted to the left on that dulcimer and the first fret even more so. With a fret pattern set by ear on older dulcimers you often see this shifted 1st fret - and it is due to the nut height that the early players would use. I see that Bobby Ratliff at Slate Creek Dulcimers, who builds noter drone specific instruments, fits a floating bridge so players can intonate the melody string if they change action height or string gauges or tuning tension. It is a very good idea as I certainly need my VSL slightly longer than the VSL of the fret scale. Kevin Messenger builds this fret pattern shift into his Prichard replicas. Because pretty much all contemporary dulcimers are designed around D,A,d and chord melody playing the bigger volume builders standardise their action, string gauges and pitch intonation around set parameters. This is why if you tune the open strings of many contemporary dulcimers to exactly D,A,A and play with a noter the darn instrument plays sharp So us noter drone players end up tuning the drones against the fretted root note on the melody string (the 'd' at the 3rd fret) and accept that our melody string open A will be slightly flatter than our drone string open A

So, coming back to string height, no one set height will suit every dulcimer or player. However, you can't just change the string height or gauges or tunings and expect all to be perfect. And, if you do get a comission for a build from a noter drone player have a think about the implication on the fret pattern that running a higher action and higher string gauge will have. And don't forget that a noter drone player doesn't need equal temperament fretting as they are not playing across the strings fret against fret - you could opt for a mean tone or just intonation or quarter-comma meantone or simply set the frets by ear

It's a good idea to put a straight edge on the fret board first, to check for high frets, or any up or down curve in the fret board itself. If all is well, I start by lowering the nut, and get th1st fret string height close to what I want, then lower the bridge to get the octave measurement. If necessary, I adjust the nut a slight bit more, but it isn't usually much. The nickle/dime dimensions work well, but if US coins aren't available, you might have to resort to actual measuring devices, at least to measure local coins.

Paul

What Robin said, and I tried to express-- take a little off one end, then a little off the other until you get down to the nickel & dime. That's a good starting point, but as Robin also points out some players like even lower actions, and some much higher.

Bring them both down a little at a time whilst continuously checking the measurements.

Having said that - you really don't want to know the measurements off my favourite dulcimers

If you do the action setting at the nut end first, that height will be almost imperceptibly altered 'way down at the 7th fret. In practice, I suspect most of us leave it a bit high at the nut, then adjust at the 7th, and go back again as needed.

Fret wire comes in different sizes, so the height of the frets above the fret board can vary. The height of the nut or bridge saddle above the fret board are unimportant, it's the height of the strings above the frets that affect playability. The variable of fret wire alone makes a standard measurement difficult to establish. What is the height of the fret wire used on your dulcimer? And how much was removed in leveling, crowning, and polishing the frets after installation? The person doing the set up takes measurements of each instrument they work on, and adjusts the nut and bridge height for each instrument. Most builders leave nut and saddle height a bit high until the instrument is sold, and adjust to each players preferences.

Paul

As Bobby sez, height of the strings above the fretboard as a measure, has too many variables generally. We normally do not measure the height of the nut or the bridge above the surface of the fretboard. However, the 'traditional recommended starting point' for good action height is a dime sitting on the fretboard at the first fret. A dime is 1.55mm,so 1.5 to 1.6mm is a good start. At the same time the strings should be the thickness of a nickel above the 7th fret. A US nickel is 1.95mm so 2.0mm above the 7th fret is the place to start.

I also agree with Marc and recommend MusEdit. I use it for all my SMN and dulcimer tab. Its learning curve probably isn't any different than other software. You can use MusEdit for basic SMN or tab, or you can use the software to its fullest extent and really make it look extremely professional. I learn something new with the software each time I use it. I've really gotten into writing my own tab from existing songs (I play chord/melody style) and am having alot of fun doing it, thanks to this software. I've always gotten good feedback when contacting Doug. I haven't had to contact him for awhile, though. I think my work looks pretty sharp thanks to this software (it actually looks better than some tab that I get at dulcimer festivals ). Oh, you can also change the tab options for writing tab for different fret configurations....for example, if you have a 1+ fret.

What I called HD tab is really just the note names below the SMN just like MD tab. It makes it much easier for me. Tabledit has afeaturethat allows you to change between the tab numbers and the note name with just the press of a key [actually 2 keys, shift and 4, the $]. I also use the reverse tab function so any 'stacked' notes, like chords, read the same vertically as the SMN, bass notes at the bottom.

I'd second Marc's recommendation of MusEdit. Excellent programme for MD, freeware now, and runs well on all versions of Windows (and Linux and OS X if you install it in Wine.) Doug Rogers is travelling in Asia now and is really hard to contact for support, but there is a user group on Yahoo which has provided me with some help in the past: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/musedit/

I would not know anything about tabs for the HD, I've never seen one.

I used Musedit for a long time for MD tab. It's a good program and he did make it free but the programmer isn't working on it any more. I switched to Tabledit and found it good for the MD and it has a couple of features that lend itself to setting up MD tab for the HD if you don't read SMN very well. The programmer is very responsive to his customers also and he has a web page for customers to post comments etc. You may want to check them both out to see which youprefer. I feel they are both about the same as far as learning curve.

Since this thread has been resurrected, I will chime back in and mention that I now have my Starsong also. It is absolutely wonderful. It looks fantastic, but more importantly it sounds absolutely lovely. It's easily the most responsive dulcimer I've ever owned. I am extremely pleased with it. I'll also echo Ilene's comments above - Gary is a great guy and a fantastic musician. For anyone who decides to get on the build list - you won't regret it. It may take a while, but you will be thrilled.

One more thing to mention - after playing many dulcimers with different VSLs over the years, I've come to realize I'm most comfortable playing instruments with VSLs from 26 in. to 26 1/2 in. I asked Gary to build mine with a 26 1/4 in VSL (instead of his usual 27 in VSL), and he's now got that length templated. So for anyone out there who may want a Starsong but was thinking they wanted the smaller VSL of Gary's A-frame model (VSL= 26 in), you now have another choice. :)