Forum Activity for @stewart-mccormick

Sounds like you've got yourself a sticky situation there John. (Pun intended) The big problem with that glue is it expands as it cures so you have a very tight fit. You might try knocking it out from the side, but you risk damaging the slot if the glue bond does not break. I think I would try to either rout or saw it out and make a new nut. I know that is not easy to do and would require making some type of jig to do the job. Of course, if this is just going to be a wall hanger, you don't have to worry about any of this.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Well, Ken, at least it'll SMELL good, even if it doesn't loosen the glue!  

Gorilla Glue company recommends razor blade/scraper for removing blobs from wood; but that won't help in a nut slot...   Citrus juice is suggested for removing from hands.  Try sponging OJ or grapefruit juice on it several times...

That sounds like the same sage advice I gave somebody here a few days ago!

Unfortunately the nut has been re-glued with what looks like Gorilla Glue... might be a job to remove.  Thanks, Dan!

Tignor got tired of fixin' his wifes Burgy so he decided he could make one better! Yes the early pieces would have been Burgy copies. I have no idea how the intonations on the early pieces were, but the bottom line is, do they want to play it or hang it on the wall? You could make new nut and bridge and save the originals?

DAN

www.dulcimore.com

A young couple came to my home yesterday with a beautiful old Tignor dulcimer that had some problems.  The fist thing I noticed is that it bore a striking resemblance to an Uncle Ed Thomas dulcimer.  I think John was a protege of Jethro Amburgey, wasn't he?  Anyway, I brought my latest Thomas upstairs and laid it next to their dulcimer.  Apart from the Tignor being a couple inches longer and slightly wider, they looked like twins.

The 3 tuners on it were shabby-looking planetary models, inexpertly mounted by somebody, and all 3 strings were the wound steel ones we use just for bass drones.  I found reference photos of what Tignor pegs should look like, and set about to reproduce them in old-growth black walnut.  They came out very well.  I then went to string the dulcimer with the proper gauge strings, when I noticed the "mile-high" action.  The tone is nice, but pushing the melody string all the way down to the staple fret really stretches it out of tune!  I'm not sure if I should lower it or leave it as-is.  Any thoughts, my fellow historical luthiers?

Clemson's done for. 

Stewart, I think you can send him a private message regardless of "Following" status. 

Sure, you need it for noter play!  ;) 

PS- Randy Adams is the dulcimer player I listen to most!  I've got a playlist.  :)

Hey, I like it, Stewart!  Have fun working on it! 

Found this beauty online! Looks like poplar or pine? Hopefully with a little hide glue and TLC, and she will be my next dedicated Noter Dulcimer! What do you think?

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I was there a little over a week ago. Unfortunately a snow storm kept the shop closed and I couldn't hang around. I needed to get back to Pennsylvania. Next year (2019) in May we are having a noter drone festival in Berea. Some of the group did get to meet Warren.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

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Well, Dave, they can be tuned numerous ways.  When I got my 1st it was tuned DAdd.  Now, I usually use DAAd.  However DAdc is a good one for minor key tunes (Aeolian mode.)  Then there's always DAdA, the Jean Ritchie tuning.  Have I just confused you to no end?  Well pick either of the 1st 2 and start playing.  There were no beginner's books for 4 independent strings when I started, and I don't know of any now, either.  Janita Baker has some books for 4 strings using her tuning DABbd (I think.)  Seems like it would be a cool tuning for solo fingerpicking like she does.

How are they tuned, and any suggestions on a beginner book for that?

It really is a beautiful dulcimer, but it strikes me as a non-Stanley Hicks instrument.  It seems to me to be a dulcimer built in the Stanley Hicks style by somebody else (David Love).  The Stanley Hicks label inside the soundhole seems to be out of place somehow.  Maybe Stanley acquired it from Mr. Love, and put his label of ownership in it?   There is plenty of room inside the heart cutout to affix a label after the dulcimer was completed.  Just my musings...

Thats an incredible dulcimer!!

I can offer no information, William, but the dulcimer is a treasure! 

Help me out, historians and collectors.  I just acquired a Watauga Co. NC dulcimer with the labels of two known craftsmen: Stanley Hicks and David Love.  The Hicks label was centered in a soundhole where you would expect to see a Hicks label, but the Love label was almost hidden toward the center of the back. 

Hicks I know, as does every Foxfire fan, but Love was a new one.  I've only found one other dulcimer with his name in it, and it did not have the Hicks label.  Love was a woodcarver, and the stylized eagle effigy pegbox was one of his hallmarks.  

My hypothesis on this dulcimer, which has Love's eagle peghead and a body that just screams Hicks: the instrument was a collaborative effort between the two craftsmen.  The two lived in the same general area--Watauga Co.--and Love's sister Dovie was married to a Hicks; so a sharing of ideas and even efforts would be easy to imagine.  Either Love supplied the pegbox and Hicks built the dulcimer, or Hicks made the component parts and Love assembled them using his pegbox.

Historians, collectors, and Watauga Co. music aficionados: can you confirm a hypothesis or share something I don't know?  (This is my first venture into the rich musical heritage of Watauga Co., so there's a LOT of stuff I don't know!)  Do you know more about Love, or about collaborations or any other professional or social relationship between Love and Hicks?

Thanks in advance!

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Thank you, Dusty.

Here is the link: http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/ .  I will also fix it in the original post.

FYI: The best way to create a hyperlink in a post is to use the hyperlink tool.  Just highlight the text that will have the link and click the hyperlink icon (the fifth icon from the right in the tool bar).  Then you paste the URL and can choose to have the link open in another window or this one (I always choose another window).

It does the same thing, Lois, just brings us back to where we started. Strange !

FWIW I just put in this. (Dunno if it's http or https.)   traditionalmusic.co.uk

Yes, Ken, I know and that is why I tried to edit it. It seems that this forum does not encourage links to other sites. Either that or I am doing things the wrong way. If you type in the words a browser will take you there. It's interesting to see that the dulcimer is not included in the instruments discussed and my own country, Wales, is completely ignored. Nevertheless there is some good stuff there and I am prepared to forgive these omissions 

I have just downloaded the sheet music for "Hewlett" . The only tune I play properly at present is "Wildwood Flower" and that I should seek to play "Hewlett" is an attempt to bury my failed efforts to learn the autoharp, these two tunes being my favourites when others played them on their autoharps. 

It will be a long time before any of my music features on this site, possibly years, but I am having a lot of fun and will persevere.

Nigel -- Trad Music UK is a great resource.  However, your link does not take us there; it takes us to a copy of this page...  There are 2 "diamond Question Marks which precede the link for some reason that may be causing the problem...

I would imagine that reference has already been made to this site

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/

and that old hands are familiar with it. I mention it now so that absolute beginners, like myself, are aware of its existence without having to read every post on FOTMD. "Wood from the trees" sort of thing