Forum Activity for @shopdad

From past experience, if frets are not level or all the same height off the fret board there is potential vibration in certain notes played. Adjusting the nut and bridge is important but if the frets are at different heights it will affect the quality of the note. When I discovered my fret board (also called the finger board) was badly warped I smoothed out the high spot and replaced the frets. In my effort to fix the problem previously, without fixing the board, I filed down some of the frets to compensate for the bad board. The result was disastrous. I replaced all the frets and aligned them with a framing square. Before the repair, playing anything on the first two frets was difficult because of the distance between the string and the fret board. I couldn't lower it because the frets in the center would touch the strings.   

Sad news indeed. The Aorell I own has the most wonderful tone and sound.

Sad news. He contributed so much to the mountain dulcimer community. I contemplated many times ordering a dulcimette. I kinda wish I had. RIP Ron. 😔 

I played one of Ron's baritone dulcimettes when I won the National Dulcimer Contest at Winfield in 2016.  I was introduced to Ron by Sandy and Caroline Paton.  I bought my first dulcimer from him in the early 1980's, and we became friends and especially enjoyed playing French tunes together.  I don't think anyone made better small instruments than Ron.  Intonation and tone quality were always spot on.  He was a great innovator and a fine musician and will be sorely missed.  

Oh that is awful news! Ron was such a nice guy! His dulcimettes are wonderful instruments x

There are a couple of Facebook discussions about this, so some of you may know, but the great luthier Ron Ewing died a few days ago. 

Ron had been a central participant in the dulcimer community since at least the early 1970s.  His baritone dulcimers were especially appreciated, as were his smaller dulcimers, which he called "dulcimettes."  In fact, I own two of them, one an octave dulcimette and one that he called the baritone dulcimette, meaning it was tuned an octave above a baritone dulcimer or a fourth or fifth above a standard dulcimer.  Rumor has it that Ron also invented the dulcimer capo.  I doubt that's true, but he did develop the capo design that has become the standard.  Ron's website is still up at the moment, in case you would like to peruse his offerings.

Here is a short portrait of Ron and his dulcimers that Bing Futch offered many years ago on one of the early Dulcimerica videos .

I have not found an official obituary yet, only a couple of conversations on Facebook.  If anyone has more information, please share it here.

And perhaps we can share memories of Ron or even just examples of people playing his dulcimers.

Thanks, Dusty. That link allows you to download the article which I have had for quite some time. It is easier than having people send me a PM to receive it.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Checking back, I Googled the title " Seeger, Charles, The Appalachian Dulcime r"

and got the link

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://fotmd.com/forum/download/forum_file/26262/Charles%2520Seeger,%2520The%2520Appalachian%2520Dulcimer%2520(1958).pdf&ved=2ahUKEwig8Mn_76uSAxXdCTQIHU6kEz4QFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1oHGTowFucKHdQCaggWaPF 

which looked like it was on FOTMD.

Anyway, now the paper is exposed to FOTMD.

I searched for the article here but didn't find. I'm probably not entering the right search criteria to narrow it down. I have a pdf of the article that Wally talks about if any one is interested. PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you. The file is too large to post here. Maybe that's why I didn't find it. Something to note about Seeger's article is that in photos from the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA, he identifies them as Pennsylvania zitters.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I had not found the Charles Seeger article before, even though it is posted on FOTMD. Perhaps it is new here.

To me, there are some interesting side issues. It barely references the Ritchie family, although it does have a photo of Jean, and mentions her husband George Pickow's instruments, not disclosing that his shop was Brooklyn, NY and his connection to Appalachia was Jean.

According to Jean Ritchie's books, Charles Seeger had collected songs at the Balis Ritchie home when she was a child. At that time there was a dulcimer in the home, and Balis was more willing to play it than to sing. Didn't Seeger ask Balis about the instrument, or did he distrust what he was told?

I believe that at the time the paper was written, Jean was in New York, playing on the radio with Woodie Guthrie and Leadbelly. She surely was crossing paths with Pete's dad.

Seeger collected a tune at Arthurdale, WV while Eleanor Roosevelt was holding a square dance there. The fiddler was from the area I pass through daily, and was well known here back in the 1960s and 70s. As best I remember, Seeger put in the the Smithsonian Collection and it was recorded by the New Lost City Ramblers as "collected by Charles Seeger," not crediting the fiddler. 

I can't put 100% faith in what he wrote about Appalachian Dulcimer history.

I just received word that the article is posted to this website. https://dulcimerhistory.com/2026/01/24/lets-bury-the-term-scheitholt/ Check it out there if you like.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

You're welcome, Strumelia and thank you for the compliment.

Ken, it's beautiful!  Thank you for sharing this.

Here is the article that was to appear in Dulcimer Players News. Originally it was scheduled for November, 2025 but postponed until February, 2026. I heard that the "Traditons" themed issue in which it was to appear is now postponed until May, 2026. I have also included a bibliography for the article.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Scheitholtnomorev5.b.pdf - 252KB

I created a thread about this in the Groups area, but I have the feeling that not too many people explore the Groups section. So I am recreating it here in hopes that more folks will see it.

In 1619 Michael Praetorius published the second volume of Syntagma Musicum . In it tried to list all of the instruments known in his world. He described the instruments and included illustrations of some of them. One plate included an illustration of an instrument he called a scheitholt. I remarked to my daughter and her husband that I have never seen a scheitholt. I looked all over the internet for one and found many instruments called scheitholts, but none fit the description provided by Praetorius. They challenged me to make one. After a couple of months of research I was able to put together specifications to build one. A helpful site at a German museum gave numbers for length, width, height, VSL, and number of frets. I contributed a little imagination in creating the sound hole rosette and the peg head. Here is a photo of the recently created scheitholt. I, along with some assistance from Ken Hulme, wrote an article on why we should not apply the term "scheitholt" to all those PA German zitters or hummels that are misnamed here in the USA. 

 IMG_0891.jpeg - 93KB

The "ei" in scheitholt is pronounced as an "i" like in sight. The "ie" in German is pronounced as an "e" as in see. In Chcknj's post below "schiet" would be pronounced sheet.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Well,well.I confess I've never heard the word "scheitholt" out loud although I play one...the apparent resemblance in the spelling to examples I cited of different versions of the "s" word led me to first choose to  say "hummel",then after learning  that that was probably a different instrument(still don't really know if it is) , to say "skeetholt".In Canada I could call it whatever I want,it would make no difference because no one has ever seen one and there's no historical documentation of the "zitter" like instruments I know of,although we have a substantial number of people with German ancestry going back to the Palatine Germans who first settled in the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys.

might be that there was a mix up between "scheit" and the northern dialect expression "schiet" ... >  https://www.platt-wb.de/platt-hoch/?term=schiet

I put "scheit" into three translation websites, Google Translate, Reverso, and DeepL. Google comes up with "fails" or "failure" and under noun it says "Log" and "piece of wood." Reverso and DeepL translate it as "log." I'm sorry but I just have not been able to find evidence to support the translating it to mean "sh*t." In two years of high school and two years of college German, I never encountered the word "scheit," but I was familiar with the word "scheiße."

BTW, the Nonsuch Dulcimer Club will contain the article in their summer newsletter.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Giving this thread a bump.  Saturday 28 March 2026 is International Appalachian Dulcimer Day-- always the last Saturday in March!  

We celebrate the Appalachian dulcimer and its spread around the world-- the more countries represented in the celebration the merrier!  

... and when you cross the french border the thing is called "épinette de voges" ... that's the funny thing with Europe and its different languages. ;-) and of course each and every region has its own style too to differentiate. ...

The Story of the Hummel book by Wilfried Ulrich is available again in United States. Check out this website: https://dulcimerhistory.com/book/

Ken Longfield

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Yep-the Dutch word for "Shite".. Ireland and NL as well.I thought of calling it a Hummel but that seems to be a different beast.I was in Germany 10 years ago,went online to try and find a scheitholt,all I got were offers of firewood or wood stoves.So I call it a "Skeetholt" now...but in NL a skeet is a charming person who robs your pocket while buttering you up.So for me scheitholt remains,pronounced Skeetholt (no one plays one in NL and I've never heard the term outside of the island) until someone comes up with a different term..for the 100 scheitholt players in the world,laugh.

"As to the linguistic issue, scheiße is the German word for sh*t. Scheit in the 16th century was log or piece of wood. I think that is still the translation today according to my German friends."

I don't disagree with that, but ...

First, we are discussing early 20th Century interpretation of late 18th Century Pennsylvania German terminology, as much as academic 16th Century German German. 

Second, if you use Google Translate for the meaning of "scheit" it tells you the modern translation is "sh*t." 

Third, if you look down in a toilet, in polite Victorian terms, don't you see "logs"?

We also would have a bit of confusion if we ask Google what "dulcimer" means. I'm not sure if I would trust the Unabridged Oxford Dictionary to be clear on that.

Wally, thanks for your comments. I found no evidence of shops making musical instruments in Pennsylvania making zitters. There were some violin makers and of course by 1839 C.F. Martin was making guitars in Nazareth, PA. Of course, the absence of evidence doesn't mean it didn't happen, only that there was evidence that it did. Henry Mercer mentions one builder, but he made bowed zitters.

As to the linguistic issue, scheiße is the German word for sh*t. Scheit in the 16th century was log or piece of wood. I think that is still the translation today according to my German friends.

You are in good company in thinking scheitholt "has been established in dulcimer history too long to just kill off." That was Ralph Lee Smith's attitude as well. I argued with him that we should be precise and correct in identifying these instruments that are not scheitholts as what they were called "back in the day," namely zitters.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Ken Longfield and Ken Hulme said"
"These instruments were constructed by craftsmen on an individual basis probably in home workshops. There is no record of musical instrument shops in the new world building these Pennsylvania German instruments."

I have begun writing a bit of stuff for the Nonsuch Dulcimer newsletter in Britain about making and fixing Appalachian Dulcimers. In the first piece  have written:

"Historically, the LD is not a musical instrument created by skilled luthiers. It is a folk-craft item, like a quilt or a sweater. They were made by simple crafters working with locally available materials and simple tools. That practice is still alive in the USA, along with a handful of highly skilled, but mostly self-taught shops producing high priced instruments."

and

"My guess is that the 19th Century makers were also involved in making simple furniture and other household items, and that many of the instruments were made for family members and close friends."

Before 1900, making stuff for home use from wooden boxes and branches was commonplace in farm homes. I opine that is was about as common among men as needle craft was among women. The Boy Scouts taught this level of craftsmanship to townies when I was a boy. It was a common sort of magazine or newspaper story, just as boat-building was.

On the linguistic side, "scheit" in German translates as "shit" in English. I can imagine some of us saying "This piece of shit I made works pretty well for playing on the porch, although I wouldn't recommend it for public performance."

I agree that we should try to take scheitholt out of regular polite communication, but I think it has been established in dulcimer history too long to just kill off.

Interesting and persuasive stuff, Ken.  Thanks for sharing.

Jerry-  I know you posted this query about your Geoffrey Johnson Dulcimer 2 years ago but I'm just getting around to finding it.  I also have a Johnson made dulcimer.  I once posted a question (on this Forum) asking if anyone knew who the maker was or anything about the slightly weird looking beasts.  Within minutes it occurred to me to look deep into the belly and I saw a maker's certificate(?) with the Johnson name.  Couldn't really find out much about the maker and why he made the tail piece so long.  You can't find a dulcimer case on the market to fit it in.  Rifle cases, yes, but not dulcimer cases.  I've got several other dulcimers I take out into public to play but my Geoffrey Johnson dulcimer stays home all the time.

There will be no burning of mountain dulcimers here at my house!  

A comment I received via email suggested a better way of saying:  In German, scheit means log or piece of wood, while holt or holz means wood. I like the suggestion below and have replaced this sentence in the original with the two sentences below.

In German, scheit means log or piece of wood, while adding holt or holz means firewood. This is a way of something is garbage; i.e., something to be burned.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks, Ken L & Ken H for the research and your article!  One thing I realize is the story of the Appalachian dulcimer and its origins is still being written-- a good thing!  

Here is a bibliography for the article.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song." 

Bibliography - Scheitholt No More.pdf - 60KB

I learned today that theme of February, 2026 issue of Dulcimer Players News will not be "tradition." I submitted an article in 2024 and was asked if it could be held until the December, 2025 issue originally scheduled to have the "tradition" theme. I agreed. It was postponed from November, 2025 until February, 2026 and now postponed again. I decided to wait no more and share this pdf of the article. I hope you enjoy it and it causes you think about the mountain dulcimers ancestors.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Scheitholtnomorev5.b.pdf - 252KB

Oh my, Strumelia, that poor guitar!

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I have dot placed stickers, using stationary department dots or masking tape, on one or two of the instruments I own, but if I buy a modestly priced dulcimer without dots, I usually install "real" ones at 3, 7, 10 and 14.

On eBay you can buy for $15 with delivery
20Pcs 6X2Mm Guitar Natural Mother of Pearl Inlay Fingerboard Fret Dots
That's enough 1/4" dots for 5 instruments.

I also use 1/4" "plugs" cut from some ebony I have with a cheap drill-type plug cutter in a drill press.

It is easy to install them in holes made with a 1/4" Forstner bit in a drill press if you just slack or remove the middle string.

This isn't for the faint-hearted, but an almost trivial job for any woodworker, luthier or not.

Thanks for the tip about that. My dulcimers live in their cases with their humidifiers as our house is dry as heck all winter even with room humidifiers so they should be fine. 

I thought i'd add one little tip here...
Wooden dulcimers and other instruments tend to darken over time when exposed to light. This can be a nice thing, for example a brand new light cherry wood dulcimer turns darker and reddish.
BUT, if you have any stickers on the fretboard and you leave your dulcimer out of its case (hanging on a wall or in a stand), the exposure to light over a year or more will mean that when you (or some future owner) eventually removes the stickers and cleans off the adhesive, there will likely be a noticeable light spot where the wood did not receive light. This could devalue the instrument. I'm not sure how visible this would be on an ebony fretboard, if one has that.

This effect takes way longer to happen if the instrument is stored in a closed case between playing. So that's just something to keep in mind. You may want to aim for removing the stickers after a few months if this is important to you.

Here's a guitar that had stickers on it for many years.. after sticker removal, the wood itself is now showing 'suntan marks':

Reviving an old thread here just to say thanks for the links, I’ve ordered some of the recommended stickers for both my vintage dulcimer, and also for my ukulele more for decoration than real need on the uke. On the dulcimer they are needed - I’m dyscalculic enough that my brain needs the position cues that I have on my Pudge to know where I am on the Berg dulcimer. 

@casserole Here in Ohio, the air is quite dry in Winter and I assume the same for your climate.  Be sure to never store a wooden instrument near a heat source.  It is a good idea to use a humidifier of some sort in the case.  I hope your used Folkcraft arrives without incident to your doorstep!  

You mentioned "Low-Maintenance." Provided that they are properly set up when purchased, lap dulcimers don't need much maintenance work except when a string breaks, and if you learn to tune carefully that will not be often.

It's best to store it in a proper case, rather than a pillow case. Try to keep the case out of the rain, and don't leave it on a beach. Wiping occasionally with a soft cloth and maybe oiling the tuners every couple of years is a good idea.

The traditional dulcimer is reputed to have been kept hanging on the wall over the fireplace in a cabin which wasn't heated much in below zero weather. If well built, they are a tough as the Kentucky hill folks who owned them.

I'm assuming you didn't buy one made with faces of glued up exotic wood with wild grain or knots, or millions of sound holes, and that it has a proper one-piece fretboard and geared tuners. Buying exotic stuff is always a risk.