Forum Activity for @john-petry

Probably easier to get out of the basement than the aircraft was.....

Nice build.....Will it fly?

What an absolute jewel of a dulcimer!  Do you own it, and if so, where/how did you get it?

It's hard to believe that someone would put that much skilled work into an instrument and then not sign it or mark it... is there maybe a label inside that got detached and is just loose inside the instrument? Did you use a flashlight?

Nicely done, @terry-jaye .  Have you tested it out yet? What starter tune are you experimenting with?

Nice!

What a lovely instrument!  Made by a very skilled woodworker, for sure.  No 6.5 fret and not a reproduction build of some kind.  It's very cool.  

Hello all. I've been aware of dulcimers for over 52 years, but never learned to play. I built one from plans in a 1973 Popular Science issue when I was age 14. I was fascinated with the graceful curves. Here's a snap of the original article.

With the very limited resources living in rural Southern Ontario, I was able to approximate the instrument. No one including the big city music store nearby knew what I was talking about. It served it's purpose as a wall decoration for all these years. This past winter I noticed the peg box had spilt. I did a minor restoration and finally purchased dulcimer strings and replaced the pegs.

I lent it to a classical guitarist neighbor of mine. She returned it stating it was difficult to play. She was being kind. After some research and viewing lots of Youtube videos, I came to the conclusion that the first 4 frets were correct. For some reason, I inserted another a slightly more than an inch after the 4th. The rest were correct but offset by that 1 inch. The instrument was unplayable and it's now back on the wall.

I decided I there was one more dulcimer in my bones and started construction on an electric one. Nine days after starting, it's functionally complete. I have more resources and time than I did for the last project. I shaped it to pay homage to the original. This one has a removable fretboard so that mistakes are easily fixed. Also allows for a chromatic fretboard if I want to go that route. I made use of  AN aircraft fasteners everywhere. I built an aircraft in my basement some years ago and those fasteners ger used everywhere It's visible on the photo above the two instruments.

Anyway, I'm learning to play the new one. I don't have a musical bone in my body, but should be able to crank out some tune in a mechanical way. I'll post the construction process in the appropriate forum. It was nice to find this site as I'll probably need some advice and assistance.

Terry

That is such a neat dulcimer. The craftsmanship and detail is insane, and the woods are so beautiful. 

Wow that is so cool

There is no maker's mark on the inside that I can see.

 20250428_184051.jpg - 272KB

@frank-dudgeon It'd be fun to try it as a trio yet our niece lives in another state and we don't often see her.  We're happy you love our little tune!  

Thanks for reposting the original That's a gorgeous melody. I can imagine a dulcimer-cello-guitar trio sounding wonderful swapping leads. 

@john-petry @dusty @macaodha @frank-dudgeon I'm happy y'all enjoyed the cello version of a mountain dulcimer & guitar tune!  I thought it would sound neat on cello, so the last time I saw my niece I talked to her about whether or not she'd be interested in learning the tune so I sent her our SoundCloud link.  

For anyone interested in comparing how the tune was translated from our duo tune to a cello tune, here's a link from here at FOTMD for comparison:

P.S.- @steve-c You may well know the location where the long-gone Peony farm was located-- roughly, behind old Unioto School just outside Chillicothe.   

That was marvelous. Thank you so much. You have a very talented niece!

You, my friend, are the inspiration! After your query, I did a search as well, finding that no one is making them any longer.....So being the struggling mercenary....I hope to make my fortune.....

That is beautiful Robin.

Thank you very much for your response John. I have already received a Hall from fearless leader Dusty in exchange for a donation to the forum. Yours look great as well.

That's really beautiful, @robin-thompson.  Although I would not recognize the melody as one of yours, I can hear your delicate slides certainly.  Your niece is quite talented.  Hopefully you can forgive her for going to Indiana for school.  

Can't find the right words this morning......a few tears though. [in the good way]...Thank you.

@steve-c She grew up in SW OH!  (Music degrees, though, from Ohio and Butler universities.) 

Beautiful Robin! Just beautiful, your niece has mad cello skills!

One of our nieces is a cellist and, by my request, learned one of our mountain dulcimer/guitar duo tunes to play on cello.  

https://youtu.be/9jYjwBuUt3E?si=Vu3ZzkW_gsNDMgmV

Pettreemusic.com  has them in stock. Not the "hall" brand however. I did speak to Jenn over at Crystal flutes...they "may" in the future start making theirs again. The are more concentrated on the flutes at this time.

Hey Dusty, Thanks I did try to do a search and came up with nothing, but I'll try your link.

Although it's been dormant for some time, the 6-String Dulcimers Group here still has a lot of members.  Perhaps you could join that group and resurrect a discussion or two on what those instruments offer.

Remember that you have to join the group to be able to see all the content.

Sorry i Wally i mistyped that

Except that mine is Dd-Aa-aa (or maybe dD-aA-aa, or aa-Aa-Dd if you prefer the reverse order)

Thats similar to my favorite setup for 6 string Wally. dd-Aa- Dd

Or like an "unreal Dulcimer." On my 6-string dulcimer, tuned in DAA with 6+ fret, I have a wound string in the middle pair tuned an octave below normal and a high D on the "bass" pair. This gives a more rich sound to the drones, and not like a mandolin.

I also like the sound of 3-string DAA noter-drone cardboard instruments.

As John and others say, depends on what you like and the mood you are in.

Depends on if you want it to sound like a mandolin or a "real" dulcimer.

Just liken it to a 12 string guitar vs. a six string. I will say different but not better.

Hey John.  I have a Ron Ewing baritone dulcimette made with 6 strings in three courses. Basically, each string is doubled.  I love the sound.  I has the pop of a good mandolin.  And it was great for strumming tunes, meaning tunes that involve a lot of just strumming across all the strings.  One day I restrung it without each of the double strings, so it was just a 3-stringed dulcimer.  That was about 10 years ago, and I have never gone back.  Without the double strings it is just much easier to play more nuanced music, sometimes picking a single string instead of strumming all the time.  And certain techniques such as bending strings or even just adding some vibrato are simply not possible with the double strings.

I guess that story is evidence that I prefer 3 strings to 6.  However, that double string dulcimer sounded great for certain tunes.  I think my playing has just gravitated to a different style.

I have made them a couple different ways. I made one with six courses tuned DADf#ad and it sounded awesome but the melody was at times getting drowned out by the lower notes. Im not quite good enough to make full use of all 6 strings. Ive also made one that had six stings in three courses of two strings each. It sounded great but was really difficult to play. I think it would have been really good for noter drone style.

So, I was afraid to modify my dulcimer and just jammed a KNA AP-2 onto mine. It's been fairly decent. I even got to use it in my regular jam session today rather than my normal flute or tin whistle.

The one caveat is that it was a smaller group, I still have no idea how it will work when we have a full compliment of guitars plus drums (I'm guessing poorly with my concerns from the OP), but I'm happy so far.

Hi kids, just Jon Lilley here from cyberspace. I was hoping to get people's ideas and thoughts on something that I have no idea about. Never seen one, never touched one, never played one. It has to do with the five string and the sixth string dulcimers.  What are your opinions and thoughts about that? It's too hard to play, love it, hate them,  why bother. Well that's it, I was just hoping someone would give me their two cents. thanks. 

Thanks Dan!

And thanks Ken for the suggestions on the instruction books, and the tip on the DAA scale. I'll check out those books!

Since the recommendation is to play in the DAA tuning I looked through my library of dulcimer instruction books. Some early MelBay books like Fun with the Dulcimer and Cripple Creek Dulcimer are good places to start. Another book that has lots of familiar tunes is this one: The Best Dulcimer Method - Yet! Those books can get you started. The DAA scale begins on the 3rd fret. The 10th fret is the octave of the third fret. Knowing that you should be able to start picking out some simple tunes.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Well done!

Thanks Richard!
And thanks, Strumelia, for your P.S below...just saw it...I will post the video. Thanks for the suggestion and invitation!

Beautiful work. What a nice traditional sound. Thanks for sharing.