Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

MacDonalds, Longhorn Steakhouse, Commander's Palace.  

McSpadden, Warren May, Blue Lion

McSpad and Blue Lion are "production" instruments at both ends of the dollar spectrum.  A Warren May is an individually made masterpiece that may not be for everyone.  Don't buy any of these without trying them...

I am in the market to add another dulcimer (you can't have too many, right???)  What are your thoughts on these three?  All opinions welcome!  GO!

Heart overflowing!  Thank you Kusani and Richard!!!  

Sandi, It' going in the mail today. Enjoy. 

Y'all are too kind!  Always, ALWAYS such a blessing.  Thank you!  

I have access to bamboo and will be glad to send you some noters if you like. Send me your address etc.

I make mine out of black bamboo which I grow on the property.  Send me your name/address and I'll send you one.

From the bamboo clump in the backyard... or down the block... or in the woods.  Some people actually have to buy a short bamboo pole from a garden center or similar place and cut it into lengths.  

I love this Q and it's answers!  We have quite a few uke players in our church.  Thank you.

Ken, I love your ideas always.  I remember you sent me some woods, and I was so new I thought they were actual noters!  I still use them.  LOL!  Where does one get just a piece of bamboo?

Strumelia, I'm a fickle gal,  too!

Hi all,

I'm sorry I hadn't see this thread again until recently, but I am glad Lois and others were able to download the site successfully.  Also glad the tab from ED has found a new home on the web.  :)

Make that c6 for open tuning.   GCAE = chord C6 

Glass noters I've tried out seem to give an odd metallic tone. Might be cool for certain effects though.

Every time I've settled on a favorite noter, a month or two later I discover that one of my other noters is actually my favorite.      I'm a fickle gal.

I wanted to remind folks to check their everythingdulcimer.com private message INbox and Sent box etc, to save any important private messages  in your ED account that you might not want to lose.  Only 4 days left...     

I use a variety of "pen blank" of exotic woods that are 3/4" x 3/4" x 5", which I round out with a belt sander to about 1/2" diameter. I prefer noters about the diameter of my index finger. One of my favorite hard woods is Lignum Vitae one the hardest 10 woods in the world.  My other choice for noters is a 4-5" piece of bamboo.

I've used glass -- a swizzle stick -- a time or two -- very fast!  

Lois, that is a super clever idea!  I say always share, because someone will definitely benefit!  ~so cool~

Sandi, I never tried glass, but bet it would really zip along.  I stay with wood when I don't "finger dance", but had such a hard time at first placing it squarely on the strings that my husband gave it an inner circle at the tip cutting in all around so that I tend to place it more accurately.  I don't know that anybody else would be interested, but, if they are, I can have him take a picture of it.  Guess it could be considered like "training wheels" on a bicycle.

I have found that my little Wren from Feather Dulcimer also sounds FANTASTIC in DAA!  I have lost my noter though and want to replace it ASAP.  I have gotten creative with household items, but I'd love your opinions on where to spend my dollars.  I'd also love your opinions on what sound you like...Wood?  Glass?  Something else?  TIA for sharing with me!

Literal tears that the TAB is available!  THANK YOU ever so much, with all my heart.

Thank you Dusty, and thanks to Kevin Teague for his hard work and dedication doing this.

I just want to let everyone know that all the tablature from ED has already found a new home:  http://dulcimertab.com/ .  The site owner is hosting everything for free and may create a database of dulcimer groups and dulcimer teachers.

Thank you, Nigel.  You, Dusty, and Brian helped get me there.  I felt a wee bit guilty taking over the Timeline with my problems instead of Private Messaging, but figured it both helped me succeed and maybe helped a few reading it all.

I don't think Bruce is interested in having anyone take over Everything Dulcimer, or I would have heard something by now.

Glad it worked for you, Lois. 

Oh my heavens!  I have it!  I do...I was just about to start all over and found something that sent me to my C drive (I thought I had bypassed that to save space) and there's something called My Web Sites.  Yes, Nigel, it even has an index.html!  5 KB and all.  <sigh!>  I'm surely not the only one to be this confused, but I'm sooooooo relieved.

Thank heavens their site stays up until June!

I really think something didn't work.  Tried to send a screenshot, but the file attachment says it failed.  The address line is weird, too: file:///C:/Users/lois-/Documents/Website%20Ripper%20Copier/Downloads/Everythingdulcimer/evartdulcimerfest.org/index.html

I think it's time to start over...oh joy!

It would appear that the software might not have worked properly but before you do any more deleting try another search for a file called - index.html

I can confirm that a search I have just made shows that such a file is on my computer and specifically relates to ED. If you do not have this file, delete everything and start again. You still have lots of time.

That produced a Notepad of computer language for Carbonite and a few things from Website Ripper, related to old searches I did about the Evart festival on Everything Dulcimer, but I tried Website Ripper and when it didn't work well I deleted the app.  Then I succeeded in finding the way to HTTrack (my first search hadn't turned it up) since that had worked for Brian.  If
"index" doesn't appear, I'm worried.  HTTrack is on my computer.  I also know it was the one copying all night long and this morning.  I just now stumbled into a list of those files Website Ripper tried to copy last night at around 6.  They're empty, but the titles are still there.

Opening HTTrack produced a list of Documents and that's where the Website Ripper list was apparently until I deleted the program. 

Lois, do a quick search for "index" files on your computer. If the copying has worked, one of them will open up the HTTrack software when it is clicked. 

I just sent off a question to the HTTrack Forum and certainly agree I'm inexperienced in using their software.  If I hadn't seen it downloading over all those hours, I would believe it didn't download.  My flashdrive shows a 2 KB WRC file, but when I try to open it, it just keeps trying to have my browser save it.  That may have been where I went astray in my initially telling it to open there, but now I can't seem to figure out how to open it any other way.  I've tried a variety of programs supposedly able to open WRC files and have nothing even close to Nigel's experience.

Dusty is correct and the cloned website will be opened by the same software which copied it. I used HTTrack and my project was saved as Dulcimer1, an arbitrary name, and it was directed at a folder named "My Websites". When the operation had finished there were five items in the "MyWebsite" folder. Two were GIF files, one was a folder called Dulcimer1 which held many files, a file named Dulcimer1.whtt and a file called "index".When I clicked on "index" the HTTrack program opened and and a purple banner type thing opened. The project name was shown in it and when this was clicked the ED website opened up.

You will have noticed that we have all shown different figures relating to the size of the ED dowload. I believe that this is due to the fact that we are all inexperienced in using the HTTrack software. I have not checked every single item on my captured website but have no reason to believe that I am missing anything. I downloaded the ED site to my hard drive directly and think that this is preferable to downloading it to a flash drive. This is because it guarantees a connection between the download files and the HTTrack software which allows it to display the captured site.

WIN HTTrack.  I can see the flashdrive and find the copy, but opening it is still a mystery.  Right now I could say the attached jpg pretty well describes my feelings...it doesn't open anything on my flashdrive, but it's a picture of me.

 computer-error.jpg - 12KB

Lois, what software did you use to download ED?  Either that software will be used to open it, or they have instructions somewhere about what to do.

O.k. here's a clue that's probably important.  My download has an extension of .wrc.  I just did a quick search on Google and will see where that gets me.

Hi Dusty & Marc & Brian, et al (including anybody here named Al),

I started downloading to a flashdrive back when I wrote 17 hours ago.  It finally has finished and it was going up until a few minutes ago as I got home and checked.  At that time I saw it was somewhat over 4 1/2 GB which is why I chose the flashdrive I used.  BTW AVG complained at me 3 times about some malware -- I think it was Smiley something or other.  Each time I clicked off, since it was stopped and I didn't want to do a scan or anything else while doing the site mirroring.  For most of that time only the download was happening.

I can see ED is on the flashdrive, but when I go to open it, I'm asked what app I want to use to open it.  DUH! I haven't a clue.  My browser doesn't open it.  Now what?  I don't even know enough to know what kind of an app I need.

Computers!  There's always something more to learn!

Marc, the download will happen faster if you download everything to your hard drive.  You can always move it to a flash drive after that.

Hi Marc, I tried putting the various named apps in at the Google Playstore and got nowhere, then went looking for website copiers.  At one point I downloaded a "free" copier only to find it needed me to move up to a licensed, a.k.a. paid, copier.  This is the link,  https://www.httrack.com/ , to take you to the copier Brian named.  Maybe I was slow figuring it out, but probably I'm not the only one.  Can't give a final word on all this as it has only been running for 8 minutes with 180 some files copied. 

I will say check your flash drive's Properties first to be sure how much space exists.  Along the way I found a few flash drives with forgotten information.

Hi @marc-mathieu. I didn't actually do it myself. I was reacting to the comments @brian-g made after he downloaded the entire site.  He used a website copier program called HTTrack, but in his comments below he lists several other programs that do the same thing.  Those programs don't just download files but reproduce the entire website.  And I'm still amazed it is all less than 4GB.  I have a small jump drive half the size of my pinky that holds 128 GB and I've used about half that memory already.

I used stewmacs nut and bridge files to cut  the grooves, and yes  it is only on the open string note. 

Thanks for the suggestion, I will give it a try

I agree with Ken about the likely culprit, although are all notes affected or just open string?  I'm just now getting back to dulcimers after a 40 year hiatus with little knowledge except for something like your problem.  If the string is not in firm contact with the bridge at the point of exit to the playing area, then what you describe could happen.  I had something similar but it was a little easier to troubleshoot since it only made the noise as an open string.  With no zero fret, the problem was easily isolated to the nut where the string was actually only touching it at a point farthest from the frets.  Odd resonance on the far side of the zero fret might happen, but if it is, then muting that area with your finger should change the twang.

BTW, why a 30" VSL, etc.  I will be using your info in trying to re-string the big boys in my picture whose dimensions are nearly identical to yours.