Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

The links do not work because the original www.everythingdulcimer.com no longer exists.  The current site called that is nothing like the original.   Gosh -- I haven't been in any contact with David for at least 8 years.  Haven't any idea if he's even still alive.   

There are a couple of archived versions of ALL the conversations we had on ED, but I don't remember who has them posted on-line.    Perhaps someone else will have that link.  The discussions there undoubtedly have David's contact information although it might not be valid any longer.  

Sorry I can't be of more help.  

Are the PDFs still available? The links don't work anymore

His obit googled right up…I’m going to take it to the local luthier and get it set up and give it a try…it seems to be a decent build…

I've never heard of Robert Bryan as a North Carolina builder.  But with over 400 builds he had some superior building skills.  The veined, leaf shaped tuning pegs, the laminated layers of light wood between dark on the tuning head and fretboard, and  skillfully cut sound holes are nice touches.  Probably built in the 1970s or 80s -- no 6+ or 13+ frets common to many post-Revival instruments.  Or perhaps he just liked the older ways of playing.  

I'd suggest keeping it "as is" rather than trying to retrofit 6+ and 13+ frets.  Playing Chord-Melody style tuned DAd would not be easy unless you are willing to re-tune.  Probably best to tune to DAA or even CGG and learn to play Fingerdance or Noter & Drone style.

Have you tried finding the builder's obituary on line?    "robert bryan dulcimer raleigh" should be a good google search string.  An obit will often give you interesting information,  likewise listings in Ancestry and similar sites may gain you more data.

I inherited this dulcimer from a friend. It has a label stating it was made by Robert Bryan of Raleigh. It has the number 412 handwritten on the label. My search doesn't reveal any time frame associated with the number. I can only find that Mr Bryan passed away in 2010. 

Does anyone in the group have any idea as to the age of this instrument? Regardless of value it is very special to me. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 dulcimer.jpg - 172KB

<blushing> Thank you Dusty! And thanks for being a long time listener! </blushing>

In my own wilder past goats were also part of my life, starting out with Alpines & Nubians, but found Toggenburgs were the breed for us.  Lived in 15.95 acres if woods, but when we needed to move, what worked for goats didn't work for people & vice versa.  Finally found a place for both, but eventually too little time.  Our last goat went as a companion to a horse, but my daughters never forgave "giving Cookie away."  May your friend have time, enjoyment, & continuing memories!

Patricia, I just listened to the episode and want to congratulate you and Wayne once again for your stellar work. You did a great job of framing the episode but allowing Ashley to really shine.  Her enthusiasm not just for dulcimer music but for the dulcimer community really comes through.  And ending the episode with Joellen's "Dance and Sing" is just a perfect way to reinforce the way music can bring us together in such a joyous way.

And I can attest--since I was there--that Ashley is correct: the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering was indeed the first online dulcimer festival, although by the time it happened, several others were in the works.

Thanks so much for all you do!

Welcome Mivo, finally another fellow German Player:)

I started two years ago with a dulcimer from the Klangwerkstatt.

Where do you live in Germany? 

Viel Spass mit deinen neuen Instrument 😀

Welcome Mivo. You have a beautiful McSpadden and it sounds like you are well on your way. I agree to take the time to find your style. There are many paths to follow; all are good. 

Regarding fingerpicking vs flatpicking, I have a similar background.  I've been fingerpicking guitar since 1973, and also fingerpick banjo, both with fingerpicks. However, I've chosen to follow the chord-melody route on dulcimer, with a flatpick. I am enjoying  that, despite my fingerpicking experience.  It's all about you and your own choices.  

Welcome Mivo!  You have a fabulous journey ahead... enjoy every step.

I thought it interesting that you said "... I also believed it was just for accompaniment, not for solo instrumentals,..."  when in fact it has nearly always through its history been a solo instrument rather than an ensemble member.

As a new player I'll suggest you take a look at the essay/booklet I write a number of years ago for beginning players.  It's called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? .  It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms (so we all speak the same jargon) plus answers to many beginner questions about the tuning, playing care and feeding of your new friend.  You can find it here:

Ken Hulme's "I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?" Article - Strumelia | fotmd.com

Feel free to copy and print it as much as you want.

Hello again Mivo. Thanks for sharing the beginning of your dulcimer journey with us. It sounds like you are well under way. You have a very nice McSpadden dulcimer. It will give you a lifetime of pleasure.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hi, everyone! I just wanted to drop a note here to say hello.

I'm brand new and rather spontaneously picked up a MacSpadden dulcimer a few days ago after watching some videos that had showed up in my YouTube side bar. I live in Germany where dulcimers are pretty rare beasts, though luckily I found the dulcimer store by Martin Oesterle (I believe he's a member here too) who set aside quite a bit of time to talk to me about dulcimers on the phone and answer my numerous questions. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted, I just knew I didn't want the laminated dulcimer-shaped objects that a big box store sold.

I somewhat play the banjo, ukulele, and the kalimba, and in a way it is surprising that it took me so long to get into the mountain dulcimer. It had shown up on my radar a few years ago, but for some reason I didn't look further into it. I think I saw "three strings" and that sort of lowered my interest a little, thinking it might be too limited. I also believed it was just for accompaniment, not for solo instrumentals, and I felt I already had enough instruments. If I had known how versatile and downright beautiful sounding dulcimers are, I'd probably have been here years ago already. Well, there is a time for everything! :)

I'm still all over the place, absorbing information and experimenting with everything, so I don't really have any preferences yet. I do like the chord melody style quite a bit, but also played a little with that tiny noter that came with my dulcimer.  Flatpicks are a relatively new experience for me as I've always fingerpicked the ukulele and the banjo (I play it with fingerpicks sometimes, but I prefer the "old time" styles of picking with bare fingers for the more organic sound). I quite enjoy the flatpick so far and bought "a few" different ones already. Fingerstyle on the dulcimer hasn't called out to me yet, though in time I'll no doubt try that out too. But I do have these other instruments for fingerpicking and it's nice to learn something new.

Anyway, I'm glad to be here and hope to learn from you all. Here are a handful photos of my dulcimer . I took them outside for the better light. It's just the standard walnut model, though it does have a pick up in case I ever want to plug in or toy around with effect pedals. I have little doubt that this dulcimer will eventually be joined by a friend or two -- but not before I've practiced and improved for some time! If I learned one thing from the Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome that I suffered from a decade ago and successfully recovered from, it is the importance of first practicing and learning before shopping for more!

It was so fun getting to know Ashley! She picked most of the music for this episode. This is a rare episode that has music from both hammered and mountain dulcimer players.

What a great idea to profile Ashley!  She does such a great job with DPN and contributes so much to the magazine and the dulcimer community in general.

Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 58
Ashley Ernst, Publisher and Owner of Dulcimer Players News

https://dulcimuse.com/podcast

In this episode we’re featuring our conversation with Ashley Ernst, the owner and publisher of Dulcimer Players News. DPN has been the quarterly magazine for mountain and hammered dulcimer players since 1975. With music from both hammered and mountain dulcimer musicians.

You can listen to all of the  Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast  episodes directly on our website: https://dulcimuse.com/podcast  or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Here's the resource page for this episode: https://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/058.html

Thanks for listening!

Patricia Delich & Wayne Jiang

Milo and Frankie ❤️ Awe!!!  So sweet!

Daffer and Annabell are adorable!!!  Sure brings back some great memories….we had Alpines Nubians and Pygmy goats

I may have to dig up a photo that my kids wouldn’t want made public…HAHAHA!  Our 4-H goat club used to have a costume class…….

Milo and Frankie are real cuties!

Daffer and Annabell....gotta love the goats!

Here are Daffer & Annabell, pets of a friend. She says that they are giving a green thumb's up to my most recent video:

"Tutorial, Simple 3 Chord Sing a Long"  where I tell of singing Home on the Range" to my goats.

 Goat Test 2.jpg - 507KB

@dtortorich , you can find a few additional Christmas carol videos if you do the same thing but use the search term "holiday".

Hi there!  I just now went to FOTMD's Video section and typed "Christmas" into the search window there, and this popped up:
https://fotmd.com/search/results/jrVimeo,jrYouTube,jrVideo/1/25/search_string=Christmas

Hello Friends, this is Bro. Dave.  With Christmas approaching I'd like to hear what some of your favorite Christmas songs are.  If anyone would like to share one with me, then please do.  Thanks

I'd like to see some Christmas music and songs.  Do you have any?

The mountain dulcimer makes an appearance about 1-hour 15-minutes and the album which featured mountain dulcimer, Rehab Reunion, about 1-hour 22-minutes. 

Good for you Frank. I wonder if we still have our cheese slicer around. If we do, I'll check the gauge of the wire on it. We switched to a cheese knife years ago.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I'm waiting for the experiments when you determine the best string gauge for different cheeses.  That soft havarti probably prefers a lighter gauge than the well-aged cheddar.

Great McGyver!

Oh i love it! 🧀

How creative. Great idea.

Brilliant!

Last month our old beloved cheese slicer broke. Just the wire broke. I used an old dulcimer string to repair it with. The screws holding the old wire pieces were removed and a piece of dulcimer wire inserted.It worked great. The hardest part was tuning it to Cheese #.

FWIW, I heard from Howard, he tells me March 1989

Drop Howard a note.  He's usually glad tohelp with dating their insruments.

She is sweet sounding and I am stoked. Also, she is large! and I am small so we will see.... I spent last night reading up on Rugg and Jackel, and I am curious about the possible year of manufacture. Can anyone (Howard?) comment? Thanks in advance

Lisa, I'm just going to repeat what other have said, but phrase it in a different way. 

Forget the strings.  Look at the grooves in the nut and bridge on your Mize.  Do they look the same as those of the Blue Lion?  If so, the instrument can be strung as a traditional 3 course dulcimer with either 3 strings or 4 (with a double melody string).  If not, then you may be correct that it can only be strung as a 4 equidistant instrument.  If that is the case, then you might consider replacing the nut and bridge rather than buying a new instrument.

Having said that, Blue Lions are wonderful instruments, and if you can get an affordable used one, you might want to do so.  I would only caution you that Blue Lions have a floating bridge, meaning it is not glued to instrument.  If it sounds off when you first play it, the bridge probably needs to be adjusted.  If you change the strings, do so one-at-a time so the bridge doesn't move.

Neat, congrats! Would love to see pics when you have time.

Lisa, I have owned a Mize and own two Blue Lions.  (I only sold the Mize because the tuning pegs were wooden and my aging hands couldn't manage them very well.)  To my knowledge, a Mize and a Blue Lion can be strung with 3 equidistant strings and it is a good way to begin learning to play mountain dulcimer.  

P.S.- Though it is rare to find an inexpensive Blue Lion, my first Blue Lion was bought used (yet in new condition) for far less than a new one cost.    

John and Ken have already given you good advice, however, I'm going to add another one or two. First, from the photo the Blue Lion looks to be in good condition. It can use a good cleaning, but that's not a problem. I play my Blue Lion as a three string as I prefer that to four strings in any configuration. Second, I'm sorry you've had bad experiences buying used dulcimers. It can be frustrating. Like Ken said, we can help talk you through replacing a nut and bridge if that is all that those dulcimers need. There are resources out there for playing with four equidistant strings, both books and videos. I do think that most of them (if not all) require some knowledge about how to play the dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."