Looks beautiful, Dave! I love those custom soundholes and the wood choices! Clearly a lot of care went into your design and I'm glad Ron brought it to life for you.
As far as I know, there were folks from 5 or 6 different countries who participated in IADD-- yay! It has been a joy to see so many deriving joy from playing Appalachian dulcimers.
Beautiful and a great honor to your mom. Priceless!
I'm thinking about doing something special with another builder, to honor my dad and the farm property where we live and produce Maple Syrup, which was settled in 1889 (I'm 4th generation and only descendent living here). My dad died last year at 86 too.
Well, Friends. After a short wait, it finally came yesterday. Ron Gibson built me this beautiful instrument. She's a six string Chromatic, with a Birds eye maple top and walnut sides and back. The fret board is Birdseye maple and walnut, with Grover tuners. She's also a little deeper than normal as well, and she has a beautiful voice, I could not be happier!
The sound holes are special as well. Back in October I lost my Mother, she was, as Jimmy Buffet says "86 years of perpetual motion", a single Mom of three at 30, she went on to become one of the first female sheriff officers in Morristown NJ, became the first female detective, after her retirement, became involved with the International Association of Women Police, and was awarded their highest honor at Faneuil Hall in Boston. When she retired to Deer Isle in Maine, she spoke often about two things her beloved dog, Bear and her home, which has four iconic pine trees lining her driveway.
I'd been looking for a way to honor her, she loved my music, so I contacted Ron with my idea and I think he executed it flawlessly. Thank you Ron for helping me honor my Mother and challenging me with something new. If you're thinking about having one built, I can't recommend Ron enough. His experience, craftsmanship and passion for these fine instruments are reflected in his work.
Thank you for allowing me to prattle on. Now I have to go build a stand...
Dave
So I put the new steel strings on the banjammer and it sounds GREAT! I did have to adjust the bridge a bit but it was easy.
I wouldn't have had the confidence to tackle this without the feedback here….Thanks again!
Well done everybody! Greatly enjoyed the videos.
@macaodha Val, I hope you had opportunity to make music to celebrate International Appalachian Dulcimer Day!
Best wishes to all on this International Appalachian Dulcimer Day.
Wow, @dusty-turtle you had a great group for IADD! And your cover of Lucinda Williams's Lake Charles is so good!
@slate-creek-dulcimers Your Hand to the Plow is just right on that pretty instrument you made! And your singing sounds old (you know I mean that in a good way).
@steve-c So good you could share the good word of the joy of Appalachian dulcimer music-making!
It was so fun to wake up here on the west coast and find so many people had already been posting such good music on the first ever IADD. Thanks @robin-thompson, @ariane, @gordon-hardy, and @slate-creek-dulcimers, for sharing good tunes on our favorite instrument.
My online dulcimer club met today. We were over 20, and several mentioned that they had already posted something for IADD. We played 5 songs together: Green Grow the Lilacs, Harlequein Air, Marche Nuptiale, Rickett's Hornpipe, and Southwind.
And separately I also posted a cover of a Lucinda Williams tune: Lake Charles .
Here's a screen shot one of the participants sent me:
Just finished playing dulcimer at our local antique store. Introduced the dulcimer to people wha have never met her…😊
Yes- the v is 'down'. The v^ is down,up. By 'down' I mean the dominant direction that you tend to strum in- some folks strum inwards towards their body on major notes, others have an outwards dominant direction, away from their bodies. Thus, my v means your dominant direction strum. Easy to think of it as 'down', while the ^ is strummed as you go in the return direction of the strum. For more on this, use the blog's right lower keyword search feature and choose 'strumming' for various posts on strumming tips.
Are the little v and upside down v another way of saying down up down
All good suggestions. I am interested to hear how you replace this tuning pin. Like others here in over forty years of working with autoharps and hammered dulcimers I've never seen that happen to a pin.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a new song."
This is good music folks! Thanks for sharing you talent on IADD.
Ken
"The dulcimer (and its players) sing a sweet song."
On reflection, a screw driver bit on a 1/4" socket wrench would allow greater downward pressure and torque than any regular screw driver. An extension would help, too.
How I enjoy seeing music from lovers of the Appalachian dulcimer from places near and far! Wonderful music, friends!
To mark International Appalachian Dulcimer Day here is my version of The Leaving Shanty
It looks to me that the string hole is now more-or-less a slot. First, I'd try using a screw driver, but not really expecting that to work.
My second try would be to deepen the slot with a saw and files. This would require removing other strings and maybe some pins. I think that would require less skill than drilling for a screw extractor.
It also looks to me like the string hole in the broken pin might have been off-center. I would also be concerned about the variation between notes in the string windings.
If the pin holes do not go all the way through the wood, some may have bottomed out. The pins may not have been backed out enough before winding on the new strings.
In celebration of the today's #internationalappalachiandulcimerday please find my original composition called "Waltzing in the Appalachians" - I would be happy if you enjoyed it (best listened to it with headphones).
The journey with this special musical instrument started for me in 2018 - and the magic is not only its sweet sound and beautiful look but also all the very kind dulcimer players one can meet all over the world 
Happy dulcimering!
Ariane
So happy you are enjoying it!
There are many beautiful and plaintive tunes in DAC tuning (Aeolian mode). They are so easy to play in drone style when in the proper tuning.
Here are a couple other DAC/Aeolian tab posts from my blog if you like to explore more:
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-is-another-old-ballad-in-aeolian.html
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/03/black-is-color.html
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/07/wedding-dress-my-little-doney-gal.html
Dear Robin and Mark - I enjoy your wonderful music so very much! 
(...and what a nice t-shirt you are wearing, Robin 
You're right, John. I was seeing shadow, rather than shaft sticking up. A small or needlenose vicegrip pliers should do the job... It will take a lot of turns to get it out, but patience will be rewarded as they say.
Friends, it's International Appalachian Dulcimer Day! I wish you all peace and joy and lots of happy strumming!
There is enough of the pin sticvking out of the hole that you can unscrew it. I would use a pair of locking pliers, such as Vice-grip pliers, clamped onto the pin from above. Gently twist the pier handle counter-clockwise to unscrew the pin. Don't rock the pliers back and forth and there should be no damage to the hole. That is a very strange break. It will probably never hppen to you again.
My oh my oh my! That Shady Grove in DAC is beautiful!
@ken-hulme it appears to be a chorded zither (autoharp). It is surprising to see a steel pin shear that way!
Is that a Hammered Dulcimer? In some decades of messing about with dulcimers I've never seen a steel pin shear like that. Wooden pegs, yes, but not autoharp pins!
The tuning pins are threaded into the wood of course. There are "screw extractors" which you can purchase to aid in the removal. Basically, you'll have to use a tiny drill bit to drill down into the broken tuning pin, insert the the screw extractor (which IIRC has threads reverse to normal), then unscrew the pin using the extractor. Do an internet search on 'how to extract a broken screw".
Hey Carolyn, the standard for fret numbers with a capo on a dulcimer is that all the frets retain their original number except for the one with the capo. So if you capo at 1, that capo-ed fret is referred to as 0, but the next one up is 2 and then 3. If you capo at 4, that fourth fret becomes 0 and the next one up is 5 and then 6.
This is different than guitars and banjos, which causes a lot of confusion. At least it did for me when I first started on the dulcimer.
I'm experimenting with my capo. I'm looking at my chords, and realized, of course, that with no open strings, the chord doesn't change with the capo. I'm not used to playing that much in minor keys (with their chords) but I'm trying to figure a couple out. I have a couple pieces of tab to help me on my way. But I am a little confused. Looking at a piece from Bing Futch, (Star of the County Down) he has 000 as the open strum. Ok, no fretting. But then when the G chord/note is used, it's 333. Counting the capoed fret as zero would make it 222. Is that standard? Once you get up past the capo, to just go back to normal tab notation? The other piece of tab is Sally in the Garden, (arr by Allen Macfarland) who seems to be doing the same thing.
So is that the way I should expect tab to be? I figure I'll mostly be playing by ear and with a bit of musical notation, but I want to get all my potential tools figured out.
Replacing all my strings. Just broke off one of my tuning pegs. Has this happen to anyone? How do I remove the piece without damaging the hole?
It's so cool that this is taking off. Tull Glazener will be posting as well and just sent out an email with @steve-c's poster and offering tab for an original composition, available only on IADD!
That's a wonderful idea and I have just finished my recording for tomorrow 
Yes- thank you Dusty! My coffee had not kicked in yet when i wrote that. lolol Will correct my post.
@Strumelia, don't you mean Suzette should tune to DAC? Your link mentions "aeolian," after all.
Friends, this is a free virtual fest sponsored by Troublesome Creek Instruments in Hindman. I've signed up and look forward to this event. I'm not in any way connected to the organization of the fest so share it here in a discussion thread in case any of y'all may have interest.
https://troublesomecreekguitars.com/2022-hindman-dulcimer-homecoming/
