Forum Activity for @marg

Hi there Silverstrings.  I own multiple Fellenbaum dulcimers and can tell you that he builds excellent well-crafted instruments. I do not find them wider or deeper than many other makers (I own quite a few dulcimers by different makers).  Also, I need to comment on the statement that an instrument's woods do not affect sound in any discernible way - that's not true. A wood's density and its age can have quite an effect on sound:

Effects on pitch: Lower-density woods absorb higher-frequency sound waves more than lower-frequency sound waves.

Effects due to reflection and resonance - softer woods absorb sound waves more than than harder woods do, and reflect less.

Effects due to age - as wood ages, internal sap hardens and hemicellulose degrades, which changes acoustical properties of any wood.

Can you hear these kinds of differences?  Many people can.  For a good demonstration, try listening to classical guitars.  Traditionally, classical guitars come with one of two woods for their tops - spruce or cedar.  It is very easy to find multiple examples of identical guitar models by a particular maker that differ *only* in the choice of tonewood for the top.  Listen to a bunch of these with cedar tops and compare them to those with spruce tops.  I'd be *very* surprised if you don't hear the difference between the two.

It is also true that the volume of the sound box and a host of other considerations *also* affect the sound of instruments. But it is incorrect to suggest that the woods used in their creation do not.

I doubt that banjo strings were used by early because of the sound they produced. My guess is that banjo strings were used because they had loop rather than ball ends (guitar strings). It was a matter of which type of string was easier to attach to the dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

There is nothing particularly special about 'banjo strings' vs 'dulcimer strings'... except in relation to their being offered in convenient pre-packaged sets. Banjo 'sets' are geared towards banjo scale length (generally 25"-30") and standard banjo tuning: gDGBD (the last D being an octave higher than the first D, equal to a dulcimer high d).

The reason old timers and older books mention using banjo strings is not because they thought banjo strings were better suited than dulcimer strings. Rather, it's simply because there didn't used to BE many places to buy pre-packaged sets of 'dulcimer strings' in those pre-1970s days, whereas banjo string sets have been around for a lot longer and were way easier to find in music stores. Old timers were resourceful and used whatever they could get their hands on. This was pre-internet- there were no websites to order strings from- you had to either go to a music store or order from a paper catalogue using stamps envelopes and sending checks. (and then "allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery", LOL)

The truly best approach is to use a string calculator (Strothers is the current best one online) and based on the VSL of YOUR dulcimer and the notes that YOU want to tune the strings to, select the gauges you'll need for that tuning. Then buy some separate steel strings (usually loop-end) from a site like juststrings .com. Have some extras on hand for breakage. If you have a typical sized dulcimer and simply want to use typical DAd or DAA type tunings, you can buy packets of dulcimer string 'sets' and it'll work just fine in most cases. It's convenient if you don't need anything out of the norm.

Commercial strings heavier than a certain gauge will more likely be wound, which you'll notice when ordering strings online. If you have your heart set on unwound heavy bass strings then you 'may' have to buy a spool of that heavy gauge music wire and cut/twist your own unwound bass strings. It depends on just how heavy the gauge is that you want. Personally, I found heavy unwound bass strings to really hurt my fingers when fretting, so I do use wound heavy bass strings on my banjos and dulcimers. If you always play with a noter this wouldn't matter.

As Dan said, there were old time builders who used banjo strings, but I don' think that that is the reason for the different sound.  There have always only been a literal handful of music wire manufacturerscubic inches under the hood" of many  and many string makers and brands.  Basically wire is wire. 

What does, from our own experience as Dan says, make a difference is the wound versus plain steel bass string.  That, even I can hear a difference in the sound.  That, IMHO is what helps produce that "high silvery" old time sound. 

Another factor, IMHO,  is the generally smaller interior volume "cubic inches under the hood" of many old time dulcimers compared to the deeper-bodied modern instruments.  Larger interior volumes emphasize  the baritone and bass tones.

I. D. Stamper used banjo strings on his 36 inch VSL pieces! I seem to recall Jean Ritchie making reference to using banjo strings in one of her books? (Page 17 in the Dulcimer Book) You will find a very different "timber" using a wound bass string verses the solid music wire. I guess it's going to be how "you" define old time sound, but yes very different between wound and plain string. (I use solid wire for most my pieces.)

Thank you again everyone for such incredible advice/information. I’ve now read this thread three times and I’m still learning!

I’m an admitted vintage mountain dulcimer collector/junkie and purist. I own a Homer Ledford, Edd Presnell, AW Jefferies, Clifford Glenn, Rugg CapriTaurus, Keith Young, George Orthey and a Bill Davis.

Also, I’m about 2 years in playing and collecting. I love players/makers like Richard Farina, Michael & Howard Rugg, Jerry Rockwell, Steven Seifert, Jean Ritchie, Joellen Lapidus and Neal Hellman.

I’m so fascinated by the beautiful sweet sound of a mountain dulcimer and the early high quality craftsmanship.

Ok, now with all that said I have a question for everyone…I once read that the older dulcimers used banjo strings to get the nice old sound.

I looked at a John Pearse set of (5) banjo strings. They’re  light/medium gauge .010, .012, .013, .20W, .010. I further read you can use the two .010 strings for the melody strings and .012. & .013 for others and set aside the.20W.

Does anyone have thoughts on using banjo strings verses dulcimer strings?

Thank you for reading. 

Welcome, Walt and Megan!  We look forward to answering your questions and helping you out where we can.

Hi all! I'm Megan, here from the Boston area. I've been playing for about a month now and have appreciated the information in these forums as well as the handful of welcome messages I've gotten already. Looking forward to chatting with folks. :)  

Sorry, I was just kidding about making it a month, but I did think it was interesting to list events going on in the month.

I agree with the approach of keeping it simple- go with our original name and designated day in March. Don't worry about what others may/may not be doing.
I agree with Robin's thoughts about it being a simple celebration that anyone can be part of from their own home in whatever way they can or would like to. Complicating things or broadening the scope only makes people not want to do anything themselves.

@steve-c Folks can do whatever they like.  Personally, I'm all for keeping a focus on a single day and leaving things as they are.  We are not an "official" group of any kind-- I think of it as whoever posts to celebrate on 26 March 2022 as an equal participant in the day.  For my part, I hope to keep up with responding to the posts of all who respond on IADD which I see here and which come down my Facebook feed.  For what it's worth, I saw no names with which I was familiar on the FB group you found.  

EDIT: I just looked at that International Mountain Dulcimer Players Day group on FB again.  It seems members were not posting their own music to celebrate the day but sharing the music of others.  At least that's what it looked like may have been the focus.          

FOTMD member @david-bennett is the one who maintains that heritage dulcimer material, and he provides links to the relevant pages in the Mountain Dulcimer History and Traditions Group.  I would encourage everyone to join that group and give that compelling stuff a read, not only in March but all year long.

Got it.  

Steve- I'm sorry but i had to delete a couple of your posts that were copied from another site. The formatting of the text, ads, headlines, and pictures was so gigantic that it screwed up the page here on fotmd. Plus run-on lines. It made everything here impossible to read and would also generate Google errors concerning posts with huge items or text that doesn't fit on a page. Try to not copy/paste chunks of content directly from other sites, thanks! 

Lots of Jean Ritchie and Ed Thomas history in March…

Today in Mountain Dulcimer History for March:

https://heritagedulcimers.wordpress.com/today-in-mountain-dulcimer-history/timdh-march/

@robin-thompson, Maybe if we have a couple of groups designating March for Dulcimer events we should make it International Appalachian Dulcimer Month?  

@steve-c, I looked and found International Mountain Dulcimer Players Day.  The page went up a year ago and the group has 90 members.  I appreciate your posting about it here and agree with you that it doesn't change anything with us.  For my part, I'm glad we have no Facebook page (nor website)-- we're all just friends spreading the word to all who'd like to participate in a grassroots celebration of the Appalachian dulcimer.    

I have found a Facebook page entitled international Mountain Dulcimer Players Day, March 9th.   I am not on Facebook so I don’t know if it is active or not…I don’t think it affects us, but wanted you all to know.

If you are on messenger you could send a flyer for IADD to your dulcimer friends….just saying…🥴

Welcome to FOTMD, @walt!  

Hi, everyone new here from Hampton Va

Neat, Dusty!  Count me as in line to order a sticker.  Or two.   

OK, here's the latest version using @leo-kretzner's photo.  I had some square stickers made of something else a while back, and I as soon as I can get a discounted rate, I'll have some of these printed up.

 square IADD with yellow letters.jpg - 138KB

That's a wonderful photo of Jean Ritchie with Bess Cronin, Val @macaodha !  I've tried to find out whether it is under copyright yet no luck.  The idea of Jean introducing the Appalachian dulcimer to Ireland is such a lovely thought-- the first (or one of the earliest) steps in the instrument being introduced internationally.  

We should be careful about using photographs taken by other people. For example, many of the nicer photos of Jean Ritchie were taken by her photographer husband George Pickow, and of course the family owns the rights to them.

I love my John Stockard!

Yes, Leo, the other photo is one of my own.  It's a John Stockard baritone.

Dusty, I don't recognize the dulcimer in your 'another potential sticker' mock-up. That photo is from elsewhere, isn't it? Very distinctive sound holes and nice details - who made that one? 

For what it's worth, the heart motif is SO much associated with dulcimers and the older dulcimers especially, a photo that includes hearts in the design would seem very appropriate. 

I have a beautiful photo of Jean playing dulcimer in the kitchen of Bess Cronin, having difficulty posting this picture. 1952 possibly the first time a mountain dulcimer was ever seen or heard in Ireland. 

The dulcimer is by James Tranthum of Canton, NC. Photo taken in the mid-80s.

I've got a number of photos of dulcimers with this sort of 'heart-modified f-hole,' each by different makers, but the smaller hearts on the fretboard mark that dulcimer as J Tranthum's. While MD sound hole design is delightfully all over the map, this is perhaps a popular sub-type. See also Force and d'Ossche, for example. 

Here's another potential sticker.  Still playing around with the possibilities.

 IADD on Stockard with red lettering.jpg - 121KB

Leo, I stole the image from among your soundhole photos,  It was made by James A. Tranthum.

I changed the coloring and some other details, but it was pretty red in your original.

Very keen eye, Robin! It does look like a dulcimer I've photographed, but I don't own the instrument. Fine with me for it to be used. Let me look and see what info, if any, I've got on that photo - in particular, who made the dulcimer! 

I like it!  

Yeah, we should probably get @leo-kretzner's permission before we start circulating that pic.  I'm trying to come up with something that can easily be made into a sticker or slapped onto a website.

Is that image meant to be shared, @dusty-turtle?  (I think I recognize that instrument as being one owned by @leo-kretzner .  I've admired it before.) 

It's good to know word is getting out there!   Here's another simple image some folks might like.

I saw this, posted by Dulcimer Society of Dayton  on FB, this morning. Word is getting out.

 dulcimer day.png - 1.1MB