Forum Activity for @steven-berger

There's nothing like a fretless gourd or wood-shell banjo, strung with gut or nylon strings, with a natural skin head, to make the world go 'round!

Have you ever found any picks that were as nice as a finger?  After working on this 50 yr. old dulcimer & tuning it as a Baritone,  I find my finger strumming down sounds the nicest - any pick ideas?

Ken, many factors contribute to a unique sound from every banjo. Pot material does actually make quite a difference, as do different types of wood. I have a friend who made an entire banjo out of ebony. It was a thing of beauty and extremely heavy. But sadly, it sounded way too quiet and not resonant at all, because of the denseness of the ebony, which would not transmit sound vibrations at all.

My husband has 5 old (mainly '20s + a 19th c.) banjos.  That keeps him from complaining about my "Folk Instrument Petting Zoo" including several dulcimers.  He definitely agrees about the pots, pointing to cigar box & a ham can as proof.  Skins certainly make the difference.  His oldest has a goat skin head & gut strings.  He says that combination makes a big difference.

He's not been at all tempted by gourds (thank heavens!), but we know a fellow, Tim Twiss, who loves fretless gourd banjos for reenacting & just plain enjoyment.

Hi.  Once when I was playing a small banjo concert in the mountains--I also played a couple tunes on my mountain dulcimer. I demonstrated several different banjos too--I think the cello banjo, my fancy mermaild Deering, the John Bowland 1865 Fretless & the John Hartford with the grenadilla tone ring.  A lady rushed up at the end and gushed--I love all your banjos--but I love that all wood banjo the best.  (mountain dulcimer)  maryzcox.com

I love Jeff Menzies instruments!  If I were going to play banjo it would be one of his... 

I believe, but could be wrong, that the material a banjo pot is made of makes little measurable difference in the sound produced. 

Granted, a Leggo(tm) rim or PVC pot will probably sound different than a wooden or gourd pot.  But I doubt you'd get any measurable difference between say Walnut, Birch, laminated exotic woods, or bamboo.  After all, the primary sound producer is the vibrating head.  I can understand big differences in sound between a skin head of various origins and a "plastic" skin.

@don-smith , i too think banjos can be made successfully out of most hard woods. If you have a chance look up stuff about banjo maker Jeff Menzies - he moved to Jamaica years ago and while living there he used all kinds exotic woods to make gourd banjos... whatever wood was available from trees that fell or discarded local wood. His banjos sound wonderful. I loooove gourd banjos, but I only have one, made by Jeff.

I know this is an older post but figured I would add myself to the Banjo player

Banjo's are my addiction I have three and having a fourth built by a local Luthier I am also in the process of building several Gourd Banjo's for my kids and grand children the first banjo I ever purchased was a resonator banjo and it did not take me long to figure out I had no desire to lug around a 14-17 pound banjo and I had no desire to learn to play bluegrass style i have never been able to get accustomed to having picks on my thumb and fingers,  even though I do love bluegrass music, I play claw hammer style, i am also infatuated with different bridges and how different bridges can have a huge impact on the way a banjo sounds it is an experiment i feel anyone that plays a banjo should perform at some point just to see how different bridges and different woods can affect the tone,volume, how clear and clean notes sound up and down the neck with different bridges and different woods in bridges 

I think more out of the box when it comes to different woods for banjo builds than most and believe there is more than just maple,black walnut, cherry,mahogany, and oak that a banjo can be built with and the way i look at it is if someone can take a danged old gourd and make a banjo and an actual really great sounding banjo from them in a lot of cases it tells me that any good hard wood will work and there are a lot of exotic woods that i believe could be used to make a great playing and sounding banjo

Looks nice!

Looks mighty good. Congrats on your good work and learning experience.

@marg Way cool!  Your dulcimer work looks great!  

After spending time working on this 50 year old 'Sears' Christmas Dulcimer. Not knowing what I was doing, I learned a lot as I worked on the gears, knobs (I ended up getting longer screws & a nut for the gears & new black banjo knobs), nut & bridge (glued in & split), strings & a floating bridge up by the bridge to help the tuning up the fretboard - After much experimenting I have it tuned as a Baritone and it sounds lovely. After many tries, a $20. old broken red dulcimer with it's repairs & decorations has a new life and I think it's priceless

Thanks for everyone's help 

 black knobs red dulcimer1.jpg - 519KB

That's great, hope you enjoy it!

It sure is a pretty thing, Richard! 

 A picture of a new dulcimore beautifully crafted by Dulcimore Dan. This is his Dulcimore model.

Poplar body with cherry stapleboard, tuning pegs, headstock and tail block. Traditional with staple frets, fiddle edges, no extra frets, set up and tuned Gdd. A real beauty to the eye and to the ear.

If they ever develop a vaccine for Dulcimer Acquisition Disorder, I'll refuse to take it.

 Dulcimore by Dulcimore Dan.jpg - 63KB

¡Muchas gracias, amigo!
¡Acabo de disfrutar de un delicioso chile relleno después de la iglesia!

Es muy bueno, Juan!

Maple is so beautiful, nice instrument. She should love it!

Another great build, John!  Bravo!

I think she's going to love it, John-- it looks great!  

que bella!

A new maple Galax dulcimore, built for a lady in Vancouver, Washington.

 maple galax july 21 001.JPG - 337KB

Is it "wise" to replace the McSpad friction tuners with Whittner pegs?  Probably.  There are other "planetary tuners which look more traditional -- Perfection and Knilling.  Geared pegs will not affect how the instrument sounds.   

One thing to know is that the McSpadden tuning shaft holes are parallel, not tapered, and the Whittner pegs are tapered.  For proper fit and function you should reame the holes with a standard 1:30 tapered instrument reamer.

The Whittner website WITTNER® - Finetune-Pegs, Made in Germany (wittner-gmbh.de) gives you the necessary tech specs for each of their models.  At a glance it appears that their models for 4/4 and 3/4 violins are the size you'll want.   Similar information is available for Perfection and Knilling planetary tuners of course.

I acquired a 1973 Mc Spadden M12 it has non-geared tuners where the tuning tension is adjusted by tightening or losing a screw the the knob.  I find these tuners difficult to use.

  My brother gave me a junk shop find three string and no 6 1/2 fret hourglass dulcimer with a broken and repaired by splint head.  It had wooden pegs which were a difficult to use.  I replaced them with Whittner finetune pegs.  They work very well and very easy to install.  The dulcimer sounds very good (as good or better than the McSpadden - I tune CGg), and has a label inside "MADE ESPECIALLY FOR JOANNE M.   WITH LOVE AND CARE MICHAEL".  I have no idea who Joanne or Michael are but the dulcimer was found in Minnesota.

Now to my question - Is it wise to replace the tuners on the Mc Spadden with Whittner tuners and if so what size should I use, the peg hole is about 8.27mm.  Also the McSpadden does not sound bad but not as good as I thought it would.  It may be me, the tuning, my playing noter style using my fingers or are there some other recommended changes.

Jim

I'm very happy Don! 

Strumelia thank you so much i looked at the links you provided and I think they are going to be a tremendous help to me I book marked your blog and will use it to teach my wife

such helpful souls on this site i only wish some of the other forums would follow suit in some ways my journey learning to play mandolin and banjo may not have been quite as hard

@don-smith I send all good wishes to your Robbin and to you!  

The links Strumelia provided, links to her noter/drone blog, can be of great help on yours and Robbin's mountain dulcimer journey.  

@don-smith , maybe the first, simplest beginner tunes from my noter/drone players Blog would help:

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-player.html

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/02/dulcimer-land.html

Wishing you and your wife all the best...

Thanks Robin its funny my wife's name is Robbin she was diagnosed with dementia in 2011 and we have been dealing with it ever since she was also hit by a hit and run driver in april 2019 which increased her dementia 10 fold it try to play her music every day on my mandolins or banjo just to keep her smiling I had never seen or heard a dulcimer before and something told me to read up on them while reading about them I thought that would be a great instrument to try to teach her and keep her mind working 

@don-smith I lived with my folks for some years because my dad had dementia.  And sometimes, I just had a hard time thinking.  Still do.    

well i could do that but sometimes i have a hard time expressing myself

Rather than clicking a button, Don, why not take a few extra seconds to tell a poster what it is you like about their post.  That's one thing that frustrated the heck out of me on Facebook -- likes.  Tell me what you like!!

Welcome to FOTMD Greg. Like the others, looking forward to seeing how your project turns out. Sounds like you've got some good hands. Should be a great instrument.

@glp1958 Good to have you here, Greg!  Have fun building your mountain dulcimer!   

I grew up right close to US 23 and not far from the mighty Scioto River in Central Ohio.  Friday nights and Sunday nights always saw lots of traffic on Route 23-- headed south on Friday nights and headed north on Sundays.   

Good luck with your build, @glp1958. Make sure you join the Dulcimer Making Group , for folks there will have lots of advice for every stage of the project.  Some of that advice might even be helpful!

Hi there friends and neighbors!  My name is Greg Pennell, and I live just south of Pikeville, Kentucky, alongside US Highway 23 (The Country Music Highway). I’m a retired US Army First Sergeant (combat engineer), with over 22 years active duty service.  

I have always been a crafter, growing up helping my grandfather and dad in their cabinet shop. Currently I build flintlock longrifles from scratch, do leatherwork, weave straps on a homemade Inkle loom, and make powderhorns and all the accoutrements necessary for shooting my flintlocks. 

I've always been interested in the arts and crafts of these Appalachian Mountains, and have finally worked my way around to mountain dulcimers. While I’ve made a few cigar box guitars, and one “real” six string electric, one thing I’m not is a musician. I hope to change that before too long!

My first dulcimer is currently in the planning phase…I’ve ordered hardware, and have a nice piece of curly maple that was given to me by a late, dear friend.  I’ll probably cut out the peg head and tail block today, and start carving the scroll on the peg head. Wish me luck!

Glad I found you folks!

Greg

Dusty, that sounds like a super fun time!

i do realize what i stated would be tapered holes i have to deal with them when i build my gourd banjos

ok now that's a little clearer i was not sure if you were talking about friction pegs or what i do not know what the size of your new tuning machines are but i do know most banjo tuning machine require a 3/8 inch hole to mount them on the banjo not sure about uke tuning machines

Yes, it's a bit different, and certainly quite different than Facebook too.