Forum Activity for @marg

Good suggestion Strumelia,  will think about it but don't want to sand a bit more then I should, no redo on the holes. I know about sanding a little at a time, I just did that with the nut and bridge. It's through this site I even knew to use the hair dryer to loosen 50 yr. old glue holding them both. 

Thanks Richard but I don't want to ship the dulcimer, it's not worth the expense but makes a good dulcimer for learning how to repair problems.

You are right Don, learning on my own as I try things out would come with risk of creating a hole to large - planning on going slow and not trying anything I am not ready for. As far as hammering - was not talking about the buttons, they are not a problem but tapping the new gear in - which I decided against. 

Thanks all for the suggestions

BTW you can 'like' a discussion or a photo or a video etc, but you cannot 'like' an individual post in a discussion.
Thus, you will see the green Thumbs Up button at the lower left corner of this discussion (to like the discussion), but you won't see a Like button on Skip's individual post, for example.

I am a banjo player but the @marg your question has confused me

I know on banjos friction pegs you can use a hole reamer and peg shaver to adjust the size of the pegs or adjust the size of the peg head holes either you have to be careful as you can get to big of a hole or to small of a peg

if you are talking about just the buttons on the tuning pegs they are not all the same and no I would not take a hammer and beat the buttons on as they will literally shatter

Lower left corner of the post is a thumbs up icon.

Can someone tell me how to like someones response or someone post I have serarched everwhere and I am just not seeing it and I do know there has to be a way to because i see things that say so and so liked something

Some banjo players have successfully enlarged a pegbox hole that was 'a hair' too small by wrapping some fine sandpaper around a pencil and carefully working it back and forth in the hole a little at a time. That would certainly be an option with a dulcimer that is not terribly valuable, and for holes that 'almost' fit your new tuner shafts.

One of the builders on this site might be willing to fix the holes so the new tuning machines will work. Would involve shipping dulcimer and tuning machines and waiting to get it back.

In 2015 I purchase just the buttons (Banjo tuner buttons), they worked fine.

I tried replacing the whole tuner set since I can't keep the tuning from slipping & wanted black buttons.

The new tuners (Uke pegs) do not fit in the wooden hole, they are just a hair too large.  I can't find a shop near me that carries banjo or Uke peg sets, so I thought the Uke ones would work. they don't & not sure if the Banjo ones would or not, so after mixing the the new shaft & black button with the old gear, I'm back to the way it was & the new Uke set is off on the side.

I thought about using violin peg compound on the gears - would that help in holding the tuning or just gum up the hole?

  Running in circles & getting no where other then learning about repair work. I also took the old bridge & nut out (50 years of glue & dirt) and replaced it with new ones, I sanded to fit - good job on that but it took time using hair dryer, mat knife, pliers. & & & 

I'm confused about what you mean:

Did you buy a complete new set of geared tuners, or just the plastic buttons?

Are you trying to replace the whole tuner, or just the plastic buttons?

Is it the buttons that don't fit on the existing tuners?... or the whole new tuner shaft that doesn't fit in the wooden hole?

(rectangular shaft has 2 flat and 2 rounded sides)

The banjo button fit these shafts, does that mean the older tuners are banjo geared tuners or just geared tuners? the Uke tuners are round all around, not 2 flat sides

Thanks Strumelia for your help

My mistake, i did not examin the photo well- those older tuners are not 'planet' or plantetary tuners, they are regular geared tuners.

If you can't see a brand ID on the old tuners, the way i see it is you have two choices: 1) carefully ream the existing holes so that the tuners you just bought will fit,  2) try to find a website that describes various uke tuner shaft sizes, and 3) get an exact measurement of the existing holes diameter so you can look for tuners with the right size shafts to fit the existing holes.

For a dulcimer that is not greatly valuable, i would suggest option #1.  Just my own thoughts.  :)

(amber buttons are very good quality banjo planetary tuners)

The amber buttons (amber, vintage oval shape) were old and brittle and I replaced the buttons years ago (2015) with banjo buttons. Now I need to replace the tuners - can't hold the string tension - slips

The rectangular shaft has 2 flat and 2 rounded sides, does this mean it's banjo pegs & not Uke pegs?

Are all banjo pegs the same size or how do I order ones to fit the holes in the dulcimer?

Those amber buttons are very good quality banjo planetary tuners, that's all I know.

Seems I had replace the buttons before with maybe banjo buttons someone on here had suggested years & years ago, not a Uke peg set but wanted to try a new peg set to hold the string tuning better. I thought the Uke peg set would work & almost did. I found my old photos of the old buttons and the pegs that came with the dulcimer. 

 side view.jpg - 104KB

 6B BlackButton Ukulele Pegs -

 red dulcimer pegs.jpg - 376KB

Fig preserves? sounds wonderful!!  No fig trees here... too cold! 

Lisa, congratulations on your weight loss. IMO, a little bit along is better for your health than a sudden gigantic loss.

 It’s blueberry time at your place, and figs at my place.  In another 2 weeks my daughter will make enough fig preserves to last our whole big family another year.  

Also, hello there.  👋

Yay, I picked the first pint of the year of our own blueberries yesterday. They didn't give much last year (I had pruned them severely the year before that) but this year looks like a good crop again. They give berries for about three to four weeks. It's a wonderful thing to look forward to. I just had a bowl of yogurt with our blueberries and a cut up nectarine and a tablespoon of chia seed for good measure.  :)

I've been following a new diet over the past 7 weeks so far, to try and lose weight. (I need to lose 30 pounds total)
Portion control and 'will power' are not things that work for me. I've been doing something I've never tried before- actually counting calories. An app on my iphone makes it pretty easy to do... far easier than laboriously logging in old notebooks and looking everything up in books or charts.

so... in seven weeks I've now lost seven pounds. I'm sort of surprised it's working as well as it has been, and the best part is I don't feel terribly hungry, because I now know things I can eat that have fewer calories but i really like- to snack on when i'm antsy for something. I do have days when I don't bother counting at all, like when we have guests over or some fancy meal that's hard to figure out. It's educating me a whole lot about what foods and choices have high or low calories. That means that eventually i should have a much better sense of how to eat so I don't gain back weight in the future, even without using the app.

It does take some effort and dedication, but it's showing me I don't have to actually 'suffer' to lose weight. That's encouraging! 

Cool, Dusty! 

I put new strings on the Guild 6-string last night, all in preparation for today's Pick - N - Jam, an annual party in which people pick wild berries (mostly blackberries this time of year) and then gather at an old farmhouse to make jam. While the jam is cooking, we take out our instruments and pick and jam some more.  I'll be bringing my dulcimer and my guitar.  This event was canceled last summer, but this year anyone vaccinated was invited to come.  So grab your dulcimer and your copy of Rise Up Singing and come on down!

I'm saddened beyond words.  I was looking at his cd's in the rack day before yesterday and was fussing at myself for not keeping in touch with him.  He was a wonderful musician and singer and a great encourager to me. I miss him already.

I've admired John's dulcimer playing and .singing for many years. Found him to be very encouraging and helpful. RIP John. 

I'm so very, very sad to hear of John's passing. What a wonderful musician and dulcimer player he was, and he helped so many people to find joy in making music.

There are 18 truly beautiful music clips that John posted here on FOTMD over the years. I do hope that folks will have a listen to them on John's fotmd page, here:

https://fotmd.com/john-shaw/

And if you care to, leave a message on John's fotmd profile page Comment Wall while you are on his page.
Farewell to a fine and kind person, and amazing musician.

I'm so surprised at this sad news!  I didn't really know John, but I corresponded with him when I built his electric dulcimer a few years ago.  He seemed to be a wonderful dulcimer friend and player.

That's sad news, Geoff.  John used to be pretty active here online, although not so much in recent years.

He once posted a version of the old country blues Leaving Home that showed me the range of material that could be played on the dulcimer.

Please share our condolences with Angela and make sure she knows that even those of us who never met John in person thought very highly of him as well.

I am shocked and saddened by John's death.  John was such a fine player and a gentleman!  He encouraged me on my mountain dulcimer journey and I am grateful to him for doing so.

Thank you, @geoff-black, for letting us know here at FOTMD and for including these wonderful photos.  I offer my deepest sympathy to John's wife, Angela, and to you & all who knew John.

I'm sad to report the sudden death of John Shaw, a fabulous MD player with many friends on both sides of the Atlantic.  He was a mentor to so many of us in the UK when we started playing, and his superb dulcimer arrangements of such a wide range of fascinating music will constitute a major legacy for the international dulcimer community.  John taught at many UK festivals and even a few years back toured venues on the US East Coast.  His smooth, melodic and unfussy style of playing, such a positive influence on so many new players, was another major legacy.  He was also an excellent singer and performer, and a longstanding member and one time Chair of the UK Nonsuch Dulcimer Society.  His wife Angela would like the FOTMD community in particular to know that he thought very highly of you all.  In turn, I'm sure you will miss him as we all do over here.  Geoff Black

 John Shaw Bio Pic (Rdcd).jpg - 208KB

I did see that photo of a Geoffrey Johnson at Hughes Dulcimer Co, circa 1974.  I'd need to do some more digging to see if it's the same person though.

This image purports to show a Geoffrey Johnson of Hughes Dulcimer Company in 1974.  Not sure if it's the same Geoffrey Johnson.  I'm sure @ken-hulme can tell us about Hughes.

Sorry -- never heard of Geoffrey R Johnson as a builder.  BUT.  I did some surfing... and it appears that Mr Johnson is (or was) from the Fort Worth, TX area.  There's a YouTube vid of him at a Fort Worth Main Street Arts Fair in 2009.   I also discovered several other of his dulcimers for sale...

Okay team, I thank you for your quick responses and I have to apologize.  After I posted my query I decided to look over my mysterious dulcimer a lot more closely.  I got a flashlight and a mirror to see if and what kind of internal bracing was inside and low and behold, I find a stick (handwritten) that says Geoffrey R Johnson, March 1994.  I got on the internet and found some info on this guy and his dulcimers including one for sell somewhere that is almost exactly the same as the one my wife bought.  So is Geoffrey R Johnson gone underground?

Same here, John.  It looks like it can't decide whether it's an hourglass or  what.   I've seen a lot of those elements -- the extended tail block (although never one that extended) , same with the fretboard extending a little beyond the body and the through-body string holders. The tuners appear to be brass, and have come from some other instrument.

That's not a terribly long "overall" length, which is something we mostly don't worry about.  What is the VSL?  That's the important number.

I don't think those tuning shafts are extra long, but the sidewalls of the tuning head are very thick, and the slot between the sides seems very narrow -- so the ends of the shafts extend into the opposite side walls.  

Definitely not a kit, IMHO, this appears to be someone's personal interpretation of what a dulcimer should be.

@dusty-turtle I'm glad to see Joellen getting notice, too!  In my view, her Pelican Ballet cd is one of the best recordings in my mountain dulcimer collection-- and I have lots of cd's in the collection.  And her mountain dulcimers are works of art.    

Rob, I've seen lots of different kinds of dulcimers and dulcimores, but I've never seen one like yours!

Thanks for sharing that, @robin-thompson.  I certainly believe the match between the personal expressiveness of Joni's songs on Blue and the minimalist approach of her dulcimer is what defines the album.

It's nice to see Joellen getting some publicity.  I wish she still sold her dulcimers for $200!

A couple of years ago my wife (who was working part-time at an antique store in Beatrice, Nebraska) found this dulcimer at the store and of course she had to buy it.  There are no manufacturer's marks so I'm guessing it's a home made/kit dulcimer.  It has no 6 1/2 fret and is really long 42 inches, tip to tip (it doesn't quit fit into a standard dulcimer bag.)  It's unusual at least to me in that it has such long extensions for the tuning machines and the string end has thru the body holes.

Anyone ever seen anything like this before?

 Dulcimer 1.jpg - 226KB

https://www.cbc.ca/music/50-years-ago-joni-mitchell-introduced-many-of-us-to-the-sounds-of-the-dulcimer-1.6066838

Here's another for your list, Dusty: Stringed Bagpipe

Read the list.

My favorites are

Hog Fiddle and Harmony Box

@don-grundy So glad you were able to make music outdoors!