Forum Activity for @steven-berger

I have:

All poplar Tennessee Music Box (with checkerboard on back) by John Knopf

All poplar Will Singleton by John Knopf

All poplar J E Thomas (painted black) by John Knopf

Black walnut/butternut top Boar by Bobby Ratliff

Various woods kit by Bobby Ratliff

All wormy poplar Betty by Dan Cox (came with wormy poplar coffin case)

All cherry custom by Johnny Pledger

All black walnut by Johnny Pledger

All hickory teardrop by Folkcraft

All sycamore 5-string by Bill Berg

Padauk/spruce/maple Strumstick by Bob McNally

I also have:  SJ100+  Jumbo guitar by Gibson,  WL-250 banjo by Gold Tone, Tackhead banjo by Eric Prust, Mountain banjo by Jon Peterson, Mountain banjo by Nate Calkins, Gourd banjo by Barry Sholder, Nickel-plated brass resophonic guitar by OMI, Copper-plated/engraved Tricone resophonic guitar by Republic, Boxcar resophonic guitar by Gretsch, Weathered steel Style-O resophonic guitar by National Resophonic, Swan concertina by McNeela, a couple of harmonicas, a kalimba, 3 Civil War era fifes, and a Civil War era tin whistle.

Whew! L think that's it!

@susie Do tell!

I'm going to have a new little one in the family on Wednesday.

If you check some online companies you may be able to specify shipping in a small package by USPS and hopefully the parcel will fit in your mailbox which I assume is secure.

Hi @natebuildstoys.  I never buy packaged string sets for my dulcimers.  I buy single strings, although for some gauges that I use a lot, I buy them in bulk through JustStrings.com or Folkcraft.

But the first step is to figure out what gauge strings you like.  I prefer strings a little heavier than most, tuning DAd, I use .026 bronze wound for the bass, .016 for the middle, and .013 for the melody.  I think .024, .014, and .012 is probably more standard.

Once you figure out what gauges strings you want, just buy them as singles at any local music store. You only have to specify whether you want ball end or loop end.

And yes, the string gauge calculators err on the light side. But once you know that, and once you've developed your own preferences, you can still use the calculator, making the necessary adjustments.

Your bridge might have to be adjusted slightly depending on string gauges. But if the intonation seems OK, don't worry about it.  On my dulcimers with moveable bridges, I tend to check the bridge placement periodically, as in whenever I put on a new set of strings or perhaps before a performance.

I don't think I have accumulated dulcimers.  But I leave them alone at night and they reproduce.

I have three dulcimers. 

1) A 26” VSL McSpadden dulcimer made of redwood and black walnut with a micarta fretboard.

2) A 26” VSL McSpadden dulcimer made of black walnut with extra 1-1/2 and 8-1/2 frets. This one also has a micarta fretboard.

3) A Black Mountain Deluxe 58 dulcimer made of redwood and cherry. It has a rosewood fretboard with a 25.88” VSL.

I love and play them all frequently. Each dulcimer has a different sound.

Hello all. I go through a lot of dulcimer strings, and because my apartment is very prone to package theives I cannot order them online, so I am limited to what is locally available.

For a while, I would always just buy packs of Mandolin strings, since they only cost a couple dollars more than a pack of dulcimer strings, and come with spares since there are two of each. They come with two 11s, 15s, and 26s. The only issue is due to the construction of some on my newer dulcimers they are not long enough.

Packs of dulcimer strings are very frustrating, and always seem to be insanely light gauge. A pack of martin dulcimer strings marketed for Dadd provide a 12 for the A string! Even if i tune the whole thing up to Ebee, the B string is still insanely wimpy, and tuned to Cgcc it's basically inaudible. My dulcimers are 26"-26.5" VSL, which i believe is fairly standard. I have looked at string calculators which suggest 12-20 pounds on each string of tension but this seems insanely low to me. THis is far lower than extra light guitar strings for example.

At this point, what I have been doing is buying guitar strings, and using only the D,B, and E strings, which leaves me with extra strings every time, but gives me far better tone than any dulcimer strings Ive found. Do others have this same issue and what do y'all do about it?

Quick side question, my dulcimers have floating bridges so its not a big deal to move them, is this necessary or valuable to adjust them for different string gauges?

Registration Deadline For The Berea Traditional Dulcimore Gathering is May 15th!
No "at the gate" Registrations allowed. 

I agree with both of your points Robin.

Whether someone has 1 or 11, the instrument can add such a joy to our lives. 

@ken-hulme Or we've made a newer player afraid of what they might become?  

On a serious note, coming to the mountain dulcimer has made my life better-- making music at home is such a joy!  

"Thanks to all who shared here. I thought we'd get a little more interest in the thread, but if you don't feel comfortable sharing that's fine."

I suspect some newer players, with just one or two dulcimers, might be intimidated by those of us who have "accumulated" more... 

Depending on how taken apart or incomplete of a dulcimer i can count, I have between 3 and 10. Five of them are playable

A cardboard dulcimer
A rectangular dulcimer made from an old crate
A Baritone dulcimer
A bundt pan "resonator" dulcimer and
A dulcimer with a frying pan for a bridge

We do our !!!

Good for you Mary, I hope you will love your TMB!

Wow! I just ordered on but it's nowhere near that size. I do Civil War Living History (music). My great grandfather was a Confederate from Tennessee!

I just ordered a Tennessee Music Box so that will make 5 dulcimers. I also have 2 guitars, a tack head banjo & a autoharp.

Susie, I haven't shared in this thread for the simple reason that I don't want to admit how many dulcimers I have!

I have four "little" dulcimers, including octave dulcimers by Ron Ewing and David Beede as well as a Ewing octave dulcimette and a "soprano" dulcimer by Laurel Mountain, those last two usually tuned up a fourth or fifth to G or A.  I also have four full-size dulcimers: a Modern Mountain Dulcimer made of lacewood, a Blue Lion IC, a Bill Taylor made of quilted maple, and a cherry/spruce Rick Probst which I have tuned as a baritone.  

You can do the math.  I'd rather not admit it.  Maybe it's time to part with one or two.

I also have two guitars, a mandolin, a ukulele, an autoharp, some pennywhistles . . . 

I have been unable to find a public obituary for Larkin to post.  Here is a link to the webpage she shared with her husband, Andy Cohen: 

http://www.riverlark.com/about.html

I treasure Larkin's dulcimer instruction book and her Lark in the Twilight cd-- I wish I had more of her music!  

I have 4, an early Borquin, Folkcraft, Melody Maker and a Folkcraft chromatic. Actually my first was off of ebay, It was ok for beginning, I gave it away to make room for more dulcimers,

I've followed this thread and have enjoyed it!  

I have 5 dulcimers which are promised to a couple young dulcimer friends-- I own them yet they will be leaving my house when opportunity presents.  And I have one out on loan and another I keep for lending.  When all is done, I may still have 6 or 7 (or 8) mountain dulcimers-- this is including the instrument being built by Blue Lion this year.  I have 3 bowed dulcimers.  

Susie, thanks for starting the thread. I am sure many of us enjoyed it, whether we participated or not.

Thanks to all who shared here. I thought we'd get a little more interest in the thread, but if you don't feel comfortable sharing that's fine. I've enjoyed seeing what dulcimers people own, some of which are new to me. Enjoy what you have and play on.

Those stands are nice, Richard! Did you buy them or make them?

Nice-looking functional stand, @richard-streib!  

Here is a four place stand I have. Another sideways picture

 4 Place Stand02.jpg - 126KB

Here is one I use. No pets in the house to disturb it. Sorry the picture is sideways. It is correct on it's original file.

 Dulcimore Stand 01 by Dulcimore Dan.jpg - 195KB

Hadn't thought about that @DustyTurtle! GREAT point! 

@Stumelia, I only WISH they were my instruments! No such luck! :)

Manda, your dulcimers are gorgeous!

Alas, I have some rather rambunctious cats, so I've always had to avoid instrument stand that depend on the instrument  'leaning' on a floor stand. I usually hang my instruments on the walls, or else keep them cased.

Hey @mandapanda.  That's a really nice stand and I can see why you would like one similar to that. Notice, though, that all the dulcimers on there are by the same luthier (Terry McCafferty), and the stand is made specifically for that design. If you had other dulcimers by other makers, they would not likely fit the stand so snugly.  Personally, I've opted for the "wall stand," as you can see here .

There are a few dulcimer stands out there, including some made by members of FOTMD, so hopefully one of them will chime in here.

Good morning, FOTMD! 

I'm newer to this site and even newer to dulcimer playing. I have one fantastic instrument already and another one coming. How do you folks like to store your instruments? I'm hoping to find a stand like the one in the attached image (although my husband won't be happy if I attempt to fill it too quickly!!!). I would definitely like a stand that is pretty and looks more like nice furniture than just a utility. 

I would love your ideas!! Thanks in advance!!

P.S. I'm not a builder. No plans, please. 

 5 on stand_2.jpeg - 101KB

So sad to lose another in our greater dulcimer family.

@venni That's great news, welcome back

Dusty and Robin - thanks for your encouraging words. Very much appreciated.  Stay safe everyone!  :)

@james-phillips I'm glad you both got in your second vaccines!  Though we rarely make videos anymore, we still play music to brighten the days.  Hope you've been able to make plenty of music!  

A bit of an update - my partner and I both got our second vaccine a week ago on Thursday.  No serious side affects - had a bit of a sore arm at the injection site, a bit of a mild headache and that was it.  I didn't know if we were going to be able to function at 100% for work the next day, so we took it off which we probably didn't need to, but knowing folks that got sick or had a fever etc. I wanted to prepare for the worst case scenario.  Also finding myself contemplating doing videos again - I had not done any in ages and ages, at least a few instruments ago LOL and also been talking to our former room-mate about maybe doing some kind of monthly video serious with him singing and my playing guitar, 4 string tenor guitar or tenor sized ukulele.  Nice to have some goals to aspire to.  

@brian-g I appreciate you and all who have worked hard and tirelessly on all phases of dealing with SARS-CoV-2!  I know people who were sickened and I know people who died from this virus.  So much heartbreak for so many.  Thank you for posting here!  I hope you are able to take some time to play a bit of music.  

My husband was out mowing the lawn with a push mower (gas engine) while it was snowing.  Definitely a sign of spring.  He said the grass was growing so fast he could barely keep up between snows (we got about an inch of accumulation, so it wasn't just "snow-globe snow").

Nice to hear from you Brian, and heartening to know that you've been fighting the good fight.  So many people have been working in so many ways to help us deal with this pandemic.  One day the uplifting story will be told about the determination and sacrifice of so many.  And yes, it does appear that little by little we're getting vaccinated.  Perhaps a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Sad news indeed. Larkin Bryant's book has had a great and long-lasting influence on dulcimer players.  She will live on in the playing of many others.