Forum Activity for @silverstrings

So, I live in North Georgia and am very careful with my Redwood/Black Walnut McSpadden. It has been a mild winter. I never leave it in the car. I take great care of it. I have only had for 8 months and noticed on the back bottom part of my dulcimer a few hairline cracks. I will call McSpadden as they made it for me. I did let my husband show to his luthier. The luthier says that sometimes makers see a problem in the grain and don’t want to remake it so they cover it up. I really love the sound and no light is coming through the wood. I want to approach the right way with McSpadden. I don’t want to give up this dulcimer and get another. The tone is unbelievable. However, I have never had this problem with a guitar. I feel like I am already very careful with this instrument. Suggestions are very welcome. I worked hard to get this wonderful instrument and can’t go out and buy another. Thanks.

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I know we have lots of members from the  greater Nashville, TN area where the tornadoes went thru...it would be good if we could  get a word on whether folks are OK, injured, rec'd damage, etc.

Not particularly indicative of an on-going problem.  Vagaries of heat and cold and humidity, and differing expansion and contraction rates of wood and metal can occasionally cause a fret to be pushed up slightly out of its slot.  A fret that is too high can cause all sorts of strange noises that are not "sweet music". 

Long ago I was living high and dry in Mile High Colorado.  I built a dulcimer for a customer who lived in sea level Alabama.  When the instrument left Colorado the frets were perfectly level.  By the time it arrived in Alabama two of the frets were raised.  Ship it back to me and the frets were level again.  Rinse and repeat.  The customer had to have the frets leveled down there at sea level; then it played perfectly for as long as it was owned. 

Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.  

Also, some people press down on the strings/frets very hard and the strings will wear notches in the surface of frets made of inferior metal. 

That's why sometimes frets have to be leveled or "dressed".  

I'm looking to purchase a Mastertone dulcimer that is used (3 years old).  It's sycamore and walnut - a real beauty that looks pristine as does the case that comes with it.  The seller mentions in their ad, however, that work by a local luthier has been done on the frets - she states they were "leveled."  My question is for what reason might frets on a 3 year-old dulcimer, which otherwise looks immaculate, need to be leveled?  I've had several much older dulcimers for a long while and never had any frets leveled, and they all play just fine.  Is the leveling of frets on an instrument indicative of some problem?

I just saw this thread - afraid I've been away from FOTMD (and the dulcimer) for too long.  I'm coming back to both.

I was very fortunate to talk with David Olney a couple of times when I worked at a public radio station in Boston that played his music and became a big fan, and caught some performances and became a bigger fan.  The breadth of types of songs he wrote is quite varied, from touching love songs to writing about John Barrymore or the Titanic (from the iceberg's point of view.)  Saw him live most recently when he came to the Portland, Oregon area where I live.  That's a fond memory.  His death came as a shock.

For years he had a weekly informal vlog on Youtube where for about ten minutes he'd update fans on appearances, maybe read a sonnet or haiku he had written, sing a song of his (or sometimes other writers he admired) and then give some background on how the song came about.  They're all still there - just search for "David Olney You Never Know"  on Youtube.

Y'all are most welcome!  I know I enjoyed watching.  

Good stuff.  Thanks for sharing this.

Thank you for the kind wishes ... If you ever saw David or would like to recall your first reaction to him as a musician, please let me know.  I would love to talk with you.  Best, Linda

I'm glad you fellows liked the piece.  I just listened to it again.  Wow.  

I love the tone of this instrument and the tune he plays.  And it's cool to hear Gary discuss the build.  

About time somebody did that. Hope you get a lot of responses and a lot of good stories.  

Hi!  I'm one of the moderators here and for your own privacy, we encourage members to share private information such as phone numbers and email addresses through private message.  

I wish you the best with your very cool project!  

Greetings fellow players.  If you knew, played with or toured with David Schnaufer, especially in the late seventies through the eighties (or beyond) I would very much like to talk with you for a biographical project about David.  I am interested from hearing from everyone, no matter how trivial you think the memory would be.  All contributions will be gratefully acknowledged.  Thank you.  

Amazing.

That's really cool, Robin. Thanks for sharing that.

What is hard for us to imagine is the majesty of those large churches. Today we are used to massive buildings. But back then, nearly everyone lived in a one-room mud-and-brick home.  The magnificence of those cathedrals must have been overwhelming.  And then if you also heard phenomenal choral music or powerful pipe organs it would have been an overwhelming experience.

Put on your headphones and shut your eyes.  :)

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/22/808404928/listen-the-sound-of-the-hagia-sophia-more-than-500-years-ago?fbclid=IwAR3qDRNITCCc5EpzyjeMYAWrLO9w76JHn1CBcunLC2ln1j4Ii_qGh6fRrjs

Thanks Ken,

Yes, maybe wasn't noticed when action was higher but as it was lowered it became very noticeable.

   I have taken care of the action on a number of my dulcimers among other repairs, but since this one needed a number of things checked over and it wasn't mine, (I was just finding a nice dulcimer for a new player) - well thought better then me working on it.

   Good to know that the frets could have raised from the change of where or how it sat for the 30+ years, maybe I should be glad it was only 3 and not more. Even frets on my own dulcimers, I have file down but again looking like a new dulcimer and not mine - I just didn't want to.

    All a journey in both playing the dulcimer and caring for it.

Thanks,

m.

ANY dulcimer that sits for more than a few days in the wrong environment can get frets popping up.  Especially if coming from a very dry climate to a very damp one.  I remember building a dulcimer for a lady in Alabama, when I was living in Colorado.  Action was perfect hen I shipped.  By the time she got three or four frets had raised as the change in humidity forced the frets up...

Action height will also affect whether frets need to be adjusted too.  Lower actions are more sensitive as it were to slight differences in fret height.  Luthiers can be more or less sensitive to whether frets need adjusting than customers as well.

It's all part of the "game" really.  The game of setting up a dulcimer to the way you like it, not the way it was necessarily presented to you.  Just like changing strings, you really should learn to do simple things like setting the action height yourself... all it takes is sand paper, a nickel, a dime, and time.  

    There was a label but no model #. It was made in the 80's and may have had the same strings on it. I took it to get new strings (I could have done that but it needed to have the action lowered also) and  be checked out. Turns out 3 frets needed to be adjusted (filed & reshaped) -   so question   -   older dulcimers depending how or where they were stored for 30+ years, could that cause some frets to pop up a bit? As much as I checked it out, I didn't notice the frets till the action was lowered. 

    All in all, I still got it for a very fair price including the pricy repairs -  but would have been a better deal without all the repairs. I have it tuned to DAA, it sounds so much sweeter then tuned DAd - for walnut I was surprise it sounded a bit bright or does older Folkcrafts tend to sound more bright then mellow? 

    The dulcimer & case looks basically new, not a scratch, chip or dent. It must of come home from the shop and made its way into the closet - and there it stayed. A treasure hiding but now it's out ;-)

Thanks for the info.

m.

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Yes, a Folkcraft, but I don't think it is a kit. The kits did not have that type of peg head.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Yes, Aubrey's amazing. She has mastered every style of clog dancing and can do it while talking, singing, playing the fiddle, or playing the banjo.  If I could dance like that I wouldn't need to go to the gym!

Thanks John,

I have google Folkcraft teardrops and yes, you are right. I will contact the seller and go check it out.

it may have a label, I just haven't seen it yet, just the photo

That is definitely from Folkcraft Instruments, however I'm not sure if it was assembled at the factory, or if somebody just assembled a kit.  It would seem likely that if it was a factory-made dulcimer, it would have labeling in or on it.

looking at a dulcimer advertised with no info on who made

 walnut teardrop, - made USA in the late 1980’s, - purchased in North Carolina.

tuning pegs, white & up - strum hollow curved but not large, pins up on end of fretboard - sound hole not crisp f.

Any ideas?

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There are quite a few "bowed dulcimers", played upright between the knees.  Ken Bloom of Pilot Mountain, North Carolina is the major builder and promoter of bowed dulcimer.  It  is a very old traditional style of playing. 

I have dimensions and photographs of a bowed zither/dulcimer originally made in 1865, in a museum in Pennsylvania, and will be building a replica in the near future with the blessing of the museum curator and staff (I already built another instrument from their collection by the same builder).

Check out any of Aubrey Atwater's youtube vids.  I've seen her fiddle and clog and sing -- an "all in one" performer.

Miss Strumelia, you are absolutely radient!

Feet as music: I remember well an appearance by Doug Kershaw on the Ed Sullivan show. He sang, played fiddle and kept time nearly in a full clog. I feel that that added so much to his performance.

I have 3 banjos, none of which I play well. None have resonators, and, all have skin heads. I have a modern tonering banjo, a fretless mountain banjo, and a fretless tackhead minstrel-style banjo. Tried for years, but can't get the clawhammer or any down -picking style down, so I play a 3-finger style. Love the sound of instrument!

Well maybe not fully vertical, Ken, because then it gets in the way of the didgeridoo!  This may be where Gayle learned of this style:

Robert and Al played over the top even while standing.  Laliya play the dulcimer truly as a guitar, from the bottom, while holding it across the chest, as Gayle mentioned.  But maybe it's just an Australian thing!

Well, you can't really hold the dulcimer in an "autoharp hug", but you can play it "upright" like a guitar; either seated or standing.  Google any of the videos of Robert Force; especially his teaching vids forthe songs Did You? and Wellyn as well as any of his performance videos. He and his late partner Al D'Ossche sort of invented the "guitar style" fifty years ago.

Aussie, eh!@  That explains "vaulted"   What state are you in?  You lot don't have maple but you have some fabulous woods for lutherie down there.  Do you know of the builder Richard Troughear?  How about a player named Anne Bowman?  

Any reasonably hard wood 6-12mm thick will do for a possum board.  The board can be rectangular or sawn to the shape and size of your instrument.  

Yeah, any instrument that makes you feel happy when playing it is just plain GOOD.  :)

(Cynthia I would love to hear more of you on your kantele- I loved what you posted a while back... so full of feeling and so ...from a Different time and place.)

There are many more gourd banjo makers now than there were ten years ago.  You can actually get a decent playable one for $300 or less.  Gourd banjers are less expensive than regular banjos in general. 

Clawhammer banjo is the one that grabs me, and I used to play it. If I had a gourd with nylon strings I'd be playing it right now! About happiness and instruments...gotta add ukulele...yep, just gotta. Beautiful Lisa. I really love the Sacred Harp tunes on clawhammer banjo. Listen to the Banjo Apes do those. Wish I hadn't sold that banjo.

Bess, for that tune (from an old WV Hammons family recording) I was playing in clawhammer style. Other times I play in minstrel style and tuning.  Even though the two styles have a lot in common and can look like the same thing to an observer, I do find the actual physical playing styles of clawhammer and minstrel banjo to be different in significant ways other than simply because they use different tunings.  It took me a few years to actually notice that there were these differences.  To this day it takes me a minute or so to mentally/physically adjust when I switch back and forth between those two styles of playing.  There are always some moments of "Uh, what the heck are my fingers supposed to be doing, again?"... lolol.

I do suggest that a beginner decide which of the two styles to concentrate on for a while, rather than jumping back and forth between clawhammer style/tunings, and minstrel style/tunings.  Mixing the two up could be problematic unless you've had at least a year or two of playing one style before exploring the other style.  It's possible to learn both styles at the same time as a beginner of course, but the result would very likely be a hybrid style, so you have to decide on what your personal goal is.

If you mostly just play alone at home or with family you can play however you like without worrying about styles at all.  But if you plan to play with other folks that seriously play one of those styles and not the other, it might not be the best idea to jump into their established jamming group and start playing their customary repertoire in a hybrid style.   ;)   Playing in groups means we try to blend harmoniously and enhance what the group likes to do, rather than sticking out and possibly disrupting what they like to do. 

Wow! Thanks for the wonderful gourd banjo playing , Stumelia. I was fortunate enough to find a travel sized minstrel banjo who is patiently waiting for me learn how to play. Were you using minstrel style of play or clawhammer? I can manage an imitation of clawhammer and find myself using it on ukes as well as banjos and banjoleles. The non-steel strings definitely give the banjo another character. One of my favorite instruments is a baritone banjolele. I like it because it adds more of a percussive element and doesn't steal the show like a real banjo.

Barb

Thank you Garret. From what I am reading it appears that you can bring your dulcimer on the airplane as carry-on, as long as it fits in the overhead bin.  The problem is I am booked on a CRJ200 going from Huntsville, AL to Washington DC and bins measure 18" wide!  Ridiculous.  So unless, the crew is willing to put it in one of their personal lockers which would be bigger and longer, I don't think they're going to let me take it.  Such a shame...

I went abroad to France on some business in fall of 2017 and brought along my McSpadden in a soft case.  I'm not sure about what the luggage allowance difference is between international and domestic flights but I was able to find under "musical instruments" the size limitations and discovered I could bring my McSpadden with soft case as a carry-on.  It fit into the overhead bin on top of other people's luggage.  I was nervous about it, I must say, but it traveled fine.  I would prefer doing what Aaron does next time.  Anyway, it was possible in 2017 to bring it onboard an international flight at least. 

Thank you, Ken, that is a very clever set up!  

Here's a simple possum board with one of my dulcimers on it.  The plank is 1/4" maple (but you can use whatever wood you choose), and the "stand offs" are pieces of 1/2" x 3/4" pine.  

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