Forum Activity for @lisa-golladay

Our house in Chicago was built in 1923 and has radiators, not forced air.  We run two room humidifiers 24x7 and keep the houseplants well-watered.  Still, the cats throw sparks when we pet them.  Which is kinda entertaining for us... but it puts the cats in a worse mood than usual.

You better believe my dulcimers spend the winter inside their cases.  I try to remember to re-fill the case humidifiers every couple of weeks. 

A couple of questions for those up north and in the Midwest who keep their instruments out all the time.  Don't you have a problem with the instruments drying out and cracking when the furnace is running and the air in the house dries out?  Isn't that why a lot of musicians keep humidifiers in their instrument cases?

YES....DAILY.   I have them everywhere.   In the winter time, they get more dusty as we have a fireplace.   But we play our music often several times a day.  yeah.  aloha, irene

Funny thing, I played a bunch of 12 fret Taylor guitars today at our local store. They have more bass and a bit more volume than their 14 fret siblings. Like I need another, I have 5 Taylors now (after selling a 6th one)

Thank you Susie and Robin. I've never had a 12 fret guitar and didn't want another dreadnaught. This one is based on the Martin 00 design. It will be a steel string guitar. I'll post photos when I finish it and may play a few chords so you can hear how it sounds.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Why put them away? Mine are out on instrument stands in the area where I play, usually daily.

Wow, Ken, that looks really good-- I should know because there are lots of its relatives around our house here.  :) Mark really likes his 12-fret design guitars. I look forward to seeing further photos!  

That looks great Ken. Is it going to have nylon strings? I see it is a 12 fret. I bet it will be a fun little parlor guitar when you are done. Keep us posted. Would love to see it when it's done.

Back in 2015 I asked my luthier friend if he would help me build a guitar. He agreed and I started work. Over the last four years there have been many interruptions due to illness, travel, and my friend remodeling his house and using his shop for storage space. I've been back at it recently and today we set the place for the bridge and saddle. Here are three photos of where I am on this project. After taking the photos I took the neck off and pore filled the neck. I also did a final sanding on the body before it enters the spray booth later this week or early next week. The body will be nitrocellulose lacquer while the neck will be finished with Tru-oil. As you can see more frets need to be added to the fret board which will happen when the neck is permanently attached to the body. While all this is going on I am restoring two PA German zitters and continuing to build a couple of dulcimers.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

 IMG_4203.jpeg - 145KB

You mean you're supposed to dust them? 

With a dust cloth or feather duster.  I keep mine "string side up"!!

My dulcimers lay on tables, on my music stand, lean against the bookcase or on the bed.  How do you dust them and keep them?

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

What a great song - I must listen to more of Lucy's songs.

Love that.

What a wonderful song which is performed well. Thanks for posting it here Robin.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

What a charming tune!  Those harmonies at the end come as a real surprise. And throughout the tune, the bass keeps they rhythm popping.  Thoroughly enjoyable.

Anne Bowman shared this on fb and I enjoyed it lots!  Mountain dulcimer, whistle, bass, and vocals.  

wow folks, I read through all of this thread....and learned tons.  I need to learn more about an "unwound" bass string.   thanks so much for all this information.....just in one thread....I'll be making a dulcimer to take to Hawaii with me....materials coming tomorrow.   yeah.  all excited.   now when I get to Hawaii, I'll learn again how to post a photo.   wonderful granddaughter taught me....13 steps.  now I lost that paper when cleaning off my desk. oh well..............  aloha, irene

Thanks Marg:) I am thinking about trying just three strings to see what it is like. I am having a harder time with the melody strings - they seem to bunch together and interfere with each other as I move my finger along the fretboard. 

Thanks Dusty. Yes, I have a few fretless Ubasses and used to play the 'cello and violin. I've played "skinny" instruments before and sometimes they are really tricky to hold. I don't know how Aaron can hold that at his normal angle - you'd think it would be awkward? Maybe if it's held flat, or on a stand, it would be just fine. I like the poly strings (the tone) - but the price sure went up lately!

That's a good question, Jill. If you check out this video , you see Aaron O'Rourke playing the bass dulcimer (he takes a solo just after 2:00). He is not laying the instrument flat on his lap, but has it angled up, with the foot of the dulcimer resting securely against his body.

I have never played a fretless instrument, so if I were buying one of these for myself I would get the acu-fretless model since it would be easier to get accurate intonation.  If you have experience playing stringed instruments like the cello or have played fretless basses, the plain fretless would probably be fine.

It sure looks fun to play!

Hi all. Does anyone have experience with the Beede bass dulcimer? Would love to know your opinion. Because it's so narrow it looks like it would be 'unstable' if held on your lap? Have you compared the fretless model vs. the acu-fretless? Thanks!

Does anyone have experience with the Beede bass dulcimer? Would love to know your opinion. Because it's so narrow it looks like it would be 'unstable' if held on your lap? Thanks!

Ken, thank you so much.  Go figure it was easy as Googling it!  That and all had Amazon links to boot.  There were two Lois Hornbostel's books via Amazon.  One listing her as author and  the other the same but following a "Mel Bay Presents".  Different covers as well.  I'm getting all three found on Amazon and I hope I don't get too many duplication's.  Although that's almost impossible to do in the music book arena.  Thanks again and I'm off to the races!  Kevin.

Well, honesty demands that I while remember Rubenstein's concert quite well I really remember Jose Greco's show.  Not because of him though, but rather the woman with the Castentettes in a Black Lace outfit moving around like a Mink............an impressionable young feller like me got "scar'd" half to death. As I recall after the show it seems like some of our crowd got hammered drinking what were called "Schooners" of cheap Beer at a Lum's Restaurant and started doing that dance with Ketchup bottle tops stuck on "their" fingers.....I'll guarantee that one dignified Professor would absolutely deny under oath that she did that nearly 50 years ago.

Ken and Don,

Thanks to you both for being long time listeners!

Well Happy Anniversary to the Heart of the Dulcimer Podcast. I enjoy listening to the podcasts.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I had learned of David's death on FaceBook. His passing leaves a large hole in the folk music world. Salt, I do remember Jose Greco and Arthur Rubinstein. Both were wonderful performers in their own right.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Truly, that's sad about your best buddy. 

Though I was just an elementary school kid, I remember the name Arthur Rubenstein.  

I really didn't think too much of it at the time since I  was usually a "Go-Fer" and jack of all trades sort.  I did layouts on an old fashioned contraption called a Vari-type machine, cut copy and hauled stuff around in an old VW I bought for a few hundred bucks. ( My best buddy there was drafted and during the war and killed in a training accident during basic training... we both had VW bugs and shared all sorts of "Go-fer" jobs".  He was one of the staff photographers as well and that enabled me get to see and greet some of those characters.)

 * A funny story about Rubenstein....the afternoon before his concert a monster of a Steinway Piano was placed on the stage where he was to perform.  (You could see and hear everything going on in that auditorium since our workspace/offices were above the stage and at the back of the seating area.)  The tuners worked on that Piano for a long time with all sorts of racket being made.  When Rubenstein came to check the piano we watched as he played up and down the key board and picked out 2 or 3 keys that needed to be tuned some more........that's how good an ear he had.

Wow, Salt, that's pretty special how you got to meet lots of performers for your college's newspaper!  Nice for you to have such memories.  

@marg Thanks for the report!  I'm nowhere near a store that might have an E-Bow to try so it's nice to get your take on trying it out. 

 Love that you did this Don!

Yes, as of episode 45, we've created over 24 hours of podcast episodes all about the mountain dulcimer! And they're all free to listen to. If you add the 40 minutes of bonus features with the 55 minutes of the documentary film that's on the DVD, that's a lot listening and watching!!

I tried the e-Bow at a guitar center yesterday with a non-amp dulcimer. I'm thinking it needs to be amp so the

E-Bow reads the electric magnate field. I could hardly hear the sound. Would be nice to have a violin tune for playing some songs

I have a Berg dulcimer

I may try the 10 on the d up by the bass D but I ended taking that string off since it seemed to either hit the bass or just not sound right. Berg's string gage attached:

berg string gage.pdf - 38KB

Way to go, Glen!

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."