Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

.00001 or .00002 …  rounding up/down the 5th decimal is not really relevant.  String gauge recommendations are not set in stone.  Going up or down a gauge or two is very, very common.  There are no String Gauge Police!   We all start with some recommendations, and then go up or down experimenting to find what works best for your on a particular instrument.

For example,  I build and play traditional dulcemores, and do not use wound bass strings at all.  The Olde Tymers didn't use wound strings -- that is a mid-20th century "guitar" affectation more or less, which makes the overall sound less "high silvery" than a traditional sounding instrument.  

Remember too that string gauges vary with the VSL of the instrument.  26" VSL dulcimers use different gauges than a 29" VSL instrument to reach the same tuning.  

Funny thing about my string measurements - I had rounded down the fourth digit of 5 on all of them, but I see that Bill’s vid on restringing shows him using .024 (wound)/.009, .013, .011/.011. If I had rounded up instead, my measurements would have matched the proper string sizes. So this appears to be his stock setup😀

Oh, how I needed such a good laughing post here.  "fess up Irene.........."   It's been a hard day in that I can't go outside.   Already a 1/2 inch covers my car of ice and no can open the door.  It's now 10 degrees....wind chill is blowing to the max................ So that means no church going for now 2ed Sunday in a row.   bummers.   Oh yes, I've got plunty to do at home....reading and playing music...but meeting with my friends at Church and leading the music there is a joy.  

Okay, I'll "fess up".  I've made 55 harps........all nylon stung.  No need to get callouses for playing these.  One thing that appealed to me about the mountain dulcimer....30? some years ago...NOTER AND DRONE....that's how I play...no need callouses to play this way.  I play with  a triangle pick with my right hand.  I've used various other picks, but go back to the triangle one I can get at the music store.   I've cut up credit card sends....they make great picks.  

someday someone reading this may need this info.   If you get stung by a centipede or any bad bug bite....bees and wasps....Urine can take away most of the pain.   Hawaii learned 

Thanks Ferrator for your question.  aloha, irene

Fess up Irene... How did YOU get all callous...er...get the callouses on your fingers?

THIS THREAD CRACKS ME UP LAUGHING. 

Go to rock-tips.com and buy a bottle, it works.  Check it out.

If playing a lot is not your way of developing calluses, you might try soaking your fingertips in vinegar.  Old school baseball players used to urinate on their hands to toughen up the skin, but if you use that method, please don't play any of my instruments, thank you.  

Thanks y'all for the help! I guess I was confused because the link wasn't displaying the video in the text box before publishing.  I feel there's some technological wizardry afoot...

Oh yeah, it IS harsh. But it is attributed to some hard core jazz musician. Sort of urban legend territory.

~LOL~ But I know about the callouses. Then there is the gray stripe on my left thumb. (That is my "noter" so to speak)

The iron skillet trick--now that is harsh.  I'm starting to feel calluses building on my left fingertips from playing the guitar I got last month.  Already sacrificed my long nails for the dulcimer a year ago...

It's getting so I feel frustrated/cheated on days I can't get to my dulcimer, or can only get to it for a few minutes!

Thanks, Greg. I knew that at least one of those fellows did that.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

KenL - Keith Young used to put the fine tuners on his dulcimers.  They went on the string between the bridge and the tail-end.  Slide the tuner toward the tail-end to increase the pitch ever so slightly,  Slide the tuner back toward the bridge to lower the pitch.  The fine-tuner is basically a wedge, with a hole for the string to pass through, that is wedged between the string and the fingerboard.  They work like a charm.  I still own one of Keith Young's teardrop dulcimers with hand-carved wooden pegs and his homemade fine-tuners.   Tuning is no problem at all. 

Dusty and Robin are both correct on how to add videos.  :D  I'll also add this:  videos added to the main Video section that we host here (by adding them from your profile page using the + button) must be non-copyright material and must feature yourself playing or singing etc.  Videos added to your discussion post as part of a discussion can be of any video, it's just linked/embedded as part of a discussion and is not part of FOTMD's video or audio collection. 

I remember a builder who made fine tuners out of small trapezoidal shaped blocks of ebony. I'm not sure if it was Walt Martin, Keith Young, George Orthey, or someone else. They worked very well.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

The fine tuners you might use depend on how much string length you have between the bridge and the turn over the end or string pins, and how high/shallow the angle of the strings are.  If you have a long distance and fairly high angle, you can often fit violin fine tuners.   You can also make fine tuners by slipping a large-ish glass or metal bead on each string behind the bridge and before the string pin or turn over the end.  You then tweak the tuning by moving the bead back and forth.  the photo below shows long white beads between the bridge and the turn over the tail:

ken

( fine tuners that will allow you to dial in a tuning once you're close with the pegs.  )

where do we fine these and how do they work?

@Glowhazel, the main way to add a video of yourself playing is to go to your profile page and click "Videos."  Then choose the "+" sign to add a new one and choose YouTube or Vimeo.  You will be asked for the YouTube URL and the title of the video. If you use that method, we can all see your video in the main video section.

If you are trying to post a video as part of a conversation in a Forum or Group discussion, then you use the "embed local media" icon in the tool bar. It looks like a piece of film strip.

In neither case do you use the embed code from YouTube.  Strumelia explained how to do this a while back in response to another question in this forum.

As Robin explains, you can also just put the URL in the text box.

@glowhazel Try just copying the YT link and pasting it in the message box-- a straight copy and paste (not using the "source code" link). 

I'm copying the embed code from YouTube into the "source code" section of the text box.  This makes the video show up in the preview but not in the post once it's published.  What am I missing here?

I once made a Shaker Peg Coat Rack sort of thing for a player -- a piece of 1x4 with Shaker pegs from a Hobby shop spaced about 6" apart.  The one I made was about 24" long, and held 4 dulcimers.  It attached to the wall with sheet rock anchors.

Molly, I just use a regular picture hanger and string or wire.  See this picture of a wall in my office/music room.  In that case I used leather shoe laces to hang the dulcimers from the hangers, but for a more discreet look you could use fishing line, which is really strong but also nearly invisible.

Can any of you offer suggestions or recommendations for hanging dulcimers on a wall? I’ve seen dulcimer hooks online that are quite simple, but priced at $12 and up! I would appreciate your suggestions and ideas.

@ken-hulme You may wish to edit your posting to make your email and mailing address available by pm.  Just a thought.

We are now accepting registrations for the 2020 Gathering, to be held at Berea College, Berea, KY May 14th -- 17th

Send your Contact Information to:    berea.traditional.gathering@gmail.com   

Registration Fee -- $20 -- applies directly to your dorm lodging.  If you are not staying in the dorm, the money goes into our Coffee & Snack Fund so we can buy a pot and coffee and snacks for folks to share...   Send Registration via Paypal or by paper check.  PM me for the addresses...

Please do not respond here....

Hi there Marc, and welcome!

To answer your question- yes any videos or audios of the playing of non-public domain tunes/songs must be added to posts in the Rockin Free World group.  That is to keep our site's Video and Audio collections free of copyrighted materials that are part of our hosted collections.  Doesn't matter if you arranged the version or not in this case. 
(And of course if you composed your own material you can post it even if you copyrighted it..you own the copyright.)

Hope you enjoy it here.. 

Hello!  My name's Marc, and I'm currently living in northern Virginia.  2020 is going to be my year for diving headfirst into all things dulcimer.  Thanks everyone who's already sent their kind welcome messages. :)

One quick question, if that's permissible here: seems like if I want to share any videos of myself playing non-public domain or non-traditional music (i.e. covers of licensed songs) then they need to go in the "Rockin in the Free World" group.  Is this important even if the arrangement is my own?

Thanks for your help folks, and I will make this thing better! It does otherwise seem like a nice instrument IMO, and there’s certain aspects that I like better than a guitar for me - lighter string pressure, quieter, smaller, etc., and it is something new to try. For some silly reason I’ve always preferred the more hourglass shaped ones, but I can get over it😀

Cheers!

Glen

Thanks Brian. I'll check those links. I think I'm trying to play tunes too soon. I've only had my dulcimer a week. I really should focus on fundamentals for a while. Most definitely not a natural.

Just think of the nice callous you are going to have! I know I am still working on mine. ~L~ That and a nice stripe on the left thumb.

Beats the heck out of the most hardcore callous builder I ever heard of:

Heat up an iron skillet to around 400° then put your fingertips on it. Pretty nasty for several days, but it builds a pretty decent 'playing' callous...

Old jazz musician trick (alledgedly)

~cringe~

Having all strings in tune when open but all sounding sharp when fretted... in this case with the photos I think it's fairly obvious that two factors are causing this-  the action is too high (causing the strings to overbend and pull sharp when fretted), and the nut (and maybe bridge too) is leaning in towards the center (causing the scale to be artificially shorter while the frets remain in the same place, causing sharp fretting).  The pix show poorly fitted nut and bridge that were put in later, perhaps the originals had their slots altered too much and messed up. The dulcimer is a Berg and thus highly unlikely to have its frets in the wrong position. 
This dulcimer deserves to have a nice well fitted new nut and bridge.  And of course lovely new strings once that's done.  :)

Glen, because you can tune the open strings to sound correct yet when you fret them at the 1st fret they sound sharp, will almost certainly mean the action at the nut is too high. Lowering the nut action so that the action is low and easy at that end of the fretboard will instantly get rid of this note sharpness problem in that area of the fretboard. The only thing that would prevent this simple solution from working is if the nut is incorrectly positioned and even more so if it's incorrectly positioned in combination with an incorrectly positioned saddle/bridge. All this is assuming the frets are correctly positioned, if they are not then that would complicate things a great deal.

Also, it's probably best to not rely too much on tuners for tuning, other than tuning one initial open note in order to set the pitch. After you get that open note accurate then tune all other notes via your ear taking into account the relationship of the subsequent notes to each other and to the initial note.

And one final fact, no fretted stringed instrument can be tuned perfectly for everything. Perfect tuning requires specific fret placement combined with specific tuning techniques, and those placement and techniques differ depending on the music played. In other words, what's perfectly in tune for one type of music can be quite imperfectly out of tune for other types of music. That's why throughout the cultures around the world there's many different and complex approaches to fret placement.

That is really cool. I didn't realize that Sears was still selling instruments as late as 1979. It looks to be well taken care of. What a special instrument. How does it sound?

The nut/bridge position could be an issue with sharpness; but it is more commonly from bending the strings down from a very high action when fretting.

You could be seeing minor inaccuracies, Or you could be experiencing the "golly-gee that's neat" phenomena of using something more accurate than a tuning fork!!

A few cents sharp here and there are no big deal, really; and only someone with perfect pitch will be able to hear it.  Sharp pitches will slack slightly during play anyway as the strings stretch from being used.

Some of us, myself included, tune everything a tad sharp.  With traditional violin type wooden tuners I find that that works best.

Hi Ken, thanks for the reply! The nickel & dime info from your article is why there was no doubt in my mind because armed with that info, this one was obvious to me😀 Good thing I asked here about the nut and bridge before I started adjusting the action and changing the strings. I tend to be fussy about stuff like this and try to consider “going with what I was dealt” to compensate. It could have been some sort of traditional craftsman technique for all I knew🙄 

I will contact Bill for his advice/help as you suggest.

I am enjoying getting to know the dulcimer as I try accurate tuning with a Korg CA-1 tuner and the PanoTuner app. The last time I tuned my guitar it was with an “A” tuning fork - times have changed😀 Per chance, could inaccuracy in nut position cause what I have already noticed with all strings: if I tune the string naturally, and as accurately as possible, then any fretted notes are a tad sharp (OK, almost all of them). I was wondering about this before I got here because after tuning the D and then fretting it to use it for tuning the A, I noticed the result was a tad sharp every time. Just a little. For fun I tried nudging the D to be a tad flat in order to make its fretted notes a bit more accurate. Perhaps I am just seeing trivial inaccuracies in this instrument with these accurate meters.

Cheers!

Glen