Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Good price. Especially considering that includes case, books, spare strings...

Thank you for the information. I agree, I thought it was odd she stated she watched it being made, that being said we have only communicated via email and I have not seen it in person yet. I did have another pic that I didn't post, but now that you mentioned Dan and Ethel Doty it makes sense, because strings that come with it has Dan's name on them. See Pic. Dulcimer, case, 2 how to books and strings asking $175. Does the price seem in the ballpark? 

 dulc3.jpg - 58KB

Well it depends, when it was bought.  Dan and Ethel Doty have been there for about 40 years and that dulcimer should have a signature inside one of the bottom sound holes.   Check it out if you can.......I suspect it is one of their's and if so it is a pretty good instrument.  If the price is right, I would not be afraid to buy it.  When the seller said she watched it being made, I suspect she may have meant string it up or setting it up somehow............you're not going to build one in a day or so........

If it is a Doty it is going to be signed.

Could someone help me identify a Dulcimer I am looking at. The lady said it was made in Dollywood and she watched it being made. Does anyone know who may have made them or the value?

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   Does anybody have any idea who may have made this dulcimer? It doesn't have any tag or anything on it. I bought it on ebay out of Alford, GB

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Hi Lisa:

Just got here for my morning scan of things, and noticed that the Wall contents of the three Groups I follow most commonly have been completely and randomly re-ordered -- and current threads have been misplaced somewhere in the many pages of threads. 

Specifically the Groups are Beginner Players, Dulcimer Making, and Old Style Noter & Drone.  

Great tune, Kendra...The kind you go around humming when you're happy! Hope to see you again in Berea next year.

Kendra, it'd work better for you if you posted this info and link to the tab etc right in the Comments section of your Lillies video.

That way, your info about the tab and the video will all be in one place, right on the actual video page.  If you start a forum thread in the Forums about your video in the video section, the two will not stay connected and people's comments here about your video will sink out of sight as the forum thread gets older.  That's the trouble with having two different comment areas about one item (the video, where comments are left... and this thread about the video, in a forum that is not part of the video.)

I know you are having some confusions about using this site, so I'm trying to help you. It's best not to start a forum discussion about your own video- each videos has its own comment area where you can post thoughts and info and hold discussions about the video right there, on the video's own page.  It gets quite confusing after a while to have comments on the video page and also comments about the video in a separate forum thread like this one.  Go to your "Lillies" video's page (find your video by going to the main link for Videos at top banner, OR by going to your own profile page and clicking the Videos Tab to see your VIDEOS there) and post your info and tab link there in the video comments instead of starting forum discussions about each of your videos.  That way everyone will find all the comments, discussion, and info on the video right there, on the video's page.  I hope I've explained this without confusing things!

Kendra, thank you for sharing the tab of "Lillie's Lullaby" and for sharing your family's connection to dulcimer history.  Most of us came to the dulcimer later in our lives, and it is nice to hear from someone who lived the tradition within their own family.  I've printed off your arrangement of "Lillie's Lullaby" and will give it a whirl tomorrow when I'm more awake.  All the best.

Hello all...I posted a video playing my grandmothers dulcimer which was made in 1892! The tune is called “Lillie’s Lullaby” which I wrote in her honor around 30 years ago...

Heres a link to the tab and music...I hope you will think of my grandmother Lillie when you play it...

https://dulcimertimes.com/freebies/LilliesLullaby.DAA.pdf

Thanks...

Kendra...aka Dulcerina

Kendra, please tell me an actual example of 'something you posted' that you cannot see the comments on. I need that.

Kendra it's hard to know exactly what comments you are talking about- can you please post here an URL where there is a comment you cannot read?  or tell me what the comment says so i can find it?  that would enable me to help guide you better. I'm understanding only that you somehow know there has been a comment or message to you, but are not using the correct link that takes to the comment or message so that you can see and respond to it.  I'm not knowing how/where you are being presented with these links or notifications so that I can advise you where you are going wrong.

My best guess right now without getting further clarifications from you:

Is it in an email that you find out about a new comment? This would a site notification, which typically has two or three links in it (to unsubscribe, to go see a comment, to turn off notifications altogether).  If so, please copy/paste the text of what the email says here... that will help me determine whether these 'comments' you are referring to are comments on your videos, private messages, comments on your profile page, etc.  Or, it will help me guess which incorrect link you are clicking on in the notification. Knowing that will help me tell you how you are perhaps going to the wrong place, resulting in your not seeing the items.

I don’t know what group it’s in? I’ve joined several in the past but the comments are not within those groups. I can’t find comments or read them on something I posted...

Not quite clear on what comments you are referring to, (this thread here is about what to do if you can't see the entire discussion in a group because you;ve not joined it yet) but....if you are referring maybe to email site notifications you get when people have commented on your items, then follow the LINK provided in the notification, which leads you to the comment itself, on your item.

Maybe you are clicking on the wrong link in the notification.  Please look carefully at the notification- the link to follow should be near the top, above the comment.

Kendra, have you tried reading this thread?

It explains how you need to join a group in order to be able to read the complete discussions in the group. It also shows pictures on how to join a group.  Try that.

I’m pretty frustrated. I cannot see any replies. I’ve tried everything. Please help. 

Saw this discussion a little late. Was looking around after posting a fret calculator I designed for my own dulcimer making. You can find it at https://bearmeadow.com/calculators/fret-calculator.html

I just posted an article on this forum discussing some of the problems it helps dulcimer makers solve.

The fret calculator on the Bear Meadow website is live again, thanks to Google! You can find it under the "Calculators" menu. I haven't gotten the others converted yet.

This calculator has a few features of special interest to mountain dulcimer builders:

1.You can change the scale length (of course! duh...)

2. You can get an idea of what kind of error (in cents) is being introduced by your cutting method. This is particularly helpful for those who hand-cut fret slots. To get that estimated error, enter a number for "Saw Error." A good beginning estimate is the width of your saw.

3. Positions of every "extra fret" is shown, and its distance from the previous diatonic fret. Very useful for knowing where extra frets go on your scale

4. In addition to "Nut to Fret" distance, "Fret-to-fret" distance is shown. This is helpful if you don't have an accurate ruler long enough to range all the way to the highest fret position. Though measuring fret-to-fret will accumulate errors, at least you have a better chance at getting it right if you have an accurate distance (these are shown in the closest 5 ten-thousandths of an inch, the upper limit of digital calipers on the market.

5. "Fret-to-Saddle" distance is also shown, giving you a way to double-check your fret-to-fret measurements at the high frets (but that depends on how accurately you can mark your nominal saddle position). CAUTION: Don't use this on existing fretboards, as it will not account for any intonation or compensation offset!

My next chore will be to add a choice of measurement units. Right now, the display and "rounding-off" is appropriate for English units (inches). I hope to get to proper display and rounding for milimeters, and a selectable user's choice for that.

Another thing I'd like to add is the math for the calculations of fret positions and error. Haven't figured out how to present math symbols on Google Drive yet!

@cbrown, you might want to contact @bob-stephens. He is a luthier who had been making steel-string dulcimers for a while but recently developed a nylon-string model.  I think he tried unsuccessfully to simply put nylon strings on his older models so he designed a new model specifically for nylon strings. I don't know enough about instrument construction to understand the differences, but I think his nylon-string dulcimers have many different design elements, from bracing inside the box to the way the fretboard connects to the rest of the instrument.

Hm.  This one is built ultra light, so gut might be an interesting experiment.  

I ought to measure and compare it with my other dulcimer.

Hi Sharon, an Admin needs to remove the threads from the For Sale forum.  I have deleted it for you.  Thanks!

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the kind words...wow! 

It was quite an honor to be included in the conversations series...I’m humbled. ☺️

Give us a date and we will head to the UK...it’s been too long since we were last there  It’s so awesome to be able to connect better with dulcimer players across the pond. 

Kendra...aka Dulcerina

Two kinds of metal strings -- loop end and ball end.  Which you use depends on how your dulcimer is set up.  There are plain steel strings and wound strings.  Type of string is irrelevant, brand of string doesn't matter -- the gauge is the most important factor.

Some people have used gut or nylon strings.  Unless the dulcimer is built ultra-light, they tend to make too soft of sound.

How do I remove an item for sale? 

I buy metal loop or ball end strings, depending on the design of the tail of the dulcimer.  Just get an appropriate gauge and you're good to go!  

Some have experimented with gut/nylon strings with mixed results.  

Main question remaining for me, then, and if this doesn't open a whole nother can of worms!, is the one of strings.  Are there "dulcimer strings" per se?  I just used what was handy, and that was guitar strings.

Does anyone use gut or nylon, or only metal?  (I've only seen dulcimers with metal strings!)

How about we drop the debating and get back to simply discussing cbrown's instrument fixing project, which is the subject of this thread?  Thanks.

Hi folks, I'd like to keep this discussion focused more simply on 'introducing ourselves'- so feel free to start new discussions in either the Music Theory Group or the Traditional NoterDrone Group if you would like to continue in depth discussions on modes, ballad resources, etc.

Thank you!

I won't enter into the fray about the origin of the scheitholt, but at least we know the epinette des Vosges is from, well, the Vosges. 

Send me a PM here, as I said before, and I will give the file to you directly.  You need a free PDF Reader app on your Android or regular computer to open and read the file.  

If your Android won't download it there is something wrong, but not with the PDF.  Get a highschool kid/grandchild to help you  

TTAD is the best site on the Internet for Traditional dulcimer builders and players to exchange information.

Cheers Robin!

@cbrown said "...of course early on the name [scheitholt] was widespread enough in Germany..."  

This is simply not true.  The name was NOT widespread in Germany.  This is the "great mis-information" which has been accepted and promoted over and over again by dulcimer players who aren't interested in checking facts. 

The term scheitholt is specific to the Tyrol, a small part of Austria, not Germany, even in 1619 when Pretorious wrote about it.  Tyrol is analogous to Appalachia -- a large area of barely accessible mountains with a small and widely scattered population, whose inhabitants made and played an obscure musical instrument for self entertainment.  

Tyrol has an area of about 4800 square miles -- about the size of Connecticut -- and back in the 17th century it had a population of 30-40,000.  And of course, the scheitholt was not played by everyone; perhaps less than one in one hundred.

Pretorious' De Organagraphia was not a best seller in Germany or anywhere.  It was an esoteric scholarly treatise really only read by musical scholars.  Perhaps only a few thousand copies were originally printed in 1619.  

Even today Tyrol only has a population of about 700,000 -- about the same as Bucks County, Pennsylvania scattered over an area nearly 8 times the size of that county.  

Thanks for the clarification!

That's shift in language (and terminology) across two continents and half a millennium for you! 

Whatever name we want to apply to it, I've got it in my mind to make one now...

My objection is that "scheitholt" refers only to a very small group of instruments in a rather narrow geographical region. Henry Mercer, it seems, discovered the illustration of the scheitholt in the Syntagma and applied the label to the instrument he had in front of him without further research. Within the Pennsylvania German communities where the instrument was found, the term "scheitholt" is unknown. People referred to instrument as a "zitter" or in modern language "zither." In Germany today most of these instruments are called hummels or hommels. When I speak of these instruments, I call them Pennsylvania German zitters. I think this is a more accurate label/description of what we find in the US.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Oh, yeah!  I know what a scheitholt is and about the regional use of the name, though of course early on the name was widespread enough in Germany, as it has a section in the Syntagma. As far as this dulcimer goes, I'm just going on the information I've seen!  But now I'm curious: why are you (Ken & Ken) trying to "get away" from the scheitholt terminology?  Would you mind discussing the issue?

But thanks, Ken, for alerting me to the term "arched fretboard".  New word of the day!