Forum Activity for @ken-longfield

Here is a photo of the tuning wrench which came with my ukelin. I imagine a similar one was supplied with the violin uke.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

 IMG_0335.jpeg - 301KB

I think most autoharp tuning pins today are 13/64 ths of an inch by 1.5 inches long. I have a ukelin and can check the tuning wrench that came with it to see if that is the same size. Sometimes you can substitute a t-handle tap wrench for tuning wrench depending upon how much space you have between the pins.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Made by Marx Co. yeah. It's the violin uke, not the ukelin. There's a guy with a website from the late 90's that did historical research on these things. It was quite informative. I'm not really concerned with restringing it just yet, as i need to figure out the size of the tuning pegs and get the correct tool for them. I went the autoharp route, but they don't even seem to know the size of their tuning pegs, which baffles me. I'll get some pictures up soon.

Are you referring to the instrument made by the Marx Company? It bears a strong resemblance to another of their instruments called a ukelin. The plain (unwound) strings can be replaced with plain steel guitar strings. The wound strings can be replaced with wound guitar strings. You will have a lot of string leftover. An alternative is to use autoharp strings, but it is probably more expensive. Use a micrometer to measure the thickness of the strings. As Nate said a photo of the instrument or several photos will help us better help you.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Happy along with his brother, Artie, was a great innovator in providing instruction to folk musicians. I think many of us from that era of folk music appreciated Happy's contributions to and promotion of folk music. He will be missed by family, friends, and those of us who used some of the resources he provided.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for this information, Fiona. That's one of the few issues of DPN that I don't have. It was interesting reading. I sure do miss the Whole Earth Catalog. It was fun to read and leaf through it.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I'm a little late to this chat, but I found an article in the DPN Archives on fine tuning beads that I thought might be of interest: https://archive.org/details/dpn-1975-001-07/page/n5/mode/2up 

I also found John Dubroff mentioned in a publication called the Whole Earth Catalog from the 1970s, in two issues:

- https://archive.org/details/wholeearthcatalo00unse_3/page/21/mode/1up 

- https://archive.org/details/updatedlastwhole00unse/page/334/mode/1up

Sounds interesting id love to see a photo

I bought a violin uke from a friend about 2 years ago. After some research, I found this one is most likely from the 50's. I put it away and didn't think about it until I moved and hey, there it was!  I think I even found someone that makes replacement strings for it but it's pretty pricey. I discovered someone on here had worked with one of these little monsters and was hoping to get some info. I've tried to find anything about the tuning pegs on this thing and can't find answers anywhere.

Can anyone help?

@dusty, Happy brought a lot of good to the world!  

That's right, Robin. I forgot about Jean's Homespun lesson.

Happy's widow Jane posted a nice statement on the Homespun homepage.  Apparently Happy died of pancreatic cancer.

I have Jean Ritchie's Homespun instructional cd & book and am glad I do!  

RIP, Happy Traum.

To my knowledge he never played the dulcimer, but Happy Traum--along with his brother Artie--was an integral part of the folk music scene in the 1950s and 1960s in both Greenwich Village and Woodstock, NY.  He hung around with Pete Seeger and then Bob Dylan and Brownie McGee and David Ronk and was a member of the interracial folk group, The New World Singers.

I never heard Happy perform, but among his accomplishments was to found Homespun Tapes, where he shared instructional material for people who wanted to learn folk music.  Somewhere in my garage I have a bunch of those original cassettes, including one on fingerpicking like Mississippi John Hurt, singing harmony like Robin and Linda Williams, and two unique to Happy: one on hot acoustic licks and another on chords that taught moveable triads all over the fretboard.

Among the instructional videos Happy produced is David Schnaufer's Learning Mountain Dulcimer , still available on DVD or digital download. 

After several years of concentrating on the dulcimer, I decided to go back to playing the guitar a few years ago and now have a bookmarked page on my computer for my Homespun Music's "library" of lessons.  Some of the best are by Happy's kid Adam, who has continued the tradition of mastering folk music and passing on the lessons to others.

Less known than other folk musicians who achieved commercial notoriety for their recordings, Happy was nonetheless an important part of the folk music scene for about 70 years, even to those of us who never met him or heard him play in person.  I learned so much from him.

Here is the Rolling Stone obituary .

Wow, that's an incredible collection! It sounds like you have a wide range of instruments to explore and enjoy. Do you have a favorite among them, or a go-to for certain types of music?

When you're ready to explore more tenor ukulele tabs, there are many resources available online. You can find a wide range of songs and styles on websites like Ukulele-Tabs, UkeTabs, and Ultimate-Guitar. You can also search for specific artists or songs on YouTube and find tenor ukulele covers and tutorials. Have fun exploring and playing

That is a might pretty little travel dulcimer. Ron builds nice instruments. Wish you the best if finding it a new loving home.

This practice/travel dulcimer has 24 3/4" VSL with overall length of 29 5/8". The width is 1 1/2", box depth is 1", total depth is 1 3/4". Handcrafted by Ron Gibson. He began making a few of these with the idea of a quiet dulcimer that was small enough to carry on airplanes and be played in hotels without being too loud. (I learned this after conversing with Ron via email.)

Asking $175 obo. I estimate shipping to be $15-$20 via USPS Ground Advantage.

Thank you everyone for your comments. It is still a work in progress as it is an old case and continues to need some work. I do a little repair and restoration on the outside of the case a couple of day a week. I think the top is finally completely glued in place. I'll be dressing some frets that are a little high in the next few days. Then I will restring it and try to get a sound sample posted.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

That's really clever, Ken.  A dulcimer built right into its case!

Doggone cool, KenL.

Very nice Ken.

Thanks for sharing this Ken.  It brought back fond memories of Mr. Nicholas, as he was the first to introduce me to the dulcimer and spent a whole afternoon teaching me to play.

https://youtu.be/zG7wx-IPK_4?si=AGHct9ds4ggcDYNe

Very creative and cool, Ken! 

That's so cool, Ken!  I like it!  A creative use for an old case.  Hope it sounds great, too, once you finish it up.

Looks like a very interesting project. Can't wait to hear it.

Here is a little project I've been working on. It's not completely finished yet, but enough of it done for me to share it. The sound board is poplar. The fretboard is walnut. There is piece of maple inlaid in to the strum hollow in homage to the violin. The tuning pegs are zither pins. In cleaning out the attic I found this old, empty violin case. I thought I'd turn it into a dulcimer.

 IMG_0328.jpeg - 228KB

One thought occurs to me in all this that you may want to consider.

Hanging these dulcimers so high up on the wall (8 feet?) would present some risk both to the dulcimers and to the person trying to get them down to examine or play. People fall from ladders (especially older people), or instruments could be accidentally dropped from high up, resulting in permanent and/or fatal damage. I think of these things when i store or display items myself.

That's far beyond what I'd want to have showing, but you make a statement about the "single hanging point" that I think I'd agree with -- if it's actually hanging (as I had originally asked).

If it's more or less bolted to the wall, as Ken Hulme seems to suggest, the center of gravity of each displayed object wouldn't much matter.  But I'm still wrestling with the invisibility question; something like fishing leader (or a clear nylon guitar string) was suggested, I think, in the Sam Rizzetta article I cited.  I'm hesitant because stretchy materials tend to lose their tension gradually, over time.  It would be nice to have a "cradle" material that was thin and/or clear -- but would stay as tight as one had pulled it, before hanging the contraption seven or eight feet up.

Spiders seem to manage this sort of task pretty well.

I understand now, Razyn. Indeed I remember the delight of examining your beautiful old dulcimers at that Antietam gathering in the wonderful old barn.  :)

OK, now I understand the requirements. Just have a blacksmith or welder construct five separate cradles, each customized to fit an individual instrument and at your chosen angle. A single hanging point for each is all that is needed. Make them from heavy steel wire (8 gauge ?), paint them black, and cover the contact points with black rubber tube (1/8 in. ?).

This approach requires good craftsmanship which won't come cheap. You could by another good dulcimer for the same price.

I must dissent, not that Wally (and Dusty before him) don't have good ideas on the broad topic of dulcimer displays.  But I'm specifically asking how I might best arrange five dulcimers to tell "The Story of the Dulcimer" visually, as Ralph Lee Smith did with three instruments in the cover illustration of the first edition of his excellent little book on that subject.  I own a couple of "missing links" in the sequence he has documented, there and in the revised 2nd edition, as well as his long-running series in Dulcimer Players News.  And I've specifically proposed a fan shape, over a wide doorway, in a large room with an unusually high ceiling.

Nearly alone in Dulcimerica, you (Strumelia) have actually seen my collection -- six or eight of them -- some years ago at an Antietam Early Banjo Gathering.  Other dulcimer fans who have seen most of them include Roddy Moore; the late Ralph Lee Smith himself; and most recently John Hallberg and Ken Longfield (together), alongside John's large and growing museum collection.  For this proposed, historically informative wall display, none of the five is newer than 1963.  Three of them date from the early to mid-19th century, including a fine German-American zitter (regrettably called a "scheitholt" by most of our community).  All are now in playable, gently restored and unmodified condition; so I might, very occasionally, want to take one or two down to play, or to show someone.  They are in my residence, not a museum.

I like Wally's thought of angled bookshelves. Like say at a 20 degree angle. That way, it would also slightly reduce dust from settling on the instruments. The shelves could be attached without a backboard, and perhaps staggered on the wall, to give a more floating effect.

You might also consider building some sort of angled "bookshelves" or "shadow boxes." That way you could easily take them down to play.

The closest thing I can find as a picture is on

https://www.amazon.com/Rolanstar-Bookshelf-Bookshelves-Bookcase-Organizer/dp/B0CLD2KJLK/ref=asc_df_B0CLD2KJLK/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693769995770&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12067035090039566209&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009439&hvtargid=pla-2273008037708&psc=1&mcid=c43bb487d9ec3f929b6e7a208188e8a7&gad_source=1

@razyn, I appreciate your visions here and think of all the suggestions so far, @ken-hulme's is probably the best, though it will entail some work.

Have you thought about using a slatwall kit instead?  Pegboard would work as well, though it doesn't look as nice.  You could easily get hardware to fit the slatwall to hold your dulcimers at different angles.  And none of it would be permanent, so you could change the display if you added new pieces to the collection or to highlight different kinds of comparisons among the instruments. Some slatwall looks downright elegant.

You can see my lazy approach to hanging dulcimers here:

This is a useful idea, though I remain very reluctant to make the mount itself a prominent element of the display.  Preferably it would be invisible.  But for purposes of discussion, there is not a problem with mounting a fan of five 1x2 planks (each shorter overall than the dulcimer or zitter it will support) directly to the drywall, e.g. with molly bolts.  Individual harnesses, each of which will hold (but can release) one instrument to its custom-sized plank, might differ in the means and location of their unobtrusive attachment mechanisms.  I might seek inspiration at REI or someplace where I can look at nylon web belts, etc. made with quick-release clamps, for things like water bottles attached to bicycles, flare guns to kayaks, or whatever.

The fan of dulcimers will be roughly five and a half feet wide, three and a half feet high, and the lowest point (on the two outside examples) will be seven feet or so above the floor.  The room has about a 16 foot ceiling, not a problem for looking at dulcimers, but a long way to drop one.

I appreciate all the ideas; every instrument deserves its own approach, and some of them may differ, on the wall.  I'll address the fundamental topic as it was more tersely stated by Ken Hulme.

Make a fan of lengths of 1x2 with cross pieces to hold the wide ends apart.  Mount that to the wall with standard hardware, then attach the dulcimers to the angled arms...

Good question......I think I would experiment with eye screws painted to match the color of the wall and plastic clear zip ties or stainless steel zips painted or stained.  Another thought is use some loop end strings, run them through the bottom hitch pins and put the one your going to attach to the wall under one of the strings running through to the bridge, pull it tight and twist it to secure making another loop or wind it around the eye screw or whatever your using. You might be able to make a sort of L bracket out of plastic or vinyl to run your wire through. If your are placing them on dry wall use some plastic or metal anchors with the eye screws..........there is a way but it might be trial and error until you find on that works for the bottom attachment.

 Or If you used a flat rectangular piece of plastic, attached to the wall, behind the instrument you could run that wire from  the hitch pins under the body and tighten it up enough so that the instrument will lay fairly firm against the wall.......wrap your wire under that plastic, through a hole in it and/or around a screw holding the plastic.  If your worried about the screws that you attach the plastic with stick some felt over them.  That way, if the head is secure you could angle them any way you wanted depending on where and how you placed the plastic piece.

Just a thought or two..........

Thanks, Ken, it's the cradle details that bother me.  Some sort of attachment to the back that would hold the negligible weight of an instrument, be almost entirely out of sight, and could be suspended at any angle I wish.  I was thinking of some light harness (twine?) assembled as a loose fit, with maybe a miniature turnbuckle, or similar device to make its grip gentle but firm.  Padded hooks or tabs at the edges where it has to be gripped.

IDK, the dulcimers are all differently shaped but have fronts, backs, and sides.  And of course are old, rare, irreplaceable...  Maybe I should lay them out on the floor, take a photo of the view I want, blow that up, and mount that over the doorway.  But it would have a fraction of the impact, or educational value.  And be two-dimensional.  As you and I well know, John Hallberg has a similar problem, multiplied by some large number.  The Story of the Dulcimer is still worth telling visually.