Forum Activity for @robin-thompson

Pets are family!  

Thank you folks,  She mostly sleeps under an old Magnolia tree nowadays. And Strumelia, she is a sweet girl. When our Daughter was little, and had her buddies around, Callie would watch and herd them, if she thought they were in danger. Here is a photo of her and her best pal, Mouse.  Mouse doesn't like her photo taken, as she is roughly 16 lbs and has body shaming issue.

 Callie and Mouse.jpeg - 196KB

Yes Callie is so pretty - her colors, and she looks like a sweetheart personality.  

This is my old girl, Callie. Found her wandering alongside the road 13 years ago. She is by far th best dog I’ve ever had the pleasure of sharing my home with. In this photo she’s 14, and this was taken a year ago. She’s a very old lady now, and I know it’s just a matter of time, but I told her when I found her, she could live with us as long as she wanted.

i have two cats as well, and the older one bonded with Callie as a kitten. The other night I came home, and in my headlights in the driveway, I see the two of them walking together with the cat nudging Callie away from the hedgerow and back into the center of the path she was on. Good pets are good friends.

 8BDBA950-14C6-4A7A-AE13-BCAB587E0665.jpeg - 394KB

I'll need to check some brochures for certain, but I think in 1976 Musical Traditions dulcimers were made in West Virginia. i do not recall when Hank Levin sold the Musical Traditions line to the folks in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

@maddie It sounds as though you have a treasure!  

I know this is an old post but..I just noticed the Musical Traditions brand on my dulcimer today and did a search and found this so thought I'd write. Wow! Mine does look like these. In 1976 my father and I went to the Fifth String - An acoustic music store on Scott St in San Francisco that had opened not too long before that. My sweet dad bought me my first dulcimer. I still have it today. I will take a photo and post here soon I hope. It does not have a tag inside. I had no idea it originated in Idaho until tonight! My guess is someone at the fifth string put together one of their kits as there would have more profit in it. I think he paid around $65 for it. 

Dusty Tutle: "As you found out, it can be hard to keep the loop ends on until there is enough tension on the string."  I use a set of needle nose pliers to close the loop end so it is just a pressure fit over the pin; it doesn't come off while restringing, but the capo is another good idea. 

Until you get a capo, you can use a short strip of blue painter's tape to hold the loop in place while you change a string.  Probably best not to remove ALL the strings at once.  Pull one, replace one... and repeat. If the bridge is not in a slot on top the fretboard, and you remove all the strings, getting the bridge back in the correct place to the nearest millimeter can be a major problem.

If by "standard" you mean a guitar capo, yeah, that won't work.  Ron Ewing in Ohio makes great dulcimer capos for about $22 or $23.  He usually ships really fast, too. If you're pretty handy on the workbench you can make one of your own.  It's worth having one around even if you don't use it for this tune.

Congratulations, Jimmy. Now that you're so good at changing strings, I have an old autoharp . . . 

Hey, I do have one tip for you which I learned from Butch Ross and can't believe I never though of.  As you found out, it can be hard to keep the loop ends on until there is enough tension on the string.  But you can use a capo to do that for you, which frees up your hands.  So put the loop end on, pull the string taut, and put a capo on to hold it in place.  Then go ahead and wind the string around the tuner.  It's so simple I'm embarrassed that I was changing strings for years and never thought of it.

And don't worry; the 45 minutes will be reduced to 5 or 10 in no time.

I have been playing dulcimer for about a month and a half, and I thought that a string change was in order. The strings looked slightly oxidized, and who knows where this dulcimer was stored, or how long it’s been since the strings were changed.

It takes me about 15-20 minutes to change my guitars’ 6 strings, but I’ve done it so many times.

I was surprised that it took me 45 minutes to change 4 dulcimer strings! At first I thought, “Now why won’t these loop ends stay on the pins?” Then it came to me: I must hold the loop on with a finger, then tighten the tuning head simultaneously with the other hand.

Sounds great with new strings though, and I’m sure that it won’t take as long the next time.

Yep, that's mine! It's the one Howard's holding in his left hand. The number on mine is 001.

How about this ?

Maybe ... I don't know. You'd either have to show me where the photos are or ask Wayne ... :-)

Patricia, maybe that was the one Wayne posted some pictures of.  I remember that ribbon binding.

[quote="Dusty Turtle"]

[quote="Patricia Delich"]

Patricia, I wasn't aware that Howard had started building again when you guys were making the film. I thought he started afterwards, perhaps as a result of renewed attention the film brought it!  And I think I remember Wayne posting some pictures of a small dulcimer that Howard was building for him several years ago. Perhaps that was a prototype.

[/quote]

I attached a photo of Lil Sweetheart. I'll also upload it to my profile page photos. 

 lilsweetheart.jpg - 126KB

Patricia, I wasn't aware that Howard had started building again when you guys were making the film. I thought he started afterwards, perhaps as a result of renewed attention the film brought it!  And I think I remember Wayne posting some pictures of a small dulcimer that Howard was building for him several years ago. Perhaps that was a prototype.

I have one too and I love it! Howard called her "Lil Sweetheart". She made an appearance in our film (Hearts of the Dulcimer).  :-) 

Thanks for listening! We're happy you like the podcast. Our next episode will be "The Orchestral Dulcimer," with Stephen Seifert. It's been a lot of fun making this one!

Dusty,

The red dulcimer on the right in my profile pic is a homemade one that was started in the 40’s, but never completed. I have what I need to finish it, and hope I have the skills but it is quite a bit smaller than my other two, I can’t wait to hear it sing.

I visited Howard a couple of years ago. He was starting to build again at that point. As you can see from the other posts, he is still building very high quality dulcimers.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I re-tune my zither pin dulcimers and other instruments all the time.  As long as you don't pull/push the exposed part of the pin to the side (bending the exposed pin or putting excess pressure on the buried pin) -- and the pins are firmly embedded in a HARD hardwood like Walnut, Maple or harder, then you should have no problem retuning with some frequency.  

Still, if I were you, I would experiment with tunings on an instrument with geared tuners -- until you settle on 2 or 3 tunings that you find useful for most of the tunes you play

Lisa, I do not re-tune my instruments with zither pins by turning the zither pins.  I think lots of re-tuning would strip-out the holes in which your pins are seated.  

Actually, my very first dulcimer was a Folkroots dulcimer.  I played it for several years.  In the early 2000s I started a dulcimer club where I taught, and I passed the Folkroots dulcimer on to a student that had joined the club.  I think she probably still owns it.  

Patricia's link didn't work, probably because it was inadvertently joined to a line of text in her post.  Howard Rugg's website is here: 

http://capritaurusdulcimers.com/

Hi, 

I'm wondering if you like to retune often, if zither pins, instead of conventional tuners would be a problem.

I found a travel dulcimer, but it has pins, and I am trying lots of tunings right now.  Would it wad out the wood quickly it I tuned often?

The headstock design would need some major changes to put in tuners.

Thanks, Lisa

Hi Patricia,

Ken Longfield told me that Howard was still building (or maybe it was Bing).  I have not been in contact with him, but I have had conversations with Richard Ash of Folkcraft instruments. I called him after I heard him on your show! Unabashed plug: Hearts of the Dulcimer is an EXCELLENT podcast....everyone should give it a listen.

Dave

That's awesome!  :-)

Did you know that Howard is still building? http://capritaurusdulcimers.com

I just recalled a couple of songs that the kids in my class seemed to like a lot.

I'm Gonna Tell by Rosalie Sorrels was a favourite.

  I'm gonna tell, I'm gonna tell
  I'm gonna holler and I'm gonna yell
  I'll get you in trouble for everything you do
  I'm gonna tell on you

I'm gonna tell how you broke the plate
And I'll tell all about the bananas you ate
I'll tell on you one time, I'll tell on you two
I'm gonna tell on you!

I'm gonna tell Papa where you hid your gum
And then I'll tell that you still suck your thumb
And soon he'll find out about the cat and the glue
I'm gonna tell on you!

Another that I learned from a Michael Cooney record was one that he called What Do They Make In Washington?
Michael once worked at the Toronto Folklore Centre and he said in the liner notes that his Canadian friends should feel free to change the lyrics for Canuck kids, so I did.  My students sang:


There was a teacher in a fifth grade classroom
Teaching geography;
All about the goods from the different places
All across the country.
Well the lesson was nearly over
When a little kid raised her hand
She said, "Please tell me teacher,
For I do not understand:

  Tell me what do they make in Ottawa
  To give to all of the nation?
  Oshawa people they make the cars
  In Bewdly we take a vacation.
  They grow those big potatoes
  In P.E.I. I know
  But what do they make in Ottawa?
  I really want to know. 

After a few more verses, we come to:

Well, the teacher was bewildered
As teachers often are,
He knew that this young student
Had taken things a little too far
And searching for an answer
This is what he did say,
"That's a very good question.
We'll save it for another day."

Elvensong - and a beauty she is! I bought mine off of craigslist, in the ad it’s said “my Dad bought this years ago and it’s been hanging on his wall ever since”, I think I paid $60.00 for it ( plus $10.00 shipping). It had no strings, I found some info on the internet on what strings  were required, installed them, tuned it, strummed and was very happy at the sound it made. Learned a little more about Dulcimers noodled a lot and didn’t realize how Large it was until I came across a standard dulcimer. Brought her to Tom Fellenbaum ( an outstanding luthier and all around nice guy) and had the 6 1/2 and 1 1/2 half installed opening up my world to the blues. This summer I had the pleasure of taking a class with and spending some time with Bing Futch who’s pretty darn good teacher!

Recently, I acquired my standard dulcimer and decided to string my FolkRoots as a Baritone... sweet and loud! I am very much a student, but they give me great pleasure! Dave

The beauty in my profile pic is a 1987 Folkroots. Gorgeous tone and a lucky find on eBay for $250. I played her in competition at Winfield this year.

Hi Patricia, 

sorry about being late to the party, but I have a Folkroots made in 1974: the label inside says RR&J, Ruggs Ruggs and Jaekel, I believe. It is a behemoth! It is the one on the left in my profile pic.

Dave

Hi Lisa,

i have a Naylor Dulcimer, pre buyout, and I just acquired it. The instrument has a very nice sound and I find it easy to play. I also have a early Folkroots that is a behemoth. I just completed restring on both, ( thank you Ken)And I very much like the sound and sustain of both of them.

ahhhhhh, thanks Robin.  thanks for looking at us when we only had 8 at home.  That was my first dulcimer, and my first bowed psaltery.  All grown up now....youngest one there was three...now 33.  sigh.  I loved raising our big family and they all still love each other...music being a huge part in raising our family.  They all play one or two instruments and all sing.  An play a LOT of games in more ways then one.  ha.  We're going to have another family reunion this August. aloha, irene