Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

That's another subject Don.  I'll answer it in another post so we can keep subject separate and easier to find.

I build solid wood Dulcimer Cases, fully lined and hand-painted.

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I have purely diatonic instruments and those with 6.5 frets and love 'em all!  I retune plenty using a false nut (at fret 1 and fret 4) from my "home base" tuning of DAA and am happy to have those extra frets when I want them.  

Are you looking for a case?  A dulcimer by this builder?  Or the combination of case and instrument?

Yep that is nominally DAA tab.  I've not seen other tab or publications by Tom Arnold.  Anyone else??  He must be assuming (somewhat erroneously) that everyone has a 6+ fret on their instrument.  

Not seen other DAA tab with 6+ or other added frets either...

Don, Thanks for posting the pictures! I was just going by a tab book of hymns that I have. Yes, those particular hymns do have accidentals. Checked them out in my Baptist Hymnal 2008. If you look at Robin's video he demonstrates how to get those in between notes. On dulcimers that don't have a 6 1/2 fret that is what you'll have to do. It's not hard. If I can do it you can too. You have a nice long space between the 6 and the 7th fret. In between is where the 6 1/2 fret would be but you really don't need it. Just touch the string with your noter in between the 6 and 7th fret then touch then end of the noter onto the fret board. As I said if you go to about 13:18 on Robin's video that I posted he demonstrates how to do that. It would be worth your time to look at the whole video. I'm assuming you want to play noter/drone style.

I found Robin's video. If you like noter drone this is definitely worth watching and watching over and over again to get the techniques. Watch at about the 13:18 mark for getting those in between notes.

There are some hymns that have accidentals. Blessed Assurance is one example. I play that in DAA on my Prichard replica. The second line first measure there is a sharp (accidental) on the third note...above the word divine...note above di. I take my noter between the frets and hit the fret board while touch the string. It's kind of like bending the strings. So, on some hymns there are accidentals but you can get that in between note with the noter by placing it between the frets and touching the string with the noter touching the fret board. Robin Clark demonstrated that on his noter techniques video. Not sure if it is still on this site. As Robin said, to have a book of hymn tab that requires a 6 1/2 may be unusual. It may be tab for DAd. I usually use a hymnal and pick out some favorite hymns to play. I try to do it by reading the notes but sometimes I cheat and tab them out, LOL. I've had to transpose some but Rob Lackey helped me out on ones I've had trouble with. 

Bill Berg of Mountain Made Dulcimers and Blue Lion both offer very substantial wooden cases similar to what you describe. I have seen a few others over the years but don't recall which who are still alive and/or making instruments and cases.  The TKL cases out of Canada are very sturdy.

TKL Products Corp or  http://www.jamesjonesinstruments.com/mountaindulcimer/mdcases.html for these cases.

http://www.mountainmademusic.com/dulcimer.asp

http://www.bluelioninstruments.com/cases.html

That would be very unusual for DAA TAB.  Are you sure it is not DAd TAB?

I use all those extra frets fairly regularly, in (DAA type) ionian tuning.  I like to play lots of renaissance and medieval music, and those tunes seem to have many accidentals in them which call for those odd sharps and flats in the middle an otherwise major/normal tune.

I also used those extra frets a whole lot when playing minor sounding archaic oldtime fiddle tunes.  I can't explain why, but I just needed them to get through the tunes.

Did you look in your browser's History to try to relocate the link where you had seen it?

I sometimes use the 6.5 (and 13.5) fret when playing in DAA tuning, but not often. I don't own any instruments with other extra frets.  Mostly I find them useful when playing chord style in DAd tuning.

Is there a maker who traditionally sold his instruments in wooden cases with metal caps on the corners to protect from damage?  I was searching around on this forum and other places on the Internet over the holiday weekend and saw this and can't find it now.   Very curious.   Thanks!

Another "Never". 

Like Robin I prefer my fretboards unadulterated with extra frets.  As he says, it's just cleaner, and I don't mind re-tuning a single string to change modes -- takes less than a minute usually.  DAA, DAC, DAG, DAd  just change the melody string to change the mode.   I keep another dulcimer tuned Ccc for singing with as that keynote suits my voice much better.  The Bagpipe tuning -- Ddd, Ccc etc. does for dulcimers without additional frets what the 6+ fret does for those who tune DAd  -- it allows me to play at least two modes --  Ionian and Mixolydian, and 'cheat' Dorian and sometimes Aeolian using grace notes to work around missing incidentals.

Never Don,  my personal preference is for a pure diatonic fret board with no extra frets at all.  I find it much easier and cleaner when using a noter.  The standard 6 1/2 and 13 1/2 frets are pretty nonsensical notes when playing in DAA.  And re-tuning for other modes is pretty straightforward.  I do sometimes use a 6 1/2 for Galax dulcimer playing from d,d,d,d and e,e,d,d

Ken , I very much appreciate your comments. All this amazing internet stuff, you in USA, & me in Australia, asking you questions!. Yesterday a friend dropped me off a couple of “black camphor” logs, so will start milling them up today, they are already dried. Then I can start making. I have already secured a redo drum pad and the rest of the hardware. I very much enjoy the building as well as the playing. Any chance of a photo of the one you built?

That's the kind I've built -- basically a wider, longer dulcimer body combined with a 6" tambourine that is free floating and perched on 3 or 4 stub legs to hold it at the correct height.  The free floating bridge sets just aft of center on the drumhead.

Thanks for the reply Ken, I am about to start  building one. You have swayed me toward the drum in a box model.

I've heard both "drum in a box" and "drum on a 2x10" type banjimers.  IMHO the "drum in a box" types sound much more like a banjo -- both in  sound a volume. 

Sorta like the difference between hearing an acoustic guitar and a solid body electric guitar being played acoustically (not plugged in to anything).  They both sound like "guitar" but the acoustic sound MUCH better.

Has anyone had experience with both types of banjammer / banjimmer MD one being, the flat Remo drum on a board type, and a Remo drum enclosed in a sound box type. What are the sound differences? volume differences? Does one sound more like a banjo than the other? From memory I think I saw a post from some one who has made both, but I cannot find the post......maybe I was in dreamworld

Dave

Beautiful dulcimer. Best wishes on your dulcimer journey. Thanks for posting the pictures.

I picked up my first (and only) dulcimer on November 9th.  I found her in a flea market.  I checked her very carefully the day I found her; she seemed to be in great shape, had one string broken.  I asked the price but didn't buy her.  I went home and researched the maker's name to learn what I could, then I went back the next day and checked her out some more.  I started talking price with the owner, but he was being squirrelly, denied having told me the price he'd given me the day before.  I finally told him I was going out of town and if she was still there when I got back I'd look at her again.  He threw a price at me "if you take it today" as I went toward the door.  I told him I'd think about it and left.  But I had decided that I was going to have to give her a pass; I had the money to buy her but was saving it for my trip.  It was just luck that I had gone by this place and that the dulcimer was there.  But I felt really bad; I wanted to get that instrument. 

Based on my research and the answers I received when I posted questions on Everything Dulcimer, I knew this dulcimer was something I needed to snag.  That just caused me more angst. But I was leaving in a few days for Native Rhythms, a native American flute festival in Melbourne, FL, something I had been planning and saving for.  Well, on the 9th as I was heading out on my trip I detoured back over to the store, which was an hour out of my way.  I had called the day before and learned that the dulcimer was still there.  I finally reached an agreeable price with the owner, though he still tried to get extra money for the case (in bad shape, has to be replaced).  I stuck to my guns and he gave in, though.

So my new dulcimer went along for the ride to Native Rhythms.  While I was there I met Marsha Harris, a fine musician on both dulcimer and native American flute.  I showed her the instrument.  Marsha put a new string on, tuned her, and gave me some pointers on playing.  She confirmed what I had learned about my new instrument and that she was in good shape.

So who made her?  She's on my lap in my profile picture above.  The maker was Morris Jethro Amburgey, the son of Jethro.  He crafted her in 1978, #73.  I know she's not really an instrument for a beginner (so I've been told, twice), but that doesn't worry me.  I feel very privileged to be the caretaker of this beautiful dulcimer.  She's not a Jethro, but she's a dulcimer that comes in a direct line from Uncle Ed Thomas through Jethro Amburgey to Morris.  I appreciate the significance of that.  I am so happy to finally be able to learn to play, something I've wanted for a couple of decades.  And I feel sure that if I ever decide to sell her I will be able to.  I'm (hopefully) posting some photos, some now and some later from my phone.  You'll note in the second set that the frets don't extend all the way across.  I've been told that Jethro would do that, too.  There is no paper label inside.  Instead the maker info is carved into the strum hollow.  I've seen photos where Jethro did the same.

So there's my l-o-n-g story of my first dulcimer.  She probably will not be my last, if this follows the same route as my history with my native American flutes.  They do tend to multiply...

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From the photo, it looks like the spruce top (?) has broken away from the fret board and some spruce is still attached to the fret board. (A good glue joint is stronger than the wood, so that may be the case.) If that's so, (and it looks like the joint between the head stock and fingerboard is firm) then the wood may have shrunk and separated. At any rate, consider fixing/filling the gap with a liberally glued and snug fitting shim. That would secure the two parts again.

   Hello CD, if the fingerboard pulled away from the soundboard then clamp as Ken said. If the soundboard pulled away from the fingerboard, then clamping would warp the fingerboard. If its the latter then add a shim between them. Its a common problem with all dulcimers over time where the soundboard pulls away a little bit from the fingerboard, usually on one side. If your dulcimer plays well as is, then you might want to leave well enough alone. Wood is very fluid over time its all a part of getting old I guess... Robert.

I'm in Louisville most of the time right now...at least til the early part of December.  I miss you all, too!

Slack the strings.

Use a large C clamp and padding right where the fretboard ends, and see if you can GENTLY squeeze the gap shut, even just a little.  If so, that's better/good.  Use thick, slo-setting superglue and clamp for a couple minutes until things set. Otherwise you'll have to fill the gap.

Use painter's tape to mask the sides and under the arch, and use thick superglue to fill the gap.  This may take several applications.

  Tomato season ended here November 10th. Longest season in my memory. Got mobbed by customers looking for their last real tomato until next summer. Even the greens went. Ill spend all of January cleaning up. In the mean time I'm  sleeping late and learning new tunes... Robert.

Oh man, once tomato season winds down, I lose all interest in working in my veggie garden, and the weeds always get the best of me.  Dang!  I love gardening digging/planting/weeding/picking in the Spring and all Summer.... but by Fall my spare time energy usually turns to sewing, knitting, cooking, and playing music (aside from my regular day job, I mean...I'm not retired yet).

This Fall the weeds got especially out of control since I was sick for a couple of months at the end of Summer.  What a mess the garden became...difficult to even walk through it.      And the perennial flowerbed, and the overgrown thorny raspberry patch and the masses of 7 feet tall decorative grasses...  I really needed someone strong to come in and help clean up before Winter.  But I had a heck of a time finding someone who either wasn't all booked up or didn't cost a fortune.  The fellow who has helped me in the past had moved away.  I kept making phone calls, following leads...and the days were ticking by and it was getting colder.    The forecast is predicting some snow and sub-freezing after this next week, so I was really getting nervous that I'd have a horrendous mess on my hands next Spring if I couldn't get someone in time.

The good news is I found a fellow who was available, happy to work for a decent rate, and who knew what he was doing.  

Yay!- this swell feller came today with his pickup truck and wheelbarrow and hedge trimmer and clipper....and he was like a tornado going through the beds and paths pulling weeds and raking and clearing.  I bought a ton of mulch at Agway and he went to pick it all up with his truck, and he'll rototill my veggie beds, then spread the mulch for me... 40 big bags of wood chips/a whole pallet, and 8 bales of straw.  He's going to save my lower back for sure, and i won't spend the winter dreading Spring!