What Matt said -- there is no standard arrangement of dots; I put them at
3 to mark the start of the Ionian scale,
4 to mark the start of the Dorian scale and to indicate where to fret the bass string to tune the middle drone,
7 to mark the end of the Mixolydian scale and
10 to mark the end of the Ionian scale
Fret markers go where they are of most use to the musician. 3-5-7-10 tend to be positions frequently used by many musicians.
When building chromatic dulcimers, I will sometimes use guitar marking, the same 3-5-7-10, but that would be a 2-3-4-6 on a diatonic dulcimer.
In other words, whatever works for you.
Well, first, it shows that McSpadden does not understand the art of lutherie. The bridge is not compensated, the saddle is compensated,..., and no, it doesn't change just because you are making a dulcimer.
That aside, because of the difference in gauge of strings, thicker strings tend to become sharp as you play higher and higher frets. To adjust for this, the saddle is angled so that the distance from nut to saddle (bridge) is greater for the thicker strings. Longer distances tend to produce lower notes. This keeps the thicker strings from becoming sharp as you play up the scale.
In the guitar world, a compensated saddle will not only be angled, but frequently has recesses carved into the saddle itself.
A compensated saddle does not prevent a musician from playing DAA. Simply string the instrument with a thinner melody string, maybe a nine, and a thicker middle string, maybe a 12 or 14. Works just fine.
What is a bridge compensation or what does it mean?
McSpadden listed below post if you wanted to play in DAd
" If you expect to play only in D-A-dd, we recommend ordering the bridge compensation option to optimize playability in that tuning."
With scalloped fretboards do you ever need to worry about warping or how they are placed on?
Most fret markers I see are place at the 3, 5, 7, 10 etc.
Why would one be place on the 9 & 11?
Is their a reason for putting them at certain frets, is 9 & 11 where someone wanted them or someone just didn't know where they should go? Or is it just me not knowing where they go?
joe,
Do you remember what you thought of his dulcimers, if they were made well? Strange someone can make something for some years, yet google the name & nothing.
i remember the dulcimer builder that i knew as bob around that time. i'm sure his instruments were for sale. he
built dulcimers on special order. he once gave me the most beautiful piece of butternut i've ever seen
The answers to your questions are
Maybe
Probably
Has anyone ever hear of Robert LeFever? He made dulcimers for the Ozark Folk Center back in the 90's. No one there knows anything before 2000, they carried McSpaddens till 2006 but do not carry any dulcimers now. LeFever was also a member of the Ark. Graft Guild.
Questions:
If Robert sold his dulcimers out of the Folk Center, would his dulcimer quality be as we would expect?
If Robert was a member of the Graft Guild wouldn't his instruments be well made?
Any thoughts?
No photos at this point
You don't need "saw slots" like those already in place. You can use a triangular needle file to make "slots" just a bit deeper than the diameter of the strings.
Sweet brother, nice dulcimer
Thanks, Ken. Never considered a non-equidistant string arrangement for noters. Yes, new slots are in my future, but in the meantime, I'll have to break out my noter.
Action height is an easy fix -- a nickel, a dime and sandpaper will do the trick.
Never see string spacing quite like that... Almost a 4 string with doubled bass and melody courses. If you are a chord-melody style player you may want to re-cut some slots to get a spacing that will work for you. As a noter-drone players, I would shift everything except the melody couplet as far out as it will go, so there is room for my noter.
My brother purchased this dulcimer online. The gentleman who sold it said it was his son's mother-in-law's who had recently passed, but it had hung on the wall and nobody ever saw her play it. He also has a sitar of hers that was in terrible shape. :-) My brother knew I liked dulcimers and thought the instrument was in good shape and the soundboard was attractive. Also, it was built the same year as my daughter was born, so having an instrument as old his niece was fun. It had one string. So I added three more strings, but the slots on the bridge and nut were not where I would expect. I was expecting a slot in the center in the fretboard for the middle string. Any ideas on the slot configurations? Also, the action is a bit high up the fret board. I do like it's sound.
When I opened the case it still had the original pamphlet. I've attached some pictures. Anyway, my brother is really cool and I can't wait to get the modifications made. If anybody has any additions insights to this dulcimer maker or his instruments, please share.
Thank you,
Tom
I agree with Dusty. Good ideas! We started our group in Gold Canyon AZ using 4 core players who met at a LaCrosee WI workshop. We posted a notice in our RV park in AZ and got a couple of others. We circulated at the New Mexico dulcimer festival and picked a couple of others. Very usefully, we posted our group on Everyhing Dulcimer and we got several members that way. We still get regular inquiries from that posting.
We meet every week in our RV Park facilities for two hours. As Dusty said it is vital to play music at both beginner and advanced levels. My wife and I will often show up early to provide instructions for beginners. We play a set of core tunes that we all know but we often introduce at least one new tune. Members are prompted to bring in new material and teach it over several sessions until most members are comfortable playing it. If most of us really like a new tune it gets added to the core set. So the meetings usually include both a sort of jam and a sort of workshop.
The hardest part is keeping the early beginners and the very advanced players both interested. Too hard and the beginners stop coming and too easy and the really good players stop coming. We have had both happen to us so you need to keep trying to reach a good balance of stuff.
You also need a reasonably sized group. Our core group is 8 to 10 with as many as 16. My ideal group would be 12 to 16 or so players. It's also nice to have another instrument or two. We have a hammered dulcimer player who comes regularly. She is a good player and has good timing. Her instrument sounds enough different from the mountain dulcimers that beginners can use her to keep on beat. We also have an occasional guitar player but they seem to get tired of playing in D.
We do play music in other keys, with and without capos, which is great for learning stuff you can play with other instruments and expanding repertoire.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the pointers, Dusty. I'm getting together with a couple group leaders and getting their input as well. Then I'll contact a couple possible location sites and take it from there. You are always so helpful. Thanks again, Dulcinina
I think uke is a perfect 2nd instrument for MD players. Most of us start MD playing melody on traditional modal tunes. While a uke is just begging you to strum chords and sing Leon Redbone songs. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, uke makes us approach music from a new perspective. That can't help but make us smarter all around.
I used to worry about balancing time between instruments, but I finally realized they do not care (unlike my family, friends, coworkers and cats). So I play what I'm in the mood to play.
Colleen, my Fluke has friction tuners and they give me no problems. Have you taken a screwdriver to the screws at the ends of the tuning pegs? Mine need adjusting once or twice a year. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. It does take patience to get used to the tiny movements (like a few ticks of a clock) necessary to get friction pegs in tune. OTOH, when you change strings it's a whole lot faster! Magic Fluke sells Peghead geared tuners, but they are not cheap. Some people attach ordinary cheap geared tuners, but those are heavy and put the uke out of balance IMHO. Search the Ukulele Underground forums and you'll find lots of tips for modifying Flukes.
(Public Service Announcement: Do NOT look at the Ukulele Marketplace forum.) 
If you put a strap button on the bottom, the Fluke will no longer be able to stand up by itself. Magic Fluke sells a velcro strap; I haven't tried it but I assume it works. Try fluorocarbon strings on the Fluke. I'm currently in love with a set of Oasis Warm strings, but if you like the bright ring of a spruce top then you might prefer Oasis Bright or Martin M600.
Speaking of cats (I was a minute ago, wasn't I?) my avatar Nick was born in the household of someone I met at uke club. As far as Nick knows, all human females play ukulele. I would hate for him to learn otherwise.
Colleen, I understand how you feel about friction tuners. My Gretsch banjolele came with them. My fondness for the instrument (it was so darn cute!) made me play it a lot and I got used to the tuners. Now they are still not my first choice but I am OK with them.
If you think ukes are fun, banjoleles are even better. The folks I jam with like having another instrument voice. Like all banjos, they are finicky little instruments so if you don't like to fiddle with your instruments, banjoleles are not for you. I also recommend getting a good set up initially.
My favorite is my Kala ST-G spruce top tenor. Found it used at a local guitar store. I keep my original Kala concert in my office to strum on for a few minutes at lunch time. There's a Kala soprano that I have my eye on too...And...my third is a concert Fluke that I got on Craigslist. Unfortunately, I have barely touched that one. I'm thinking of finding someone to add geared tuners and a button strap. Not fond of the friction tuners, but should probably give them another chance. Lisa Golladay, does your Fluke have geared tuners? I'm happy with my mid-range ukes right now as I don't play well enough to justify purchasing a higher end one. If I progress well enough, I might start looking at banjoleles, but that is a ways down the line.
I actually have learned more about music since I've had this. (sorry, don't know quote function) Much to the no doubt despair of my uke teacher, I still haven't picked up any music theory. I know that there is tons online about ukes, but I'm going for in-person lessons for now.
The downside is that the new instrument is exciting and my interest in practicing the dulcimer has dropped off quite a bit--it's like trying to divide your attention between two kids...
July... it's mid blueberry time in our garden! Also now the first year we're getting substantial raspberries. I've been picking string beans and making big bowls of green beans vinaigrette (adding varying other ingredients like black beans, corn, red peppers etc). I gave the first big head of cabbage to my daughter when she visited, but now it's time to cut one for us and make nice coooool cole slaw!
I've been able to keep up with my new modest fitness walking goal- twice a week doing a brisk 2.5 miles in the village fairgrounds, which has lots of nice paths with no car traffic. Sometimes Brian comes with me which is nice.
Well I made the plunge 3 months ago and bought a Kala Ziricoat Tenor and couldn't be happier. I actually have learned more about music since I've had this. Yes I still put many hours on my Folkcraft, but what fun the Uke is.
$50? The case itself is worth that!
You got quite a deal, indeed! If you keep it, you've got quite a bit of interesting musical history there. When old buildings were torn down, Homer was right there to reclaim the wood, as old wood with history--especially music history--makes the best instruments!
If you're not doing anything Labor Day weekend, fly into Lexington, KY and come attend the Homer Ledford Dulcimer Festival in nearby Winchester, KY. On Thursday there will be a talk on Homer and his instruments at the local history museum with famed dulcimer player Don Pedi. He'll have many old instruments for people to look at--and maybe try out--and there will be time to tour the small museum and see Homer's shop which was moved over from his nearby home. You can sit in on some jams, maybe attend some workshops on Sat. and there will be a fantastic blow-your-socks-off concert with some of the country's finest musicians Sat. night.
I'm so glad you got to meet Bob and Janita Baker, too! What a great immersion into the dulcimer world!
It gets worse... I started exploring them at my local Guitar Center. My favorite lower priced brand is Cordoba, higher priced is Kala.
Kala makes some really nice ukes. I have a mahogany-laminate bari with a fine deep voice and I've been sorely tempted by their cedar/acacia models which are lovely for fingerpicking. Ohana, Pono and Mainland are other good mid-priced brands. As if we needed more ukes!? But above any of those, I firmly believe every uke player needs and deserves a Fluke . USA-made, nearly indestructible and astonishing tone for the price.
Alas, I made the mistake of joining a uke club full of enablers who play high-end ukes and allow me to try them out. Mostly I can resist but sometimes... Well, let's just say I love my Blackbird Clara, I got her used, and she was totally worth it.
But in my heart of hearts, I love my 17-year-old Fluke the best.
We're lucky we don't like guitars! 
It gets worse. I started with a no name soprano uke a year and a half ago. I had given up guitar 20-30 years ago due to fibromyalgia hand problems but wondered if a tiny little instrument might work. Well it did but I now have a virtual petting zoo of stringed instruments.
The ukes will always have a special place in my heart. They can be toys, nothing wrong with that! but you can also play some of them like little classical guitars and on some instruments achieve some really nice sounds.
I started exploring them at my local Guitar Center. My favorite lower priced brand is Cordoba, higher priced is Kala. You may be able to try some out at the store. On line, Guitar Center has a large selection of new and used ukes and other stuff. One advantage is you can return them to the store and get a refund if you are not happy. Another advantage is you can flip your instruments if you find you really like ukes and want to upgrade.
To learn uke, there are lots of You Tube videos. Marcy Marxer is good and you can get more complete lessions on True Fire if you decide you like her style.
Sorry, probably more than you wanted to know!
Barb
Apparently Ukulele Acquisition Disorder is as much of a thing as DAD.
(nods sadly in agreement, looks at credit card statement, crawls under desk to hide)
So, I am now on my third ukulele... Apparently Ukulele Acquisition Disorder is as much of a thing as DAD. I now have a Fluke style concert, my original Kala CEM and a Kala tenor. Can play some chords now but strumming still a bit of a challenge. I was a slow learner on the dulcimer and will undoubtably be so on the ukulele as well.
I'll see what I can do about recording Lay The Bend... and post it here. I got the tune from Mark Gilston, who posted it on YouTube a few months ago; it's in Ionian Mode.
I've gotten a lot of mileage and fun lately out of a tune that I learned from an 1800s banjo instruction book- Old Dan Emmett's Waltz . It took me forever to learn to play it on the banjo- has three different parts and the 3rd part is wildly syncopated on banjo... Brian learned to play a fiddle part he made up, and it took us months to get the tune together on fiddle and banjo, but it's sooo fun to play and so pretty.
And now for the past couple of weeks I'm trying to learn to play harmony parts for it on my epinette, with Brian playing the melody on fiddle. It means a whole NEW bunch of learning, like a whole different tune to learn now, on epinette as harmony.
But again, it's such a pretty 3-part waltz, and when we manage to play it without too many mistakes, it's a grand feeling. 
Between my playing it on the banjo in melody, and playing it on the epinette in harmony, I'd say this particular tune is giving Brian and me a whole lot of fun !
KenH- that sounds like a song I would really enjoy hearing. Very old fashioned. Modern songs would just have it that the person "locked the door"... but the old songs always made things unusual, with special meaning or emphasis- she "locked the door with a silver pin". To me it implies that the door was a metaphor for her heart or her favors. I really love that they would put such wonderful rich details into little bits of the story.
I read this early this morning and got right to my dulcimer and played it right smack up. I love that song and had not sang it in years.....I used to have my pile of kids in a big van and we'd sing going down our bumpy, muddy road to Kamahamaha Hwy. Kids can't argue when they're singing so we sang all the time in our big van. aloha, irene
Dulcinina, about 5 years ago I started a dulcimer group from scratch. I had perhaps three or four email addresses that I collected at a dulcimer festival about three hours from where I lived. One of those original people agreed to host the event at her house. Initially I recruited pretty heavily, looking through the member lists here and at Everything Dulcimer to find anyone within a few hours and invited them. The first gathering we had perhaps 5 people, but we met every month and now the only times we've skipped a month has been when our meeting date was too close to a major holiday.
Towards the end of the first year I started a website to list tab for the songs we were playing and announce our meeting dates. That website helped bring in a lot of people and I still get a new inquiry about every other month. There are some tricks to building a website in order to get "hits" on search engines, so make sure you put the name of the town or at least a nearby city, the state you're in, the word "dulcimer" and any other obvious words on the home page of your website.
Eventually, a nearby music store heard about us and asked if we'd like to meet there instead. I thought people would prefer the privacy of a home, but moving to the store helped us get a lot more publicity, and we've been meeting there ever since. We've had as many as 20 people show up (a lot for the west coast) but never less than 6. For a while the music store was using the social site Meetup to announce our gatherings, and I'm sure we got some people that way, but we don't do that anymore. I've thought about putting up flyers at other obvious spots, but we seem to have enough people so that kind of publicity hasn't been necessary.
One trick to keeping the group going is to make sure it appeals to people of all levels. We begin our weekly gathering with a free beginners lesson. I think that's important if you want newbies to join. Eventually people stop considering themselves beginners and skip that part, but it's good to keep it open. The second hour we devote to group play of our common tunes, a list that has been growing slowly. Our third hour is a kind of song circle when people can play a song solo, call out a tune for group play, or just "pass" and sit and listen. This third hour was created at the request of the beginners who wanted to hear what the more advanced players were playing, but it is a nice space for intermediate and advanced players to have an informal and friendly audience to work on new arrangements before they're fully ready for prime time. At the end we enjoy some finger food and friendly banter. This organization, which evolved over time, has been key to keeping our gatherings interesting for people of different skill levels.
I'm in Somerset, KY, 75 miles south of Lexington.
