Forum Activity for @sheryl-st-clare

  Lucky you! It's beautiful. 

The fine tuners were a great accessory to the wooden tuners for many folks. The wooden tuners still need to be conditioned, but the fine tuners will be used to make final adjustment. The fine tuners are the old Suzuki standard. They work by "pinching" the string to tighten the tension in turn raising the pitch of the string. To tune the instrument loosen the fine tuners, tune the string to just flat of pitch with the wooden tuners, then tighten the fine tuner to bring the string into pitch. Hope this helps,

DAN

www.dulcimore.com

I just got lucky enough to come into a Homer Ledford YP-1900, in great shape, but a first for me, is the violin fine tuners, have numerous other dulcimers but never have had these tuners on any of them.

 So, simply put, how do they work, just looking for any suggestion on how to use them, I am simply tuning it now with the wooden pegs which are very tight on this dulcimer, and can get a very close, accurate tuning, but was curious how to refine it using the fine tuners.

 Thanks, as always, in advance.

 IMG_1693.jpg - 145KB

Here's my "Possum Box" with my Uncle Ed Thomas replica.  The box is built from 1/4" thick poplar boards from Home Despot, and instead of hinges, the top (seen my my right foot long with straps and a pick bag) is held on with a pair of 1" web straps.  I can use the top itself as a possum board, but I found that the upside down box gives me even more volume.

The Thomas replica has three feet on its bottom, so I don't need any 'riser' strips to free up the back to vibrate.  The next box I build will be for my Virginia Hogfiddle by Bobby Ratliff, which does not have feet.  For that box I'll add two riser strips full width across the outside bottom of the box spaced to properly support the dulcimer.

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Hi all.  I just wanted to mention that Guitar Center itself is also doing a similar deal package deal on the Loudbox mini for $329.95.  Only real difference is the microphone:

Audio-Technica M4000S Handheld Dynamic Microphone

Gear One Lo-Z Mic Cable 20 Feet

Musician's Gear MS-220 Tripod Mic Stand with Fixed Boom

Fishman Loudbox Mini

The fun thing about diatonic instruments is working with a limited scale and octaves. If you play a whistle you know what I mean. An option in Dad or Ddd to reaching over, is to play from the upper octave and use the lower octave for the reach over notes. One reason I play mostly in Daa is because I get most of those lower notes on the melody string... Robert 

Yes, I was, Ken. Can't say that happened the last time I was in. But, that's another story!

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

You we sure being nice, Ken.  I'd have called Sweetwater while the Guitar Center Manager was still standing there!  Buddy of mine did that with them over an Internet deal on a capo; they refused to sell him the store display model.

Yes, it is Dusty. I tried to get the same deal at Guitar Center. They advertise that they will meet any Internet price. Showed the salesperson the Sweetwater website. He went to talk with a manager and returned 45 minutes later. I didn't mind as I was playing guitars in their acoustic room. They told me they couldn't do it because they did not have the same brand cable. I said that it didn't matter to me, but they told me it had to be exactly the same. They were selling the Loudbox Mini for $329. I went out to their parking lot, called Sweetwater and had the package in three days.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

HI y'all!  I am sandi, and I was very active on dulcimer sites while learning after I first got my dulcimer in 2003.  The help and companionship of dulcimer friends online has always been AMAZING.  I have a Walnut Creek from Craggy Mountain Music that I bought sight unseen after learning about the mountain dulcimer, all because of the very kind Beverly who was so wonderful on the phone when I called.  :)  My goal was to have hymn sings with visitors to my home, as I so loved our Pastor's wife getting us around the piano whenever we visited her.  :)

I am a homeschooling mama with six children, so I had some years in there where my dulcimer was tucked away.  I have always wanted to play more but didn't know how to fit it in.  Now maybe I'm needing it?  LOL!  My current plan is to purchase a custom (Wren?) from Feather Dulcimers, and I am very excited.  I always wanted BIGGER and LOUDER to play in groups, but the practicality of a small instrument to store and pull out and travel with is now very, very appealing.  

That's it, I think!  I'm so happy to be back among you!

ETA that I'm dying to master this instrument.  It's simplicity has always appealed to me, but there is also much to master and grow with for the rest of your life should you want to.

Thank you, Dusty Turtle!  Ken, I like that idea.  I actually have some ideas of ways I could do it myself...  Y'all are so amazingly filled with knowledge!  ~I have missed my dulcimer peeps~  I so appreciate your sharing with me!

Yep, a pre-made shelf from Home Despot would do the trick.  Might be a bit heavy, but so what.  IMHO the advantage of a "plank" with a couple riser strips is that it will fit a wide variety of instruments.

If you're going to have a dulcimer built, Sandi, I would have the builder add short little feet to it, like many of the old dulcimers had, so that any hard surface becomes a second back.

Welcome to our corner of musical Paradise.  You may be interested in the article I wrote several years ago and recently updated, called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?  It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms plus answers to many of the beginner questions about tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new friend.  Here's the revised edition.

I Just Got A Dulcimer 2016.pdf - 1.1MB

I too have a Cedar Creek Dulcimer kit. I love it. It was so much fun building it. I wish I could build them all the time.

That's a good deal, Ken. And that amp sure is a beast. It's amazingly small, but you can plug in an instrument and a vocal mic and set the volume and other controls for them separately.  The volume is more than enough for a medium-sized room.

Sweetwater has a nice deal on a Fishman Loudbox Mini with a microphone, cable, and stand for $329 which is what most places ask for just the amp. I use this now more often than plugging the instruments in to the amp. Here is the link:  http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LoudBoxMiniPK

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Ok, got it!! Thank you! Love the hat!

Basically, you got it, Dana.  I can't draw so be glad that I am not trying.

Here is a pic of me playing my Ron Ewing baritone dulcimette at the faculty concert of the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering.  There are two mics in use, one by my left foot for vocals and one by my right foot pointed directly at my dulcimer. (And notice that it doesn't have to get that close.) I switched between two dulcimers that day, and you can see that I wouldn't have to make any adjustments to the mics (although the sound guy did have some work to do in terms of equalization, I'm sure).

That day the mics probably went directly into the PA system, but when I plug in by myself, they go into my little Fishman Amp.  I'm sure there are lots of mics out there, but the Shure SM 57 is the workhorse instrument mic that is ubiquitous in studios everywhere, and the Shure SM 58 is the same but for vocals.

Ok, Dusty, I'm going to play the ignorant person here. Are you saying get a microphone stand, like what Elvis sang into (I'm showing my age and my first crush :) ) and put a mic on it called the Sure M57 and I'm assuming you place this right up close to the dulcimer?? And the Mic attaches to the amp?  If you can draw a cartoon, that would be even better. :) :) 

Sandi, as you can see from this discussion, a board on the bottom of your dulcimer doesn't have to have the tight fit of a possom board. Check out Peter Tommerup who just uses a wooden shelf .

Folks, I am no technophile, and maybe that's the problem. I've spent time trying to find a good external pickup (long ago I gave up on finding great ones) and do have some ideas about how to attach them with no risk to your dulcimer's finish.  I've posted that in other discussions here and will edit my comments with a link if I can find them.

However, over time I've just come to accept that (as Paul and Robin have said) a good mic such as the Shure M57 is the best way to go.  It is also the simplest in the sense that you don't have to struggle with puddy or double-sided tape or anything.  And you can switch instruments with no adjustments.  A couple of months ago I played a short gig and was using two dulcimers. One has an internal pickup and one doesn't.  But rather than work with the internal pickup and then a mic, I just used the mic for both. The sound guy had me play both instruments, noted what his settings should be, and all I had to do was play.  No plugging in pickups, no transfering from one instrument to another. It couldn't have been simpler, and the sound was an accurate representation of the acoustic sound of my instruments.

For about $110 you can get a Sure M57, a mic stand, and an XLR cable. Check out Ebay or occasional sales at Guitar Center or Sweetwater or Musician's Friend or wherever.

I totally agree with Phil on the Schatten Dualie.  In fact, I did a demo video on it some time ago.  The Schatten folks are really nice, too.  I wrote them about what kind of double sided tape to use (mine is one of the 1st imported into the USA.)  They sent me the new putty at no charge.  I got it use on nylon string guitars so I could sound like Willie Nelson  ROFL.

Thank you, Ken!  ~I am currently dreaming of a custom, but think possum board = the way to go~  I would love to see a pic of your carry box!

Tessie, I love your set-up!  That camp table = genius and got me thinking about our tv tray...  Thank you for allowing us to take over conversation!

The Schatten comes with putty that works well and doesn't leave a residue

Okay great! Phil, on that Shatten, do you also use the double sided tape? And it holds? (ken you pretty much know everything, don't you? :) ) Yall are such a fantastic resource!

The best external pickup I have found is a Schatten Dualie. Depending on what kind of amp you have, it may require a preamp. I stick it on the back of my dulcimer so it is not in the way. here's a link to it on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Schatten-Dualie-OutsideR-External-Pickup-Jack/dp/B002MVJQMS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470256064&sr=8-2&keywords=schatten+dualie

Also, the best acoustic amp I have found is a Fishman Loudbox Mini. It weighs only 20 pounds and no preamp needed.

https://www.amazon.com/Fishman-Loudbox-Acoustic-Instrument-Amplifier/dp/B003S3S0DU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470256393&sr=8-1&keywords=fishman+loudbox+mini

A small bit of double sided tape works simply and easily.  You may not want to leave the pickup attached for a long time (weeks) though, it can dull the finish.  I use a simple $3 Ebay pickup and a bit of tape on my Virginia Hog Fiddle for playing at Open Mics. 

There are two kinds of double sided tape -- one that is foam rubber with sticky on both sides -- the other looks like ordinary Scotch tape.  That's the one you want to use.  The foam tape deadens the ability of the pickup to sense fine vibrations and you lose sound quality.

Sandi -- Yes!  If you know what you want and are having a custom instrument built, a double back can be a wonderful thing.  The advantage of a Possum board is that it will work with any dulcimer, not just that one special instrument.  As long as the board holds the dulcimer up 1/4" or so, so that the back can vibrate; and, if you need it, has a way to hold the instrument in place, then you're good to go.  

I recently built a wooden carry box for my Thomas replica which John Knopf built for me.  I take of the top, remove the dulcimer and the noter/pick bag, flip the case over, and use the back of the box as my possum board.  LOTS of extra volume, and I don't need a separate board.

I'll be building wooden boxes for my other two traditional dulcimers soon!

Okay, I'm gonna revive this thread because I want to know the best way to use my little amp with my dulcimers who aren't fortunate enough to have an internal pickup. I have a little mic I can clip onto a plastic thumb pick that is wedged into a sound hole, but that doesn't work my small blue lion holes. Any other suggestions? Yall are using a lot of terms I don't understand. :) 

Dalton, just wanted to point you to a simple beginner video I made showing how to tune back and forth between the four most common modes, for noter style playing.  Notice that you'll only be re-tuning one string, not all of them...it's not as hard as you'd think:

http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/02/video-re-tuning-between-four-common.html

Ken, do you prefer a possum board or double back?

I am very pleased with this modification of a folding camping table, and conventional music stand.  

Ken, did you do that on purpose?  Rascal!

Good point KenH,

Usually I have the notes I need by retuning to the right mode for the tune, but 'sometimes'....if there's an odd note I don't have on the fret board --and assuming it's not an absolutely essential melody note-- it's usually quite do-able to either skip playing that one note or just play that phrase a little differently- simplify it so that note's not really needed.  Many of us do that sometimes anyway (on various instruments) if a particular note is very hard to finger or I can't get there in time or a phrase requires skilled gymnastics, etc.  Similar workarounds apply in chord style playing-  if a three finger chord is hard to stretch to or jump to- often one can make it a two finger chord instead...or simplify the phrase a little by leaving out a note or two and see how it sounds. Folk music tends to be very forgiving.  

Easy to make a possum board, Sandi...  1/2" thick x 6" wide poplar "craft board" from Lowes/Home Despot

What a great idea!  I am currently searching out possum boards or making a contraption out of a TV tray.  I'll let you know how it goes....  

In addition to re-tuning to the proper Mode and jumping to another string, some of us "grace note" around an 'accidental'.  Either play the notes before and after in a different time to cover the note you don't haave, or skip the note entirely.

"What Do Noter Players Do When Notes Are Not On The Melody String?"

...sometimes I go get them from my fretless banjo.  (sorry, couldn't resist!)  

Actually, Jean Ritchie had more than once described how to 'palm' the noter momentarily to fret another string if needed.  Remember that Farina saw a mountain dulcimer for the very first time at a NYC party where he watched Jean Ritchie playing.  He had never seen one before and was blown away by it.  She wrote that he asked her all about it at that party, and went home determined to get or make one.  I think he played guitar before that?

Pete with those marracas...lol

Watch Richard Farina flip around the chop stick he's using as a noter at about 4:40 in this video.  Some days I think us "modern" players are just trying to get where Farina was back in the 60s.

Then check out the rest of the show with Richard & Mimi.