Forum Activity for @joe-sanguinette

david schnaufer traveled with 2 dulcimers in a special case that safely flew in the baggage compartment.  it was a very sturdy case

made of aluminum.   he stored it in my booth at festivals on several occasions.

Oh, come on, Kandee and David!  You're suppose to add a few of your own!

How about:

You once again rearrange the cement block steps up to the door of your trailer into a bar-b-que pit for the monthly jam.

All of this is sooo funny.

There are many possible reasons for buzzes, but there are some 'seasonal' buzzes that seem to arrive with the winter indoor heat and disappear in the more humid Spring.

I made a custom fit wooden box for my John Knopf Thomas replica and had not trouble flying Allegiant back in October.  It fit in the overhead with no problems.  Got lots of "What's in the box" from passengers. Told them, and Security, it was a mountain dulcimer, and had no problems. "If it fits, it flies..." as they say.

I flew with a travel dulcimer last winter--it was a few inches longer than the official carry-on size, but I just said "musical instrument" and no one batted an eyelid.  It was obvious that it fit under the seat, so that may be why no one said anything.  I had it sticking out of my backpack.  This year, I'm taking a smaller carry-on item and carrying the travel dulcimer in it's own case (ukelele).  I'm hoping that I will have the same experience as last year, even though, strictly speaking, I'm carrying an extra item.

Update--the buzzing is intermittent, not with every strum, so I guess that I can live with it enough to take it on vacation after all.  It really does have a lovely tone, outside of the buzzing sound.  I'll worry about getting it fixed after vacation.

A good buy! They go from about US$100 on up to about $300 here in Japan, depending on the quality and fancies. They are modestly popular among seniors and group lesson/players groups are fairly common. And that's just about everything I know about them.

Jim, on Amazon Honer Marine bands and Special 20s go for about 35-45$.

I was surprised when I went to buy a new harp a couple of months ago.  They were about $70 for Marine Bands.

Tell me about it- happens to me regularly with various things I 'learn'...lol!  Glad you sorted things out.  

I found these taisho kotos in a flea market in Georgetown, Ontario.  The bottom one had a price tag of $65 and when I went back to buy it for my friend Steafan, the seller said that I could have two for $100, so I just couldn't say no.  These are played by strumming the strings with a pick near the bridge and pressing keys to stop the strings on the fretboard below the cover.The white keys are se up like a dulcimer's frets and the black keys make it chromatic.  There are 4 melody strings tuned with three in the upper octave and one in the lower.  There is also a bass drone string.

It's sort of a cross between a dulcimer and a typewriter.

 kotos.jpg - 128KB

Yes I did thanks. mission accomplished! Hopefully I won't forget what I did by the time I want to send another!

Steve, is your issue solved?

Wow, all of the responses to Unclekb were very wise and helpful.  

I have nothing to add except this-  It's always nice to have a cheaper instrument around for those times when you don't want to risk taking an expensive or custom instrument with you, but you would love something to play.  Like when you travel or go camping, iffy weather conditions for playing outside, etc.  It's handy to have a 'knockabout' on hand!  

 Brian, you got me excited to hear the harp dulcimer, John Doan is a pleasure to hear. Thanks.

Thanks again all. Yes, I will try to post a video soon.  :)  Ken - yes, I figured it had to be John.  I remember we had also corresponded via e-mail briefly when he was thinking of coming east for some shows.  I don't believe he ever did make it here at that time.  In any event, yes - he is a fantastic harp guitarist.  For anyone who might be reading and may be curious, here is John Doan introducing the harp guitar and playing Wake (Waiting for the Dawn):

John Doan, harp guitar, Wake (Waiting for the Dawn)

Brian -- yes -- John Doan.  Professor of music at Willamette Univ, and fabulous harp-guitarist.  Writes a lot of neo-Celtic music for h-g.  Here in Florida I've had th pleasure of jamming a couple of times with Andy Whalberg, John's local equivalent.

Brian, they are beautiful! I'm looking forward to hearing you play them especially the one with the harp 

I think Randy Adams tunes his dulcimers to banjo tunings minus the fifth string, but, then, Randy is a banjo player. He does some amazing things with a four equidistant string dulcimer in banjo tunings playing noter/drone style.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Brian, those are wonderful instruments and I'm sure a pleasure to play. Have fun with them, which I am sure you will.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hi all!  Thanks again for your comments. Yes, I'll eventually get around to making a video. 

Ken, you are absolutely correct.  Hey, would your friend in Oregon happen to be John Doan?  He was friends with a good friend of mine who unfortunately was killed in a hit and run accident, so I don't find my way to Oregon all that often anymore, but I believe I met John once or twice (though I doubt he'd remember me). 

Harp-dulcimer is a logical extension of the Harp-Guitar, which has been around at least 200 years.  Essentially it's a conventional guitar with an expanded string set which includes a number of unfretted strings, often strung below the lowest string note, but sometimes divided into 'super' strings above the highest string note, and 'sub' strings.

Schepsis' translation of the concept to the dulcimer is very well conceived both visually and (I assume) acoustically. 

I have friends both here in Florida and in Oregon, who are two of the reigning masters of the harp-guitar, and who will love to see this dulcimer adaptation.

Yes, I was in Oregon last year when I took it on vacation, but it has been in a drier locale, especially since the heat came on this fall.  Does the buzzing tend to go away?  I'm going to try it again tonight to see if it is as bad as I remember.  If it is still buzzing I may not take it on vacation, which kind of kills the purpose of having a travel dulcimer.

I have not seen a harp/dulcimer, Brian perhaps you would demonstrate playing it sometime. Both are beautiful instruments.

Brian, very beautiful instruments. I bet they sound amazing!

Thanks all. I'm really enjoying both of them.  Jan, do you have any photos or video of either of yours? I'd love to see them.  Also, can you please message me if you have any current contact for Bob S.?  I'd love to be able to ask him a couple questions.  :)

KR,

Brian

Very nice, Brian.

I have one of Bob Schepis's standard dulcimers--it sings very sweetly!  I have to say, though, that it's hard to beat the tone and ease of play of Gary Gallier's A-Frame.  I have #4, built in 2006 and absolutely love it--and I feel very fortunate to have located a used one to buy, since most folks won't part with them for any reason!

Enjoy!

Those are amazing!

Wow, Brian, I've never before seen a harp dulcimer-- way cool!  Your Gallier's a beauty, too! 

I just added a couple of very special instruments to the collection and thought I'd share. The one on the left is a walnut, purpleheart and spruce harp dulcimer built by Bob Schepis. According to correspondence I have, it is the only harp dulcimer he ever built (it's the 86th instrument overall that he built). I found it interesting that next to his signature he wrote Psalm 150:3-4 ("Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and Pipe!")

The instrument on the right is a prototype by Gary Gallier , of the Gallier A-frame dulcimer. It's mahogany and redwood, serial number A-1, built in Oct. 2005.

Both of these instruments look and sound great and I'm pretty happy to have them. Thanks for having a look.  :)

 newestdulcimers.jpg - 61KB

Hmm...the only thing i can offer is that it's a known thing that 'mystery' buzzes appear most often when the seasons change to dry Autumn and indoor heat.  When you played it on vacation last year and it sounded fine- were you in a humid climate on vacation?

Dusty outlined the method well.  

One little detail though- if you are typing in "@" or hyphens when typing in their name, you should not do that-  just start typing their user name without  a @.  Don't put hyphens in either.  For example, for Dusty Turtle, I'd just start typing Dusty...and he would pop up as one of the choices of members who have "Dusty" in their profile name...and I could select him probably before I even get to the "ty" of Dusty.  I would not start typing @dusty-turtle, I'd start typing Dusty.

Steve, in order to send a private message, first hover your cursor over your name in the upper right-hand corner and choose "Private Messages" from the drop-down menu.

Then choose "New Message."

When you get the message box, put the beginning or part of the person's username in the search box, and all the members that have those same characters will show up in a drop-down menu.  Click on the name of the person you want to contact.

Once the recipient's name has been automatically loaded into the recipient field, you can go ahead and 1) give a name or title to your message; 2) add the actual text of the message; and 3) click "send.

I hope that helps.

I have found where to access the Private Messages but Ive tried every combinations of their tag?/name ie @their-name I keep getting an 'invlaid' message

Is there an issue or is it just me doing it wrong?

Thanks

It's been kept in the same room as my other dulcimers. Same tuning as last year and same old strings. It was really out of tune after being unplayed for a year, so I did retune it.

A couple of quick questions first Colleen-

Where was it being stored?- in a location that has different temperatures and humidity than your normal living areas?  If so, has it had time to adjust for a day or two?

Also, have you changed the tuning from what you were using a year ago?  Or have you put on new strings since last time you were playing it?

New question to an old thread!  I have a little travel dulcimer that I bought last year.  I took it on vacation and it worked and sounded fine.  Fast forward a year and I'm heading off to Christmas vacation again in a week or so.  So I hauled it out and tuned it up and I noticed buzzing.  I haven't narrowed down which string/fret is causing it.  I haven't played it since last December, but it did work ok when I first got it, so I'm not sure what has happened in the meantime. Is there some obvious-but-not-to-me fix for this?  Could my fingering be causing buzzing because I am used to playing a regular sized dulcimer?

http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31460&p=367608&hilit=just+intonation#p367608

This is from April?