Forum Activity for @mike-keller

What a great idea!

My avatar is a custom dulcimer made by Doug Berch in 2014. He makes beautiful dulcimers that have wonderful tone. Mine is curly sassafras over figured walnut. Not only does Doug make very fine dulcimers, he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Not to mention, he's the only person to ever win the MD and HD Championship in Winfield in the same year.....quite a musician.

The Bonnie Carol instruments I've seen certainly had actions lower than "nickel & dime" -- very suitable for Chord-Melody (which is what Bonnie habitually plays).

Dusty, interesting that you say that about the action on the MMDs.  My first was the cherry and it has what you would say a very low action and a wider fretboard than my poplar one.  It also has a floating bridge.  The poplar one has a higher action and a fixed bridge with a little bit narrower fret board.  I think David wanted to use a piece of Osage Orange wood for the fret and that was the width he had.  That being said the Cherry's strings are farther apart than the Poplar's.  So with out even knowing it, I may have one that is good for flatpicking and one for fingerpicking.  My wife will be very happy if I can cover all playing styles with two dulcimer!

Neil, I also have a MMD and a Blue Lion as well.  The MMD is made entirely of lacewood and has a false or galax back.  It is my favorite dulcimer for flatpicking. The action is so low that my fingers barely have to touch the strings, so it's really conducive to playing fast.  But I don't like it for fingerpicking. The action is too low for my picking fingers to get ahold of the strings unless I pick right in the strum hollow.  The strings are also close together, which facilitates fast play with a flatpick, but my fat picking fingers have trouble.  The Blue Lion, however, sings when it is played with fingers (no surprise, since Janita Baker mainly fingerpicks).  I realized a long time ago that that instrument sounded good with a flatpick but great with bare fingers.  And the strings are further apart, which caused me trouble when I was trying to flatpick on it but works well with my chubby little digits.

Both of those dulcimers produce big, round, bassy sounds.  Most of the time that's wonderful for the style of music I play. But I do have a couple of songs that require more balance.  That's what my Rick Probst dulcimer is for! It is also loud and round but the middle and melody strings hold their own better against the bass string.

I used to think that someday I would find the single instrument that would be my favorite for everything I do. But to the detriment of my checking account, I now see that different styles of music lead me to different instrument designs.  

Ken, I think your comment gets to the general point that there is no "best" dulcimer out there.  Having played the guitar for 40 years, I do indeed like a mellow-sweet sound.  And in fact, I have a Blue Lion precisely because a noter/drone player found that the big bass drowned out the melody, so she sold it to me. What didn't work for her is exactly what I love about the instrument.  Obviously, different styles of music and different styles of playing lead to different styles of instruments.

What was the action like on the Bonnie Carol dulcimers you've played? I know playing with a noter means the action isn't as big a deal as it is for those of us who torture our fingertips, but I'm sure you have a sense of how low the action was.

I have two Modern Mountain Dulcimers,  probably not high end as far as price but I like their sound better than the two Blue Lions that friends have.  One is cherry top and sides with a western red cedar bottom with a resonator board. The other is a poplar  bottom and sides with a paulownia sound board no resonator it has a very well rounded sound and unbelievable sustain.  Sill too new a player to do either justice.  Just my two cents.

I've played several Bonnie Carol dulcimers.  Even a couple actually made by Bonnie rather than her "team".  They have a beautifully mellow-sweet sound, if you like that sort of thing.  I like the 'high-silvery' sound myself.

Marvin, that's why I posted this...to put the idea out there. I wanted to show how easy it could be done. It beats paying $40 or more for one. This is fully adjustable and it folds up for storage. I hope you give it a try. Fun to think through and do, too. Good luck.

Dusty, The one on the cover of David's "Learning the Mt Dulcimer" DVD was made by the deceased TN luthier.  I believe it was Koa as well.   About 2 years ago it's "twin" was up on Ebay.  Way out of my price range, but I sure did have lust in my heart for it. 

On David's album "Appalachian Dulcimer & Mandolin" he plays a Jerry Rockwell large hourglass set up as a baritone on one cut.

Thanks, Rob. You sure went into the archives for that one.  I now see that Bonnie Carol with the scalloped fretboard in a lot of photos of David. Somewhere I read something about a Nashville Luthier who passed away, and perhaps that confused me.

Anyone else have a Bonnie Carol? How does it sound in the hands of a mortal?

Cool! Thanks Lisa.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

From the Winter 1989 DPN interview with David Schnaufer:

"What Kinds of dulcimers do you play?

   My main one that I've played since 1978 is a Bonnie Carol; it's all koa wood and four-stringed.  I also use a Blue Lion.... The other one I use is a Capritaurus dulcimer also from California made by Micheal Rugg.

How did they come to play in the recording of the album?

   I used the Bonnie Carol on everything but 'Mr Snow;' 'Steel Guitar Rag' and 'Blue Moon of Kentucky."

This would be the "Dulcimer Deluxe" album which was the only one he'd recorded at the time except for his parts on both Alan Freeman's albums "Out of the Cold" (which is Jew's harp only) and "Hogfiddler's Fancy" which they do dulcimer duets.  Not sure about what he would have used, but based on the DPN interview one has to assume it's the Bonnie Carol he used on it as well.

David's dulcimer could have been one of Bonnie's or.....perhaps one made by several in the Pacific Rim group in the 60's.  it was made

of KOA and had fantastic tone. 

Well, Bob, a really bad musician won't sound good no matter what they play. And a really good one will sound great on a great instrument and OK on a bad one.

But I hear a lot of musicians all the time and yet there are many dulcimers by famous luthiers that I have never heard. I know what a McSpadden sounds like. I have no idea what a Bonnie Carol sounds like.

I also know that I sound better on my Blue Lion than I do on that unknown dulcimer I bought for $10 at the flea market that I am tempted to use as kindling.  And when you have really nice instruments that sound great, all you have to do is strum a chord or play a pretty melody.  I've spent a lot of time in recent years learning how to simplify my playing, how to stop trying to impress with a fancy lick but instead how to find the essence of a pretty song and play it on a nice-sounding instrument while I stay out of the way.

I am lucky enough to have accumulated a few of those nice sounding instruments but I know there are others out there and I'd love to hear people playing them.

Dusty, what's more important, the instrument, or the musician?

Rob, I'll have to give that album another listen.  The videos of Schnauffer always have him playing that unique dulcimer by the now deceased Nashville luthier.

Dusty, If you've heard David Schnauffer's Dulcimer Player Deluxe cd, I believe he plays a Bonnie Carol on some of that.  I'll see if I can find out which cuts.

Nice feature Lisa, and thank you for working this all out for us. 

Bill, when you do make a video, please don't make one of Monster High dolls riding stuffed animals to the land of unicorns. I've seen enough of those.

I would love to hear some of those dulcimers. I've heard one Jerry Rockwell that Stephen Seifert was playing for a while, but he has such sophisticated microphones and all that everything he plays sounds great. I did find one of Rob's videos of a Rockwell as well.  To my knowledge, I've never heard a Bonnie Carol dulcimer, but they sure look beautiful.

Thanks Joy! See you are from Midland. I'm in Gaylord.

Never under estimate a 10 year old.

I watched the David's video of the Eedy Beede. It, too, is a beautiful instrument with a very lovely sound! Thank you for sharing it.

Thanks Lisa.

That looks beautiful, Joy. I have two small dulcimers, the baritone dulcimette I refer to above which I tune to G or A above a standard dulcimer and an octave dulcimer by David Beede (the model he calls the Eedy Beede). Here is a video he made of it before he sent it to me:

 Cool!  Thanks so much for making this happen.

We have a new feature added to our Groups function- something that folks have been wanting!

As it has always been , when you join a Group you can click the 'Follow' button in any group discussion so that you will receive a notification when there is a new post in that discussion .  Thus you can pick and choose which group discussions you want to keep updated on.

But members worried that unless they visited the group often, they might not be aware of when a new discussion started in a group, and they might miss out on something that interested them.

Well now we have a new added button that allows you to also 'follow' a group's discussion area so that you'll be notified when a new discussion is created as well!  -then you can go check out the new discussion and decide whether or not you want to 'follow' it.  

You will no longer miss any of the 'action' in your favorite Groups!     Hope you all enjoy this new feature.

Needless to say, you'll need to be a member of a group to be able to follow things in that group .  You'll also need to have your notification settings ON in your profile Settings --> Notifications TAB...if you have them turned to OFF then of course you won't be getting any notifications at all.

Here is what you will see now on the Group's page if you want to get notified of NEW discussions in your favorite Group, OR if you want to get notified about a new post in a particular group discussion:

Dusty, I call this dulcimer my "Itty Bitty" because it is only 25 inches long. The VSL is 18 inches. I was surprised when I first played it, just how much I liked it. It was a spur-of-the-moment purchase from Gary Sager at Prussia Valley Dulcimers in late August and I've not had a moment's regret since.

 JF sound holes 2.JPG.jpg - 157KB

Thanks, folks, for chiming in.  

Rob, I'll have to look at some of your videos. It was actually a comment by Jerry Rockwell that although he had been dealing with some family stuff recently he was going to get back to building which set off this whole thing. I had been considering investing in a really nice dulcimer now that I've managed to pay off some bills, and I realized that I've almost never heard dulcimer by him or Gary Gallier or any of other folk I list above.  I've heard Aaron O'Rourke and Erin Rogers play in person, so I've heard the David Beede dulcimers, but they all seem pretty rare in video.

Joy, I'd love to see and hear that Jim Fox dulcimer.  How short is the scale?  Just today I began re-acquainting myself with my baritone dulcimette by Ron Ewing.  I wrote a cute tune for it, so once I brush the dust off my technique I'll be posting something soon.

Bill, it should be pretty easy to make a video with your iPad.  My 10-year-old daughter does it all the time!

I've posted a few with my Jerry Rockwell large hourglass.  It's my absolute favorite dulcimer though I do play others.

That is great. Thanks for sharing! I've got the sewing part covered but when it comes to welding ... not so much. ;-)

I haven't one of those that you mentioned, but in addition to my beloved McSpaddens, I have a "Mule" that was built by Jim Fox. It has the best tone I've ever heard from a short scale dulcimer. It's a little hard to pick up in the video that Christine Shoemaker recently posted ("Little Lydia") but I'll try to post a video in the future to showcase the sound. I'll also try to take a photo and post it this weekend. Along with the fabulous tone, it is one of the cutest dulcimers I've ever seen. :-)

We know there are lots of fine luthiers out there making high-end dulcimers.  And some of them have long waiting lists, so there must be lots of people buying their dulcimers. Where are they?

I would love to see folks playing the fine dulcimers by the luthiers I mention above (and several others as well) but it seems all we can find is another McSpadden or Folkcraft. Those are both wonderful dulcimers, but I wish there were a greater variety of dulcimers in the videos we post.

If any of you have a fine, high-end dulcimer, please record yourself playing so we can all enjoy the fine music these wonderful machines make.

And if you have one of these high-end dulcimers and are not playing it, please consider putting it on the market so someone else can find it and let it sing to the world!

Thanks Ken, I appreciate it. I wanted to post so others might benefit by the project. A very inexpensive way to get a dulcimer stand. 

Very nice Susie. You and your husband did a fine job on the conversion. Thanks for sharing your handiwork.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Yeah, it does kind of favor a Galax, although all the Galax I've seen do not have a strum hollow. That's an interesting peg head design. I guess the builder was making sure he/she had enough space for six pegs.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Sure makes for a great conversation piece, ye guys!

I see what you mean Ken. 

I don't think those are machine heads; I think they're just pegs stuck in the top of the headstock.  There are a couple pics in one of Ralph Lee Smith's books of that style peg.  I'll try to find them and see if any of them are similar.  It's a wide body, like a Galax.  So it may be (at least) a 1st cousin to one.  LOL.  I notice the Fender bag/cover behind it.  Is there a lot of musical stuff there?