Forum Activity for @strumelia

The above issue is now CORRECTED in the email notification links!  

Love the storys - 'impulse buy' all to funny. i hope you will enjoy it.

Hey Patty, Dan, Prestine 2, Dusty and Bob R.; I knew ya'll would come through for me and help me lean about my new discovery of a floating bridge on my Robert Schuler dulcimer.....You guys are the  Best!

Well Robert Schuler has a saw marking where he placed the bridge that I can use, I am happy you offered me the video, thanks Dusty. Robert told me to loosen the strings when adjusting the bridge, but will see how this works when I tune and may use Prestine2's suggestions also.

I now have a clear picture why people use a floating bridge, mine is unnotched, but with it I can be flexable about using different gaged strings if I want and experiment some with it.

I will be puting on 0.18 for bass and middle strings and 0.11 for the melody strings and see how I like this. I will let you all know how I like this and how I do with adjusting and all....Thanks to all you great Friends for your suggestions and help.

Here is the video Dan refers to above:

Diane, Thanks for sharing. This place looks awesome. This is an easily reachable trip for me. And maybe one more night to Nashville... I'm definitely adding this to my trip list. 

Paul, where exactly is that "Virtual Exhibits" button located on their website? I don't see it.

We have a lab and a very sensitive, slightly neurotic English Shepherd (picture a black and white border collie). He is extremely sensitive to any change in the atmosphere, whether it's a slight tone shift in a conversation, or maybe a cat is tip-toeing up the street in the middle of the night. He hears it all and is aware of everything.

Depending on which song I play, he might just lie still on his bed and quietly cry the whole time. Other times, say with something like Black Mountain Rag, he might huff and run purpose circles around the downstairs. The other animals ignore me. 

Lexie, floating bridges can be either notched or un-notched.  The important thing about them is that they can be moved.  It is also the tricky thing about them. 

The primary advantage of a floating bridge is that it can be moved, the primary disadvantage of a floating bridge is that it can be moved. 

To compensate for intonation issues on the instrument you can slide a floating  bridge a little closer to or farther from the nut. If, for example, you install a different guage of strings, you might need to adjust the bridge, or you might not. It can also be used to compensate for a high action. Sometimes you will see them angled across the strings to compensate for intonation differences between the melody and bass strings.

A fixed bridge requires slightly (very slightly) more precision on the part of the builder, but it is often easier on the player, because she doesn't have to worry about getting the bridge misaligned and throwing the instrument out of tune.  This is especially true of an instrument built with a low action.

Once I get a floating bridge set where I like it I mark the location with a pencil line at the base.  That way I can reset it in close to the same spot if I need to.

Well, that didn't last long.  Impulse buy this morning.  I'm thinking of deleting Ebay from all of my gadgets.  As of next Tuesday will have a new 6 string added to my collection.  I don't have any other 6 strings, so I'm feeling only sort of guilty.

That's a bit like asking a woman how many shoes is enough or asking a man how many guns is enough. 

I have a teardrop that was made for me when I was about 26. It has been a dust-collector for 28 years but has a nice sound. I also own a cherry McSpadden that is my go-to and I have a hankering for a beauty that I saw on youtube while looking for a play along westphalia waltz tune. 

Thanks for the comment (avatar). Lisa helped me with that. When I change strings on Big Red I plan on replacing them one at a time to keep the bridge in place. I like the gauge strings it has so I'm not planning on doing any big changes. Also, I believe that one can only go so far with string guage sizes because of vsl. I understand Big Red was a baritone but I plan to keep it the way it is because I like the sound.  I know some who inquired about changing to a baritone with their current duclimers but I would ask a builder first as to possible modifications needed. 

Lexie, I have several dulcimers with floating bridges.  You should watch Pristine2's video on how to adjust the fb for more accurate tuning.  I checked, it transferred here from the old site.

Nice picture (Avitar) of you Patty. Thanks for the information about your floating bridge.

I was surprised when changing my strings, that my bridge came off. It is kinda trinangular shaped made of wood and has a saw mark where it is to sit that I need to line it up before I tighten strings. The Dulcimer was made by Robert Schuler and he also told me that I can use heavier strings and adjust the bridge to get the sound I want or to change my tunings.

Apparently, the floating bridge makes my dulcimer more versitile.

Lexie, Big Red, which I purchased from Dan Cox, has a floating bridge. It is notched (picture embedded) but it's a floater. I'm guessing the floating bridge helps in getting the notes just right on each fret up the scale. I could be wrong but that's my guess. I'm sure Dan and all those wonderful dulcimer builders/makers can give you a better answer that I can. I'm sure those experienced dulcimer players can too.

I have a couple of Snark tuners and use them with dulcimer, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, ukulele, banjo - pretty much everything. They're pretty much my go-to tuner these days. I have had the head slip out of the neck on occasion, but it's easily pushed back into the ball joint.

Another good one (I don't use it, but it's gaining a lot of popularity among musicians in St. Louis) is the D'Addario NS Micro Clip-On tuner.  It seems especially popular among the local fiddlers.

What is the purpose of floating bridges?

Are floating bridges notched or not?

I would just like to have knowledgable people tell me all they know about having floating bridges, the advantages or disadvantages of having them.

Thanks for all your help.

Jan, I'll have to check out Nina's Facebook page and look for the pictures.

It sounds like a great time was had by y'all had there in NC!  Friends, food, and good music are all tops in my book. :)

Check out the EverythingDulcimer.com website and also Dogwood Dulcimer in Pensacola.

joebesse@aol.com

I had a lot of fun, too, Gail--just wish I had been able to jam more!  Nina Zanetti posted a lot of great photos of this event on facebook, I believe.  I really love getting to know these instructors better!

I attended the Dulcimer Celebration week at John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC last week.  We had wonderful instructors for the week - Ann Lough, Nina Zanetti, Bonnie Carol and Rob Brereton.  It was great fun and I feel that I truly learned a lot.  We had instruction in the mornings and got together as a large group (both mountain and hammered dulcimers) in the afternoon and worked on some pieces with multiple parts.    We performed some of these on Friday morning.  We had jams in the evenings that were a lot of fun.  JCC is in such a beautiful mountain setting and the food is wonderful.  I hope I am able to attend this again next year!

Hope that it made it to a good home. Thanks once again for all of the advice. I might have bid on it and taken it to a local luthier, but I fought back the impulse. Trying to keep my DAD in check.

There were eleven bids. It sold for 114.50 plus 25 for shipping.

That crack looks simple to repair.  Bob;s right, the rear two tuners need to be swapped as they are on backwards.  I don't think there was another Nut.  I think the builder used the edge of the tuning head as the nominal nut.  If I had a hundred bucks I's ure bid on it.  That's a good price for what appears to be a very nicely built dulcimer.

It looks like a relatively simple repair to me. Certainly worth it if the price stays low, although at the moment it is just under $100 with the shipping.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for the advice, Rob. I think that I will pass on it, as I'm fairly lazy and non-handy and it sounds like a bit more work than I'm willing to do. It's sure pretty though... The wood looks gorgeous and the duck head is so nicely carved.

I've got 3 playable dulcimers, plus one that my Dad made from a kit for me when i was 12--its wall art. I was up to 5 last year, but sold 2 at a festival. My Ron Gibson is my main go-to dulcimer and the David Lynch student model is my back-up for emergencies. The third dulcimer is a little travel one that I only use when I, well, travel. My DAD has abated quite a bit, but is still lurking in the background. I expect that I'll pick up another one eventually. Or two...

Colleen, the crack in the photo looks like it might be reapairable to me.  I would try to flow a small amount of super glue into the crack and then clamp it closed for a few minutes.  On thing about a crack like this is that you may end up needing to sand and refinish the area around it, or you may find you need to refinish the whole top after you fix it.

Also, take a close look at the tuning machines.  The two closest to the nut are on backwards, which might make it a little difficult to keep in tune.  The tuners are designed so that the string tension will pull the shaft tight against the worm gear on vertical post.  In this case the tension pulls the round gear away from the worm gear which could loosen the tuner.  This is also easily repairable.  You can probably flip-flop the tuners from one side to the other.

If the price stays low, it might be worth a try.

I like the 'village' idea, all having their own personallity. 

I mean nut, not bridge.

Here is the link. I notice that it also doesnt have a bridge... 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEAUTIFUL-BIRDS-EYE-MAPLE-DULCIMER-CARVED-BIRD-HEAD-/281753750919?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4199d50d87

Thanks for the recomondation of the D'Addario NS Mini Universal Tuner Jan. I just ordered one from Sweet Water for 14.99 free shipping. It will be so convienent to clip it on my dulci.

I will let you all know what I think of it when I get it.

Strumelia, Thank you!!! That's a great idea. I'll be looking for green branches. They are plentiful around here especially with all the rain we've had. I will check out ebay for horse hair. Thanks again!!!

Can you post the link to the offering?  We can tell you more if we can see the damage.  Is it an open crack, or just a split?  Open cracks would need filling with a sawdust/glue mixture; a split can be flexed open to put glue on the edges then released so the edges touch while the glue dries).   How big is the nearby soundhole (for accessing the underside of the fretboard).

Generally simple splits can be readily fixed with Titebond glue (accept no substitute!) and some painter's tape.  An open crack will need filling, which isn't hard either.

A psaltery bow yes, would be ideal!   It's more more nimble and light than even a short violin bow.  The bow hair should be laid out in a small round 'rope' shape rather than a violin bow flat wide 'tape' shape...which I found gets caught on the zither pins too often when jumping quickly between the pins, as in bowed psatery playing.

In a pinch, for a rustic 'disposable' bow-   you can even take an arched bent green branch between 1/4"-3/8" thick, cut deep notches at both ends, and set a hank of bow hair in it.  Tie a knot at one end of the hair hank and lay it into one notch.  Comb the hair straight without handling it in the middle (no finger grease!)...pull it to a good tension and lay it in the other notch by tying another knot at that end.  Once you have it nicely set and tensioned to your liking, you can put a dot of glue on each knot to keep it in place well.  Rosin it up very well to start with, then lightly thereafter.

You can buy black stallion horsehair hanks already measured and knotted at one end on Ebay, not that expensive.  You can use a whole hank for a rustic bow, or half a hank if you want a thinner hair 'rope'.   Some folks make a slight twist in the hair 'rope' when setting the hair in.  I found that works well when making twisted horsehair strings, and personally I like non-twisted hair for bows.

I've found that such rustic 'bent stick/hank of hair' bows work surprisingly well and are kind of fun for psalteries, rebecs, jouhikkos, etc.  If you use an underhand grip to bow (as with a jouhikko/tagelharpa) you can leave the hair more slack because you tension the hair while playing, with your bow grip hand.

It's a longways crack that goes from the edge of the dulcimer, slightly angled down.  It ends about 3/4 of an inch away from one of the top soundholes.

Where is the crack situated ?  (in relation to the soundholes, for instance)

JohnH

Hi, I'm looking at an instrument on ebay that has a small, 3 inch crack in the upper soundboard. Is this the sort of thing that should be a dealbreaker for a non-luthier, non-handy sort of person?  The dulcimer is priced cheaply, but is quite pretty and has a unique headstock.  I have other dulcimers, so this wouldn't be my main instrument.  I wouldn't normally consider purchasing on ebay, but this one is tempting me.. Is this something that can be fixed?  Would it affect the sound?

Here is a link to Clifford's obituary for anyone insterested: http://www.austinandbarnesfuneralhome.com/obituary.php?name=1483

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

At McSpadden I bought a couple of books, picks and noters, no dulcimer, but I had just built my first dulcimer.