Same old mongrel I've always played. I've built up a bit of a collection over the years, but nothing else comes quite close to the old '4 of Hearts'.
Maybe the John Pearse should get an honourable mention - small, light and always a delight to play. Use it a lot to work tunes out on.
This is a doozie of a question for me as it just depends on what songs I want to practice. Some songs sound better in certain keys, so I let that by my guide.
I am a lazy person. My go-to dulcimer is the one that's most convenient to get to. Usually that's the dulcimette hanging on the living room wall. Unless I'm in the kitchen, where the cigar box dulcimer is hanging on the wall.
When I leave the house, I take the McS Ginger because it has the nicest gig bag.
I need a dulcimer that comes when called. And I want to hire a guy to tune it. 
As an actual female person, I can say that never for an instant did the phrase "Double D Dulcimers" strike me as having a sexual connotation. However, now that you mention it, Don might not be happy with the image search results if someone Googles "double d dulcimers" and accidentally hits return before typing the "dulcimer" part.
Stephen,
I looked at the site and my first recommendation would be to change the name from the current Double D to something that isn't sexist and won't run the risk of alienating his potential customers. I have been teaching web design and interactive media for about 10+ years and if you need any help with the design, I would be glad to help. But I would seriously have him rethink his site name; the sexual conotation does not become the quality of the instruments that he appears to create. Women have it bad enough in the media without having to feel objectified when they go to a dulcimer site to buy a dulcimer.
Well there you go then Charles-Thomas, I've learnt something new today, I've always made a new one when I thought an instrument sounded a bit off !!!
JohnH
I remember dulcimers being for sale in a gift shop on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but I don't know if that is still the case. That was over 40 years ago.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
For the most part my go-to dulcimer is my all walnut Folkcraft FSH. When I'm playing noter/drone it is either my J.E. Thomas or the Prichard reproduction dulcimer I made. Because my Blue Lion has a built-in pick-up, I often use that one when playing out in noisy venues.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Carl Gotzmer makes very good instruments. Here is a link to the June Apple Cellomer page. http://www.juneappledulcimers.com/pages/Cellomer/ I would not play it as a bowed dulcimer. I would play it as a regular dulcimer. I hope you got a good deal on it.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
I think I'd treat it as a Bowed Dulcimer -- play it with a bow, upright in your lap like a cello. Ken Bloom is the "Godfather" of the modern Bowed Dulcimer... www.boweddulcimer.com
The old site was not mobile-responsive, so it could be zoomed-in/out all as one picture of each page. Of course that would mean endless scrolling on a smartphone, so not good. Dan, can you maybe post a screenshot here of your menu area taking up half the screen? What hapopens in vertical orientation for you?
Ken, thanks for your take. I don't have much control over the virtual keyboards on people's devices, Im afraid. But glad to know otherwise you are not having a problem.
I'm writing this using my Nook Tab4 in Portrait Mode.
In Landscape Mode the virtual keyboard hides the text area and I can't see what I'm writing. Other than that, no problems zooming in or out or resizing.
my favorite is usually my latest acquisition. But I do like to play the others also - some sound better in different tunings than others so the tune I am playing sometimes decides which gets played. Also I have my 42 year old project dulcimer that I keep messing with that is starting to sound pretty good after the addition of metal tuners from wooden pegs bridge/nut adjustments.
Penn Alps in Grantsville, MD has 2 or 3 hanging in a local mountian craft shop. It in a artisian village with a restaurant. Just off I68 in western Maryland
Kevin, we did stop at Tamarack. Yes, he had a few there too. The sales lady at the Travel Plaza says a man comes by at least once a week to play the dulcimers. She says when he comes to play them they sell.
Another picture of the Jim Good dulcimers along with Psaltries. There were lots of thumb pianos too.
Jim also has them at the Tamarack, near Beckly.
On our trip to West Virginia we stopped at the Travel Plaza off the I64 West Turnpike. What did I see when I went into the gift shop? I saw a couple of Jim Good dulcimers for sale. Is it only in West Virginia that someone can see dulcimers for sale in a travel plaza gift shop? Has anyone seen dulcimers for sale in places other than a music store?
So, my go to is the June Appple Cellomer, It is so unique, Has such a big voice. It doesn't just speak to you, It preaches to you, so smooth, clear, but almost overpowering. Yet it keeps it in check. A great stage instrument, but sounds even better on the back deck in the evening, here in the Rocky Mountains.
'
Everytime I build one I have a new favorite. But I don't usually get to play them long.
My "favorite" seems to change with my mood, have 14 altogether so it gets hard to choose, I guess the go to's would be McSpadden 6 string, ebony fret board. Dan Doty 6 string, Bonnie Carol 4 string ebony fret board, or my newest June Apple Cellomer, really BIG sound.
I own a variety of standard dulcimers,4 string,6string,ginger model,banjo dulcimer etc.
I recently found a used June Apple Dulcimer, it is really oversized, it is 45 inches long, 12 inches wide, 2 1/4 deep.
Would this be considered a bass dulcimer? Or is it not really classified because of the odd size.
It has a great big sound, I have experimented with different tunings and it seems to be very fond of minor tunings, I have it tuned in a really odd tuning right now but it is a great haunting ethereal sound to it, C-G-CC.
Here is a photo of the instrument and the possum board I built for it, anyone else ever played one of these? they seem pretty obscure but really nicely built, came out of a traveling musical instrument museum. (At least that's what the salesman told me) :-)
I find myself picking up my McSpadden all walnut hourglass most of the time.
JohnH- we,re suppose to "tune" them? Who knew .That changes everything!
My GoTo dulcimer for Open Mic nights is my Bobby Ratliff Hogfiddle tuned Bagpipe B -- Bbb, which suits my voice better than C or D. It's fitted with a stick-on pick up.
My GoTo for un-amplified playing is my John Knopf Thomas replica with its new 1/2" thick balsawood Possum Board. The dulcimer has 3 feet so the possum board is just a flat plank, and the balsa is super light!
The one that might be in tune, lol !
JohnH
As you can see in my avitar my 2 treasured dulcimers in which I go in between to play sometimes I choose one for a certain song, sometimes it is the one I want to play.
Both are fabulous to play and I love it!
... siiiiiiiigh ... yeah ... I know ... still sometimes think abortion should be an option into the 27th tri-mester ..............
Oh, I've been tempted.
... maybe ... except th' hang 'em on th' wall part .........................
Isn’t that a bit like having a favorite child?
Many of us have more than one. If you do, do you enjoy playing one more than the others? It seems that I take this one down off the wall more often than any of the others.
Do you have particular reasons for your favored dulcimer?
A 1.5" wide fingerboard set up with three equaldistant strings should be more than enough. You don't need four strings. When I got my fiddle I was shocked because the 4 strings are only 9/16" appart at the nut and .75 at the octave. Where there is a will there is a way... Robert
Here's the article I wrote back in 2006 about getting started playing in the Noter & Drone style -- techniques, types of noters, and much more...
The width of a fretboard is not a critical dimension for 99.99% of players, where VSL and body dimensions are of major importance to the sound of an instrument.
Most commercial (McSpadden, Folkcraft, Blue Lion) fretboards these days are 1.5" wide or 1.25" wide. That's pretty standard for most custom builder too, unless you ask.
If you have a custom dulcimer built by someone like Harpmaker Dave Lynch or any of the other custom builders here, you can specify how wide you want the fretboard.
The fretboards on my traditional dulcimers are considerably narrower than 1.25"; but then, I play Noter & Drone style and don't need huge spaces between strings.
I recently purchased a McSpadden M8 and was surprised at how narrow the fretboard was. I wear men’s 2XL gloves.
Except for Blue Lion, I found no dimensions listed for width of fingerboards. Most were centered around the VSL and body dimensions.
Can anyone suggest models/makes with more “roomy” fretboards?
Like Travis, I learned melody first on MD and chords on uke and guitar. True story: some years ago when I had just figured out how to chord on MD, I was jaming with a uke-playing friend. I was frantically grasping at the chords (would have helped if I knew the song better). We finished singing the first verse and chorus and I thought thank goodness, now I can take the instrumental break and I started playing melody which was so much easier. And my friend said, "oh that's right, unlike me you really know how to play!" The easy beginner stuff for me was the hard stuff for him, and vice versa.
I take this as proof that we're all meant to play together.
I don't necessarily have an opinion about whether one should learn melody or chords first, but I can corroborate Travis's assumption that most guitar teachers start with chords. I think the reason is simply that with a few chords one can quickly accompany one's singing. It is also the case that most single note work on the guitar is built out of left-hand chord positions (I am not joking that it took me 15-20 years of playing to figure that out, but I am almost entirely self-taught).
I certainly wish you the best, but I do agree that a guitar player who is not familiar with the dulcimer may not be the best teacher. You might consider Skype lessons from a dulcimer teacher. Just the fact that you are asking about rare chords makes me think your teacher may not really "get" a diatonic fretboard.
Yep -- that listing says Actual Weight = 10 pounds, Shipping Weight = 70 pounds!
Thanks Robert and Ken - I am checking out my options now to see if I should make or buy one!
Melody, melody, melody. If you don't have the melody correct there is no need to add chords. Were I to teach a beginner on either guitar or dulcimer scales would be the 1st thing I'd cover. I know a fellow here in WV who carries 7 Jim Good dulcimers in a cabinet tuned in 7 different keys. I agree with Travis, you have to approach them differently.
Get Noterized.pdf - 82KB
