I tried one out... Very tight strings and takes a lot of hand power .... For a man it would be great! they do sound good!
Steven Berger said:
Paula, check out the Gold Tone Dulciborn...I don't have one, but the samples on YouTube are worth watching...it's a dulcimer disguised as a Weissenborn guitar...and it sounds incredible.
Great!!! love to try it!
Ivan Bradley said:
Hi, Paula, you might consider the Blue Lion Acoustic Jam model as well. I'll bring mine to TVDS this Saturday so you can try it out. It's not for sale, but it could give you another idea in your search. Blue Lion usually makes a few of them in each production run, so, if they haven't been ordered one might be available there soon. I'll bring my Ron Gibson baritone as well. With its deep body and boat shape it projects pretty well and could be another consideration with a regular set of strings.
See you Saturday.
Ivan
Paula, check out the Gold Tone Dulciborn...I don't have one, but the samples on YouTube are worth watching...it's a dulcimer disguised as a Weissenborn guitar...and it sounds incredible.
Hi, Paula, you might consider the Blue Lion Acoustic Jam model as well. I'll bring mine to TVDS this Saturday so you can try it out. It's not for sale, but it could give you another idea in your search. Blue Lion usually makes a few of them in each production run, so, if they haven't been ordered one might be available there soon. I'll bring my Ron Gibson baritone as well. With its deep body and boat shape it projects pretty well and could be another consideration with a regular set of strings.
See you Saturday.
Ivan
Hi Bill could you also send me that same information.
There are so many makers out there.
I am looking specifically for a sweet sound, some projection, and not twangy...!! more guitar sounding but enough volume so you can hear yourself in a jam.
I like Gallers for that reason but he does not seem to be making them, and I cannot find a used one.
any other suggestions for the description a above?
I wanted to add that one of the products I used had been effective for eliminating the odor of a dead animal that was decomposing under a fellow worker's bed one summer (the place was using tents as a cost saving measure!). Everyone who shared the tent thought the guy had really disgusting body odor--but they were so pleased that the industrial strength hospital surface germ killer spray made living with him possible when used every 12 hours. They didn't discover the dead animal until the last day when they were packing up and breaking down the tent.
It wasn't me, but my brother Steveand my future husband, Craig, who shared the tent with this guy!
And, no, that spray didn't even begin to help this dulcimer! 
I bought a MD and case off Ebay that must have belonged to a smoker. I took a small air compressor and blew out all the dust I could get to inside and outside the MD. Do this outside so you don't smell up the house. I sprayed the case with fabreeze and put it in the garage. Several treatments cured the case. I took dryer strips and sprayed them with fabreeze and stuffed them into the sound holes. I also wiped down the outside of the MD with a slightly damp paper towels. Refresh/replace the dryer strips weekly and eventually the smell will go away. Initially you are replacing one smell with another until the smell disapaites over time.
Hi Tumbleweed!
I had the same question because I had purchased an old dulcimer that just stunk to high heaven....I don't remember what I paid for it, but I figured it was worth the price to have it as a wall-hanger if nothing else because it was very attractive. It has a wooden case and the case had been "padded" with industrial carpet glued on and that had deteriorated and smelled really bad. I tore out as much of the carpet as I could and then set the case in my garage to air out....that was about 5-10 years ago and it's still out there somewhere....I was finally able to bring the instrument inside the house a couple years ago, but it's in some out of the way place....still haven't put it up ona wall where I might breathe the residual mustiness. Some people say they actually LIKE the smell of old musty wood, but I find it very offensive. At least I don't have to work on keeping out scorpions, as Kristi Keller mentioned! I have to say that I asked for advice here and I think I tried everyone's tips, but nothing except "airing it out" over a long period of time seemed to make any real difference. I hope you have better luck than I did!
Welcome to FOTMD! Lots of good folks here....and we're happy to have one more! 
Jan
I just bought one from an estate sale in Florida and the harp itself is in great condition but will need a good tuning etc. I am sure it has been in storage for awhile and the case will need to be replaced. The musty smell from the case is on the harp but not as bad. I have read about putting it out in sunlight but I live in a desert area and it is August, not a good idea this time of year. I have also read to put sage or cedar chips in the sound hole but not sure if I would be able to get it all out. I am open to suggestions on how to clean it up safely and to get the stink out. Thanks
If you please I'd be more specific? There are 2 noter movements in particular I avoided for a while. They are eighth notes played with a quick flick of the wrist....& there ain't no such thing as a slow flick right?....you either flick it or you don't! That 7-8-7 and its reverse cousin and more difficult 4-3-4 are tough to get to sound clear. Of course the higher up the fretboard these movements are used the easier it gets b/c the frets are closer together. Use the force !
BTW I hear Robin using these noter movements in her playing.
' Oh you know all the notes, and you sing all the words, but you never quite learn the song ... ' The Hedgehog Song
Know the feeling well Randy. Someone asked me to play 'The Siege of Delhi' the other week, no trouble working out the notes, no trouble working out the rhythm, but fitting the two together is a nightmare. Easy enough to play slow*** but as soon as you try and get up to speed your arm's swinging about like a demented pendulum and any fine control goes out the window.
In the end you just find yourself 'catching' it one day and then wonder why it was ever a bother in the first place 
*** It does seem fashionable to play some of these old tunes that commemorate massacres as laments instead of quick marches nowadays though.
Robin beautiful playing, hard to pick a favourite from the play list, I do like B in the L. I love them all.
"It's a timing thing that I can't think about too much...."
Robin...this is so true with my noter playing too. Like...if I'm flatpicking a tune and have trouble with a passage I can repeat, repeat the troublesome measure or two at a slower tempo and eventually my fingers can figure it out. But with noter playing I find there are certain techniques that I can only get going by playing them up to speed....slowing them down doesn't help so much....hard to explain.
"Use the force Luke!"
Once I started thinking about going with the force I could play passages I once avoided with the noter. Sometimes I get 'em and sometimes I don't but the more I play the better I can navigate the tricky techniques by just going for it and trusting the force......: )....f'real....
gee just when I think i have mad progress along comes this
honestly I loved it.
That couldn't have been easy to play--I know I certainly couldn't! I'm particularly partial to Ridin' the Zigzag and Wobble Railroad.
Yeah, I agree about how smooth and effortless Robin's playing appears. Her superior technique makes even difficult songs seem approachable.
My favorite is still Circleville.
Duly noted Randy ! (OK, I'm sorry, but it's often pointed out to me these days that the old ones are the best ?) Gonna have to get her to give me some lessons one day, I've been a fan since I first joined FOTMD
JohnH!!!
Yes, good call out RanMan. Robin makes it sound so smooooth and easy, but it takes a huge amount of work to get to that skill level. Beautiful playing Robin.
True that.
I always liked 'Quittin Time at Essex Mine' ... I'm a sucker for a good waltz.
Point out the sweet noter playing here on Billy in the Lowground that is. It's an extry good tune and the choices and execution are perfect Robin.
http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/music/playlist/popup?playlistUrl=http%3A//mountaindulcimer.ning.com/music/playlist/show%3Ffmt%3Dxspf%26id%3D3745489%253APlaylist%253A148%26mdate%3D2014-08-01T05%253A09%253A27.528Z%26nik%3D2pgjt53vxzwfp&playlistType=user&autoplay=1&selectTrack=0&hideShareLink=1
I've got 3 cats. One will fall asleep behind me as I'm playing, one has gotten to the point where she will deign to stay within earshot for a few minutes, and the third flees when she sees me carry a dulcimer into the room.
Our dogs tend to congregate around when I'm playing.
Here was our Sheba just this afternoon ...she came into the living room and draped herself over the chair a few feet away, to listen to us playing music with a friend.
Just curious...do your pets enjoy your dulcimer playing? My cat and my dog are my biggest fans. (Of course, free entertainment every evening, food an drink "on the house", and no motel fees may be the reasons they like my playing).
Teri would you mind sharing your tab when you get it done?
I contacted Aubrey and she sent me the lyrics and chords. I will tab it out on my own.
Thanks to you all!!!
Hi Terri,
I've been off line for awhile, but there are a couple of ways to play Angel Gabriel. I don't have any clean tab, just my chicken scratchings. Are you looking for noter/drone, chording to support a voice or finger picking?
Stephanie
P.S I've sent you a friend request so we can figure out how to get the tab to you.
Thanks, Dawn, I already contacted Susan but she says she has never tabbed it. I will try to contact Aubrey, maybe she can help. If worse comes to worse, I could tab it but I am not the best in the world. : )
I have been looking for a tab of Angel Gabriel, a folk tune that I have learned to play but want to use for our club newsletter. Susan Trump plays and sings it beautifully and I found a video of her on youtube. I guess I could tab it out myself, but I'm being lazy!
Thanks Brian G and Skip. Thinking of D A d as a tuning which allows for Mixolydian or Ionian tunes to be played is helpful. Anne Lough in her book: "Welcome to the Mt. Dulcimer" suggests that this tuning could also be called 1-5-8 or Do-So-Do. This frees up my thinking also so that DAd could also be CGc etc. Again thanks.
Think of it as having 2 fret boards, one with a C#, one without [ D mixolydian and G-ionian]. As someone once said, adding frets is like overlaying fretboards. The plus frets basically add flexibility without retuning.The melody string[s] provide the modal character and the remaining 2 provide the dronenotes which define or provide the background for a mode. Consider tunings DAC and DAd, both use the same drones to provide the background for different melody string modes. If you play a tune that doesn't use any form of C inDAd tuning, I suppose you could call it what you want [probably wrong].
Hi John. I'm not sure I understand your question, so this may not be a very helpful reply. :)
DAd is a tuning, not a mode. To distinguish between the two possibilities you mention, I'd say something like "I'm tuned DAd and the tune is in D-mixolydian" or "I'm tuned DAd and the tune is in D-major (ionian).
I know that technically a pure D A d is the Mixolydian Mode with a flatted seventh in the scale. (Example: Old Joe Clark) I also know that when a person says they play in D A d but are using the sixth and one half fret (6+) that they are actually playing an extended Ionian scale without the flat. (Example: South Wind). How then should a person who says they are playing in D A d distinguish between the two?
Sounds like you got quite the bargain there. Congratulations.
