Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Ron Gibson Dulcimers

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Ron made/makes outstanding modern-trad style dulcimers. Which one are you considering?  Have you checked out his website?

Ron Gibson Dulcimers

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Does anyone know about or own a Ron Gibson dulcimer? Looking for opinions/experiences/reviews before I seriously consider getting one.

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of pickups because of all the added fuss of having to bring an amp and make sure you have power supply, plus I'm not someone you can trust with cords around their feet lol.

That's why I make some of my dulcimers really thin, really large in volume, with metal cake pans, and with really heavy gauge strings. They're SUPER loud and can hold their ground against other instruments when played acoustically. In fact I have to play very gently when playing with other dulcimers or I will drown them out lol.

I have only seen one real resonator dulcimer and it was even louder than mine, so a dulcibro seems like the ticket if you want to be louder than the banjo. In general some dulcimers are much louder than others, and are better suited to playing alongside loud instruments. 

updated by @nate: 09/13/23 06:14:32PM

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

 

In my experience yes if you don't use a pickup. In our bluegrass session I mostly play guitar since the dulcimer won't be heard against the dobro,  fiddles and banjos :) 

However it depends: When I join on dulcimer some of the other girls and guys change their style a little bit so I'm not totally drowned out. Or i play the dulcimer just in the late hours (after most of my fellow bluegrassians already left). 

Another possibility is to place the dulcimer on a table or a wooden board on your lap. In both cases the sound gets amplified. Some information on this forum:
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/instruments-discuss-specific-features-luthiers-instrument-problems-questions/41358/why-is-it-called-a-possum-board 

If you have some skills in woodworking you might be able to build your own possum board (like seen on this page: http://www.dulcimerseite.de/tipps-zur-spielhaltung.html ). Otherwise most dulcimer builders should also be able to supply you with one. 

Personally I prefer the sound and ergonomics of playing on a table if possible.

Best regards, Jost. 

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I always used to find that a mtn dulcimer gets drowned out in a recording of several musicians on different instruments, if the person who is recording does not take special steps with the microphone placements to ensure otherwise. If you have a fiddle, banjo, mando, and dulcimer and mic all of them equally or just have a mic placed in the middle of the group of musicians, the dulcimer sound will be almost lost among them. When playing in real life, it's a little easier to hear the dulcimer among the live group. That's just from my own experience though.

Anyone have a David Honea dulcimer?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

The old forum discussions on either of the two ED sites are not archived or accessible, i believe. If I'm wrong, someone please point us to exactly where/how they are located. The only things archived from the original ED site were Tabs, Events, Articles, and club listings I think. Not forum discussions. I'm not even sure where the ED Articles are archived anymore. Many of them were also published in Mel Bay's dulcimersessions  .com website, which no longer exists either.  

Anyone have a David Honea dulcimer?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

 

That sounds like just what I want! Although I'm not sure where to find/how to search said archives — all I'm finding is that the everythingdulcimer.com site is telling me it's ready to have website files uploaded, and that this FOTMD post that says the ED archives are not being saved. Maybe someone could point me in a more correct direction?

Edited to add: Well, and also I found an archive of the ED dulcimer tabs , but that's a different thing.

updated by @sea-strings: 09/13/23 08:50:34AM

Healthy Living- healthy eating, exercise, weight loss, veggie gardening, etc.

OFF TOPIC discussions

We're just getting things started growing again here, with the Fall/Winter rains coming fairly regularly now.  Summers are brutally hot but quite lacking in rain and everything dries up.  Luckily we didn't get too much moister from Hurricane Idalia here a couple weeks back...  Feast or famine.

Hurricane Lee missed us but according to the National Hurricane Center it will be coming ashore, hopefully as "just" a Tropical Storm,  somewhere between Boston and Halifax on Saturday.  Folks there are gonna get some seriously windy and wet weather.  

updated by @ken-hulme: 09/13/23 07:33:40AM

Anyone have a David Honea dulcimer?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Look at the old Everything Dulcimer archives.  IIRC there were a number of discussion of Honea dulcimers 'back in the day'.

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

 
Shanon, most dulcimers are relatively quiet when compared to other instruments, and are easily "drowned out" by banjos, mandolins, fiddles, resonator guitars, etc. I don't like to think of it as 'drowned out' though, I like to think of it as fitting in nicely. It's not always that easy to discern a dulcimer when played with louder instruments, but the music does still sound fuller for having one. With modern tech you could make a dulcimer way louder than everything else if you wanted to, but if youre sitting between a banjo and a fiddle and it's all acoustic, your dulcimer isnt going to be very pronounced.

I wish I had the opportunity to play dulcimer with concertina, but I don't know anybody with one. Id love to get myself a concertina and learn to play but i already own a handful of instruments that I haven't learned yet so I think the concertina might have to wait a while
updated by @nate: 09/13/23 06:40:55AM

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Is it really normal for a dulcimer to have a very weak, drowned out sound?

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I don't. In our local monthly bluegrass jam however one of our regular participants (let's call him Adam) always bring his German concertina (english and german concertina are different, I'm just not sure at the moment which difference exactly). 

Although it's quite unusual for bluegrass it's enrich the sound a lot. And in the later hours Adam often sings German folk songs  while accompanying himself with the concertina. 

The combination of the squeeze box and his strong, emotional vocal performance surely are a treat. Alas as far I know he don't record anything and I would never record without permission from him.

Marlboro - Brattleboro VT - Monthly Gathering - 3rd Tuesdays

Single-Instructor workshops, band & house concerts, Club activities, monthly Jams

Marlboro and Brattleboro Vermont area mountain dulcimer players gather on the 3rd Tuesday of the month to share the joy of playing the dulcimer. All are welcome to join,  For details please see:

https://www.marlborodulcimer.org/

Just For Fun - sayings regarding the dulcimer or music

OFF TOPIC discussions

A  poet-friend, Val Coleman,  once sent me these lines:

"There is no storm

When the dulcimer sings.

Hatred and hurricanes

Wait in the wings."

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

The only time I've played with a concertina was in a jam, but I was playing guitar, not dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

What to call your dulcimer collection?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

What fun to revive this thread. I remember many years ago going to Bryan Bowers concert and he walked on stage with a stack of autoharps all tuned for different kep=ys and songs. He spread them out behind him on the stage in those triangular shape guitar stands. He turned to the audience and asked what you call a group of autoharps like this and then answered his own question: an embarrassment of autoharps. I've never been embarrassed by all my dulcimers.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

What to call your dulcimer collection?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

 

A meditation of dulcimers? A therapy of dulcimers?

updated by @sea-strings: 09/12/23 11:19:27AM

Anyone have a David Honea dulcimer?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I've got a new dulcimer in the house, whee! My latest acquirement is a David Honea (picture posted in this album ).

That said, it looks like the luthier's dulcimer website is no more, and the Wayback Machine version is sadly lacking in photos. There are a few of his dulcimers listed used on eBay right now, and I found a little discussion of him in past threads here, but I'd love to see (or hear about) even more of his work, because I'm curious like that.

So if anybody else has pictures or stories or thoughts on David Honea dulcimers, feel free to share, and thanks in advance!

Healthy Living- healthy eating, exercise, weight loss, veggie gardening, etc.

OFF TOPIC discussions

It's that time of year when the flowers and veggies are all getting overgrown and ragged looking. Time to start pulling things out, pruning, tidying up a little area here and there as the plants become exhausted by it all. I've learned the hard way to not procrastinate too much on end-of-year garden cleanup. 

Happily we're still getting some real nice tomatoes. Not lots of them, but just enough to enjoy the bacon/tomato/mayo sandwiches we love to make this time of year.  

updated by @strumelia: 09/13/23 09:32:59AM

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Can't remember that I've ever had the opportunity. Maybe once, years ago, in a multi-instrument jam.   Not exactly a common folk instrument around these parts.  I've been to a number of statewide folk meet-ups here in Florida and can't remember seeing or hearing any sort of squeeze-box.  

updated by @ken-hulme: 09/12/23 07:13:23AM

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Do you guys like to play along with a concertina?

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I forgot to mention, you can find those built in pre-amps with tuners online for anywhere from 15-300$ depending on the quality. You'd have to cut a hole in the side of your merlin to install the display into, and youd have to cut a slot into your bridge under your saddle for the pickup to sit in. Nothing too complicated to do yourself, and definitely something you could get done by a pro if you wanted to. Just make sure you get a preamp small enough to fit in your instrument, perhaps a ukulele preamp.

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I have built a dulcimer with a fishman preamp that I recycled from an acoustic guitar. It had an UST or basically a pickup under the bridge and had a built in metronome, tuner, and tone controls.

Personally I am not a big fan of how amplification changes the tone so much, however I'm also not a big fan of the hollow, plunking tone that strumsticks often have. I have tried one of those little piezos, and preferred that, because the original tone was mostly preserved. In my opinion, many strumsticks players are also guitar players who want a more gutsy, guitar like tone, and install pickups to achieve that. 

When it comes to tuners built into amps, maybe this is just me, but I find their displays to be very unintuitive to use to tune. I have a headstock tuner but I mostly use an app on my phone. A modern smartphone has a very high quality microphone, typically better quality than you'll ever need for tuning, and also typically better than an actual tuner, plus the display is much bigger and has more details. The clip on can be handy in a group setting or anywhere noisy.

Nate

updated by @nate: 09/10/23 04:29:40PM

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I must have a good one, then. *shrug* Still, its a roots instrument usually played in an environment (traditionally) where everyone would tune by ear to relative so, historically its not that far off. LOL

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

No thanks.  Seen too many of those with unplayable fret spacings.  Seagull makes good guitars, but...

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

https://seagullguitars.com/product/m4-spruce-eq/

A Merlin in spruce- with an ONBOARD TUNER and Preamp? They make one in Mahogany, also. I know, it costs more than just clipping on a tuner but think- if Seagull didn't think people would buy it they wouldn't make it. This means that enough people, somewhere, said to them "hey, what if you......" meaning there is interest enough in it for them to invest tens of thousands of dollars or whatever to actually come up with one! 

For a 'roots' instrument, that's pretty damn cool.

updated by @alathea: 09/10/23 07:10:43AM

Looking for Traditional Dulcimer by Tab Ward or ...

FOR SALE:instruments/music items/CDs/Wanted to Buy...

Looking to buy a dulcimer made by Tab Ward, N.T. Ward, or Ricky Lee Ward.  Prefer traditional wooden pegs, diatonic fretting, heart-shaped soundholes, 3 strings, etc.  Drop me an e-mail if you have one to sell in good, playable condition.

gregory52gunner@gmail.com 

Just For Fun - sayings regarding the dulcimer or music

OFF TOPIC discussions

I'm an uncurable punster (just ask my wife) but when I play my dulcimer I don't fret about it.

Just For Fun - sayings regarding the dulcimer or music

OFF TOPIC discussions

As a dulcimer player I always have an appetite for something new. My latest is called: "Ala-Mode" !

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Thanks! Found him. I'll send him a message later today with the photos and serial number of my dulcimer. As it turns out, he is only about 35 miles from my home in Natural Bridge. Maybe I will be able to visit him.

I have a small collection of electric and acoustic guitars as well as cigar box guitars and violin (some of which I built myself). I also build all my own vacuum tube guitar amplifiers.

I have a BSEE from Virginia Tech earned when vacuum tubes were still part of the curriculum. I retired 4 years ago from my job as a Satellite Communications Systems Engineer contractor with the CIA. I worked in the Intelligence Community for 40+ years. My wife and I retired to Natural Bridge Virginia in 2019.

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

You can send him a message here. He is jcalkin. Do a search under members for him and then click on send a message.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

updated by @ken-longfield: 09/08/23 12:58:47PM

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Thanks for the responses.

I found his Facebook page before posting here. However, I don't do Facebook so that is little help to me.

Does he have an email address?

Is there any way to send him a private message through this website or this forum itself?

Bill Haegele

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I see John commenting and showing his builds on the FB page Let's Make Dulcimers (an Psalteries and Mandolins, etc.).  He's actually a member here, but not a big contributor.  I've not played one of his but it's obvious he has very high level skills as a builder, and his designs are r4ally nice.  I'm sure you'll really appreciate your purchase. 

I'd go to FB and contact him there.  He has a personal Page and a Dulcimer Page as well, I believe...  

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

John Calkin, former President of the American Guild of Luthiers.........100's of articles by him available online.  He is on facebook too.

https://www.facebook.com/john.calkin.92

That is going to be an outstanding for you....since JC's retirement from H&D (Huss and Dalton guitars  in Staunton, Va.) John tells of  building 4,000 instruments.  BTW, H&D Guitars are mucho bucks and top of the line.........like 4-5 grand used and way upwards of that new. 

updated by @salt-springs: 09/08/23 03:16:30AM

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I just purchased a John Calkin Dulcimer from a local shop here in Lexington, Virginia. I have been trying to find information about Calkin and the Dulcimer I purchased but his website is dead and I can't find any contact information other that he is located in Greenville, Virginia. I live in Natural Bridge, Virginia. The label inside the Dulcimer has Calkin's name, Greenville, Virginia,  and a serial number.

Photos of the Dulcimer in question are attached. TIA

Bill Haegele

updated by @bluesky636: 09/08/23 01:01:09AM

April Come She Will (Simon & Garfunkel)

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

What poetic lyrics. And what a nice reminder of the purity of Garfunkel's voice. 

Frank Bond Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Thanks Ken... I fixed Rob's link.  :)

Frank Bond Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

The link Rob posted didn't work for me. It is missing the "l" at the end. This one works: https://www.orpingtonfolkclub.org.uk/Interviews_&_Articles/Interviews/001.html

Good article and interview.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Frank Bond Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

https://www.orpingtonfolkclub.org.uk/Interviews_&_Articles/Interviews/001.html

Here’s an interesting article about the most famous player of Frank Bond dulcimers. If you haven’t listened to him, you should!

April Come She Will (Simon & Garfunkel)

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

One of my favorite S&G tunes as well.