Forum Activity for @strumelia

What a crazy week.

The everythingdulcimer.com goes down in flames while DPN magazine rises again from the ashes! 

I'm glad the plans for the transfer of DPN ownership is finalized. Ashley shared this news with me about a week ago and it has been hard keeping the secret. I've been waiting for her to make It public. Best wishes to Fiona and Bill as they take over the reins at DPN.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Wow, that's unexpected!  How nice!

This is the breaking news from Ashley Ernst on Facebook (a posting which included a photo of Fiona Potts and Fiona's father) regarding DPN: 

I have been busting with excitement to share this news! Dulcimer Players News is under new stewardship! Meet Fiona Potts publisher/editor of DPN and her father, Bill Wake, tech guru. Subscriptions for the print magazine are again open, so visit dpnews.com to subscribe or renew today!!

But even if they accidentally let the domain expire... If they knew their stuff, they would have had some sort of backup of the email addresses of all their members. They could have then emailed everyone to at least let them know they were ending the site. If they cared.

I wondered about that too Ken.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I dunno Ken...  I check there every day and have noticed it Unavailable for at least the last week and more.  No notice...nada.

I wondered if the nominal owners had neglected to pay the periodic name license fee.  

NOT GOOD.  The "revived" ED has never been busy.  The owner never identified him/herself.  Never been welcoming or active.  Only 3 or 4 people every posted regularly -- Ken & I and someone named "Carolina Rockman" who I've never run into anywhere else in dulcimer media.  

Yes, and when Bruce went out on sea duty he had a few us looking after the site.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

A couple of weeks?  Doesn't sound good.

You gotta show up and commit for the long haul, like Bruce Ford did with the real/original Everything Dulcimer.

This website has been offline for a couple of weeks now. Does anyone know what happened? There was no warning that it was closing down. I know it wasn't having much traffic.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

😃 I'll try to do so, Dusty!

Glad you enjoyed the Wallowas and are returning this year.  Tell Heidi and Bob I say hello.

I haven’t checked in for awhile, but I wanted to express some gratitude again for someone in this group suggesting Dulcimer Camp in the Wallowas (Oregon) when I asked about west coast camps last year. I had such a great time, and I’m all set to pack up and go again in a few days. Anyone in the group also going to this camp? 

Lorilee - I like that a lot!  I have said for many years that I can be having a bad day, and a little time with one of my dulcimers just makes it better!

Stable.  Horses.  All good 😀

My stable. They help keep me "stable," Also I'll use a horse reference whenever I can!

I was going to say the same thing, Ken...

Mine, mine, all mine!

Mine!  Mine!  That's Mine.  That too!  Mine. Mine!

 MINE MINE.jpg - 56KB

Whenever I clean up, the couch becomes the temporary home of what I affectionately refer to as "the hoarde" as they are a horde I've hoarded. haha

@ StudentofRhythm it's so wonderful that you gave your little daughter a penny whistle. I hope she figures out a simple couple of tunes on it and that it sparks the joy of making music in her!   
Maybe the two of you will work out a simple tune duet on whistle and dulcimer!  (I found "Bear Dance" to be a great choice of tune for total beginners of various instruments to work on. You almost 'can't go wrong' with that tune.)

Welcome @Buckeye67 !  My very first mtn dulcimer was a new walnut hourglass McSpadden exactly like yours, which I think i got somewhere around 1995-96... so it may be a sister/sibling to yours. 😸  It has a voice like an angel, i gave it to my younger daughter years ago. Enjoy it!  McSpaddens are a great choice, and they retain their value over time.

Welcome Buckeye67 and Student!  I'm a primarily Celtic music (Child Ballads) player on the MD, although I also play a little tin whistle and mirliton flute.  

I'll recommend to you both the booklet I wrote years ago for new dulcimer players, called   I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?  It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms (so we all speak the same jargon) plus answers to many beginner questions about the tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new friend.  You can find it here:

Ken Hulme's "I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?" Article - Strumelia | fotmd.com    

part way down the discussion.  Thanks to Lisa and Dusty for fixing the link...

Can't go wrong with Irish music.  I gave my daughter a whistle for Christmas (she's eight) and maybe I should borrow it from her more, but she has succeeded in playing a scale on it so I can't keep it away from her too much.

We have a bird here (you probably have them too) called a Whisky Jack, aka Camp Robber, aka Canada Jay, aka Gray Jay. Whisky Jacks like to hang around where folks are camping and help themselves to whatever unguarded food scraps they can find. A really comical bird, fun to watch, can wile away lots of down time when relax camping. Not nearly as rare as hummingbirds in this neck of the woods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_jay

Thanks Benjamin and Dusty for your response.  Talking about seeing wild birds, I had a new bird come to our feeder a month ago: it was a male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.  I had seen them in bird books but to have a visit by a real one was a great treat!

And your hummingbirds won't need a nap, as I would if I enjoyed some whisky before breakfast.

It's a joy, isn't it, when we can lure wild birds to our garden.

Every morning before breakfast I look out at my whiskey barrel planter with a fuchia plant in it. I have been waiting for humming birds to discover it.  I am glad to announce that two came this morning for the first time. I now call this exciting moment: "Whisky Before Breakfast".

If it were my dulcimer, I would just clean it up and string it with three strings rather than six. As long as the fret board is not warped, it should be playable. I might go a little lighter on the string gauges as well. 

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

As Dwain says, now that we know why that gap is there at the tail and those arches between the rest of the fretboard and the top, do not fill any of those gaps,   Give it a gentle cleaning and a new set of strings, and start playing.   Dwain suggests leaving the string pins where they are, I suggest moving hem onto the tailblock. Your choice.

On closer examination it seems you are most probably correct! And if so, closing that gap would be disastrous for the top.

And thus the pins should remain where they are too.

@nate there are two strings still on this dulcimer that I assume are between 50 and 60 years old but I did tighten them up a tiny bit and “played” the dulcimer and it actually had a really nice tone-one of the reasons I am now becoming excited to get this dulcimer back in working order.

I gather that my best course is to have a piece of appropriate wood glued into the gap and then put the screws for the strings on the base part.

I also noticed that the 'f holes' that run along the edges of the fingerboard terminate at big round holes on the side pieces. Does anyone know anything about this?
I hadnt heard of this 'floating bridge' concept until just now. I was able to find this older FOTMD post about a 'howie mitchell floating bridge' 
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/instruments-discuss-specific-features-luthiers-instrument-problems-questions/35304/dulcimer-queries


So now I understand a bit better what I'm looking at with this dulcimer, and I am very curious if it's better. I have recently been really interested in how anchoring the strings in different ways and places affects tone. 

@nate the gap is not rough. I need to give this poor baby a good cleaning. Did you check out the last three closeup photos I sent? Also if you look at the photo of the whole top attached to my initial post you can see little scroll cutouts on either side of the tail-there has been no separation of the tail at those spots. 

I am a bit confused. Visually, to me the gap between the tailpiece and the box looks very jagged and rough, like when glued surfaces get pulled apart. It also looks like there is some residual glue visible in the pictures, but that might just be dust and lighting. There is a chewed up little ding on the corner where I assumed they would connect, which I assumed is what split them.

Thank you all so much for helping me. I’m going to try to find a luthier in my area-I don’t think I can find one with loads of dulcimer experience but at a minimum maybe I can find someone to replace the nut and maybe take care of the strings at the tail. Thank you all again for your insights.

You're right.  That is a Howie Mitchell "floating tail" gap and it is supposed to be there.  Combined with that 'severely' arched fretboard the intent is to free the soundboard and allow it to vibrate freely.  Many builders arch the fretboard for both that and aesthetic reasons.

That said, moving the string pins down onto the tailblock is still not a bad idea, as doing so will still prevent the fretboard from potentially pulling up.  

One last close up of the tail from the side.

 59CBAD85-E7DD-45B7-91F1-FC31E46E5598.jpeg - 230KB

I feel like an idiot. I realize now that that gap at the bottom is supposed to be there. The entire fret board is raised up and is attached to the body in four places. I’ve attached a  photo of the side view near the tail. That gap is supposed to be there. I don’t think it would do to move those pins to the bottom piece of the tail.

 00939BEE-0619-4662-AB54-E34879BC1002.jpeg - 238KB

The crucial thing is whether the fretboard's upper surface curves up. There should be a very slight concave 'dish' to reduce string's buzzing against frets.

@ken-longfield

I’m afraid you may be right. I tried to gently press the fretboard down and there were a lot of creaking noises. Plus, when I look at the fretboard from the bottom at eye level I can see that it curves upward at the bottom slightly. I don’t know if either of these things necessarily means that it is warped.