Forum Activity for @ken-longfield

Marlie, following up on John's post, are you able to turn the screw in the tuner that is giving you trouble? If so, tightening the screw will increase the tension on the tuner and prevent it from turning on its own when brought up to pitch (when the string is in tune). If you can't turn the screw you will need to find someone who can remove it for and then replace the tuner. The tuner appears to be one used on ukuleles. Dulcimer makers used both ukulele and banjo tuners. I will look in my spare tuner box the next time I'm in my workshop (tomorrow) and see if I have one that matches the one in the photo. If I have have one, I can send it to you and you or someone you know who is handy with a screw driver can put it on you dulcimer for you. No charge for the tuner or mailing it to you if I have one.

I could probably send you a screw from an old tuner too.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Sounds like a great opportunity to me. If I were buying it, I would do so unfretted and install the frets myself.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

A misplaced is fret is not a difficult repair, but can be tricky depending upon where you need to cut the new slot and what it will look like cosmetically. Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

The 6 1/2 and 13 1/2 frets halve (roughly) the space between frets 6 and 7 and 13 and 14. Essentially you have chromatic fretting in those places. Once you cross frets 7 and 14 you return to diatonic fretting which means those spaces, 7 -8 and 14 - 15, will be wider than the chromatic spacing, but shorter than 6 -7 and 13 - 14 respectively. Take a ruler and measure the spacing 6 -7, 7 -8. The width 7 - 8 should be slightly smaller. The same will be the case 13 - 14 and 14 - 15. If the second measurement in each case is not shorter, you have some misplaced frets.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Are you talking about the 13 1/2 fret?

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for sharing the video link Robin. I've seen that program before, but this is the first time in color. Always interesting watching the Ritchie family.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

You're correct John. I think it was in the $2,000 to 3,000 range, but I may not remember it all that well.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Good point, Dusty.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Haha, Dusty. I'm glad they repeat those old shows. Sometimes the second or third time through I can get the right question for the answer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Jeopardy has been offering video and photo clues for years. That's nothing new. Also, this show is not new either. It was first broadcast in July of 2022.

Kwn

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hello again Mivo. Thanks for sharing the beginning of your dulcimer journey with us. It sounds like you are well under way. You have a very nice McSpadden dulcimer. It will give you a lifetime of pleasure.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Good for you Frank. I wonder if we still have our cheese slicer around. If we do, I'll check the gauge of the wire on it. We switched to a cheese knife years ago.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

John and Ken have already given you good advice, however, I'm going to add another one or two. First, from the photo the Blue Lion looks to be in good condition. It can use a good cleaning, but that's not a problem. I play my Blue Lion as a three string as I prefer that to four strings in any configuration. Second, I'm sorry you've had bad experiences buying used dulcimers. It can be frustrating. Like Ken said, we can help talk you through replacing a nut and bridge if that is all that those dulcimers need. There are resources out there for playing with four equidistant strings, both books and videos. I do think that most of them (if not all) require some knowledge about how to play the dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I ditto the "Doh!". I guess we will never know since it was an eBay sale and have no idea who sold it or may have purchased it.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Okay. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

As usual, I agree with Ken. The inlay looks like a green heron to me, but could certainly be some other bird. Since you are inquiring, I assume you either bought this used or someone gave it to you. The use of ukulele friction pegs may place the date it was made somewhere in the 1970s when they were popular among one off or hobby builders.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

The little dots look like they are stick-on and not inlays, so any cleaning or oiling of the fret board is going to loosen them. If you like the dots, you can have a luthier inlay pearl dots in the same spots. It requires drilling holes in the fret board, gluing in the dots, and then leveling them with the fret board. Ebony fret boards do dry out over time depending upon how much they are exposed to sun and air. A good fret board conditioner such as those sold by Fender, Dunlop, Taylor, Music Nomad, Lizard Spit, etc. will restore your fret board. Use as directed.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Ryan, I like the concept of model designations that give you information about the instrument. When someone says they have a C.F. Martin D28 you know exactly what this is; a rosewood dreadnaught with white binding, etc.  If some tells you they have a Taylor 314ce, you know that is has sapele back and sides, sitka spruce top, Venetian cutaway, electronic pickup built in, and is a grand auditorium model. Both Folkcraft and McSpadden used various abbreviations in their model designations to let you know what you features you had.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Oops, it looks like I got dogs and dulcimers confused.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Congratulations on acquiring your eighth dulcimer. It is beautiful and I am sure it sounds great. Enjoy.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Please, please, never use Pledge on a dulcimer or any other instrument made of wood. Pledge contains substances that make it virtually impossible to repair cracks, dings, and scratches because they prevent the absorption of stains to match the color of the wood. This causes any repair to stand out like a sore thumb. Instead use a good instrument polish like the ones sold by C. F. Martin, Gibson, Fender, and other guitar makers.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Gina, in order to be able to post in a group you have to first join the group. There is a green block at the top of the group page which you click on to join the group.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Gina, here a a few comments for what they are worth. $200 to fix that dulcimer sounds like a lot of money. A new set of similar tuning machines is a little less than $20. It shouldn't take more than a half hour to take the old ones off and put the new ones on. 27 inches is not an extremely long VSL for a dulcimer, but today most folks who play chord melody style prefer a shorter VSL. Folkcraft makes dulcimers with shorter VSLs. Even if you had the pieces broken out of the lower bout sound hole, it would be very difficult to repair. Personally, I would not spend anymore money on this instrument. I'd take the tuners off, clean them as best I could, reinstall them, put on new strings, and use it to learn to play until I could afford a new one.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University still has a Folk Music department. Currently there are two instructors in fiddling but none on other folk instruments. There is no chair listed for the department. There also is a department of ethnomusicology.

Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I don't know how involved you want to be in this project or how much you want to spend on it, but StewMac sells colored lacquers that do an excellent job. Here is a link: https://www.stewmac.com/search/?q=lacquer

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I wear nitrile or latex gloves when working with CA glue. It is nasty when you accidentally glue your fingers together.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Welcome home, Ken! I'm sure you have stories to tell.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for the offer Jan. Like I said, I'm just curious and not that curious to really put you to all that work of tracing the bridge. I knew Robert Hutchinson and played many North Country dulcimers at his booth during a couple of arts festivals. I think Buzz would be more interested in a tracing of the bridge it he is going to restore the North Country dulcimer which was the beginning of this thread.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thank you Jan. Now I want to know more. How wide is it at the base and the top? What is the diamond of the four holes drilled in it? What is the distance from the top of the bridge to the top of the center hole? What is the distance between the top center hole and bottom center hole? What is the distance from the outer edges to the middle hole to the outer holes? What is the thickness of the bridge at the top and and at the bottom? I'm just the curious sort.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks, Jan.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

That's a good find Skip. If you go to Paula, you can see some really good photos of the bridge. That is another person you can contact if you need someone to make a tracing of the bridge and measurements.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song.

No problem, Buzz. Looks like you conquered it. Yep, that's a North Country Dulcimer alright. The place where the strings contact the bridge will be placed at twice the distance from the fret board side of the nut to the center of the 7th fret. Any good luthier or repair tech should know that. Jan Potts, one of our moderators has a photo of a North Country dulcimer here:

Perhaps if you send her a message here she can shed more light on the bridge shape.

To send her a message, click on "Members" above. Put "Jan Potts" in the search window. When her page comes up click on "send message" just below her profile information on the left hand side of the page..

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Robert Hutchinson was the maker of North Country dulcimers in Bairdsford, PA. Besides making dulcimers, he was known also as "The Kazoo Guy."A He is no longer building. The bridges on his dulcimers were unique. You can find some photos on the dulcimers on the internet. You will need to have someone custom make a bridge for you. If you can find someone who has a North Country dulcimer who would be wiling to trace the bridge for you, then whoever makes a bridge for you would have a pattern to work from. It will take some work, but shouldn't be too difficult.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Interesting solution, although I usually stab myself on the other end when using homemade loop end strings.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Yes, you can. I think the gauges (from melody to bass) would be 0,012, 0.016, and 0.025. If those are a light, you can go up to 0.014, 0.018, and 0.026, 0.027, or 0.028.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

You can tune a dulcimer any way you want to. DAd or DAdd happens to be the most popular tuning at the moment.  In the groups I play with we also play in DAA, DAC, DAG, EAA, CGG. and a few others. I play mostly three string dulcimer hence the references. If you play with 4 equidistant strings you have many other tuning possibilities. One caution is that you may need to change string gauges to reach some tunings. You'll know if you start breaking strings that you'll need another gauge.

Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

My current favorite noter is the handle of a foam brush. I cut the foam off the handle after the paint hardened. It works very well for me.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Roy, I don't know if you ever go over to Downingtown, but if you do there is a Woodcraft store there. It carries maple dowels. If I ever get down your way again, I have lots of different sizes and species of dowel material I can bring along for you to try.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Robin, go to it on Facebook and right click on the video to bring up settings (I think, I don't use Windows) and switch from automatic to one of the lower settings. I used 240 and it worked well.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for the suggestion Salt, but 4 minutes and 20 seconds seems to be the cut-off. I was able to watch the video by going in to settings and changing from the auto setting to 240p. If I were smarter at this computer stuff, it would have dawned on me sooner to do that.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."