Forum Activity for @ken-longfield

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."

Thanks, Salt. I had not seen the YouTube video before.. I appreciate your sharing it. I still would like to find a way to see the other video. When I see the video of the Artisan Center and think of how many times I've been in the Cody building my heart aches. It is not for the stuff that was lost in the flood, but for the lives disrupted and livelihoods compromised. They were making such wonderful progress with the Road to Recovery through the Luthiere and Troublesome Creek Instruments.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks Salt, Ron, and Robin for you comments. I, too, thought of Mike, Doug, and all the other folks I've met in Hindman over the years. I have been ins several floods here in Pennsylvania and involved in the cleanup afterwards, but none have been as devastating as this flooding in eastern Kentucky. Our area Lutheran churches were just getting ready to send some work crews to western Kentucky to help with the rebuilding after the tornadoes. I suspect we will be doing the same as eastern Kentucky cleans up and prepares to rebuild. I usually make donations through Lutheran Disaster Response who coordinates with other religious organizations and government entities in providing relief and rebuilding aid. I will also be making direct donations to the Appalachian Artisan Center and other folks in Hindman.

Like Robin, I have been unable to view the video for which Salt provided a link past about 4:20; just after she gets inside the Troublesome Creek Instruments building. I hope sometime to be able to see the entire video.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

John's suggestion looks good also. I don't have that book, but have met Anne and know that she does a good job of teaching in person. It is worth checking out as well.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Wally has provided some good suggestions which you won't pick up in books. I'm 75 and pretty much self taught although I started in playing in 1974 when I made my first dulcimer. Over the last 20 years I've attended lots of festivals and workshops and accumulated lots of tab. These days I'm mostly focusing on playing single melody string either using a noter or my index finger. I can play chord/melody style but really like the sound of drones. For fretting only the melody string, I suggest Maddie's two books; Teach Yourself Dulcimer and The Wonderful World of DAA. If can purchase the books along with the audio/video downloads, I think that would be ideal for you. Can listen to audio or watch the videos whenever you want. I've found that with growing older that tab gets harder to see. I have to write out larger numbers on most of the tab I have.

We have a group that meets on Tuesday night on Zoom that plays mostly in DAA. I know it would be a little advanced for a beginner, but you are welcome to watch us play and ask questions. We meet at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, so it would be at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time. If you are interested, let me know, and I will send the information on how to join the meeting.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Steve, I don't know where you are in Oregon, but I suspect that dulcimer players are sparse in your area. I've used many books over the years and made recommendations to lots of students. A good basic instruction books that has been around for quite some time is Maddie MacNeil's You Can Teach Yourself Dulcimer from Mel Bay. It begins with DAA tuning plus you can access audio and video from Mel Bay. If you want to go with DAd, First Lessons Dulcimer in DAD by Joyce Ochs (also from Mel Bay) is a good beginners books. It has audio access. These books originally came with CDs or DVDs, but everything from Mel Bay is now by download these days. There are also lots of beginners lessons via video through the internet if you have a good internet connection where you live.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Yes, that is correct as Skip said.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Roy, Ken and Skip's suggestion is how I would handle the problem with the size of the loop. Put the non-loop end of the string through the loop, put over the end pin (knob, as you called it), and pull tight thus making a larger loop. It is a lot easier than trying to make a new loop. I suggest buying bulk strings from JustStrings.com. It is less expensive than having to buy sets all the time. Twelve 0.012 strings cost $4.03 plus shipping  and you can get five 0.022 D'Addario strings for $12.26. I think that works out to 4 sets of strings for $16.49 plus shipping with a couple of extra 0.012s. BTW, you can also make larger loops using ball end strings buy looping the plain end of the string through the ball. Best wishes as you work to make this dulcimer playable. As I recall it has a beautiful sound.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

It really is a very nice dulcimer although, as I recall, the shafts of the tuning pegs are rather thin. I think dropping down to a 0.020 wound string for the D would be good. The 0.012 are about right for A, but you could try a 0.014 which is 0.001 heavier than the suggested string on the Strothers' String Size calculator. 0.012 is 0.001 lighter. You might be able to get away with a 0.011 or 0.010 if they don't get too floppy when tuned up to pitch.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I don't use wire cutters. I use diagonal cutting pliers. That's not a semantic difference, but a difference in the steel alloy used in the construction of the pliers. A few years ago I purchased a set of small Husky pliers that included a small 4 inch diagonal cutting plier along with a needle nose plier and flat blade plier. They work well for instrument construction. I also have another small diagonal cutting plier that I keep in my traveling gig bag. I've had since 1974. I have a cheap pair that I bought at store called "Ollies" that sells "good stuff cheap" just to have an extra pair around. They work well also.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Interesting dulcimer, but I have no clue as to who the builder might be.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Some left handed folks have no problem playing right handed. Let her give it a try. If that doesn't work, try restringing, but as Noah cautions, you may find some strings buzzing or binding. In that case you will need a new nut and saddle (a.k.a. bridge).

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Congratulations on your new dulcimer. I am sure you will enjoy it and have fun playing it.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."