Adding a wound string for bass on a dulcimette

Joseph Besse
Joseph Besse
@joseph-besse
11 years ago
51 posts

That's right. I sold the Eede Beede to someone else, I think in Canada. I have sold the Folkroots Travel dulcimer to one of the students in my local group. She loves it. Thanks again for the comment.Grin.gif

Dusty Turtle
Dusty Turtle
@dusty
11 years ago
1,719 posts

Not quite, Joe. I bought my Eede Beede directly from David. I think you might have bought a Folkroots Travel dulcimer from me and then went searching for a capo for it. Am I right about that?




--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator

As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
Joseph Besse
Joseph Besse
@joseph-besse
11 years ago
51 posts

Thanks for the note Dusty. I believe you are the man I sold my "eede beede" octave dulcimer to, right? I might leave mine like it is for now.Smile.gif

Dusty Turtle
Dusty Turtle
@dusty
11 years ago
1,719 posts

David Beede ships his octave dulcimers with .008 for the melody, .010 for the middle, and a wound .011 for the bass.

It might be hard to find a wound string of that size. My local acoustic instrument shop had to special order them for me.

However, the reason not to try one would be the slot in the bridge and nut. If the slot is cut for a regular steel string, then the wound string might not fit in it very well. And if it does make its way into the slot, it might stretch it, potentially ruining it for regular strings. I would say be careful.




--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator

As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
Joseph Besse
Joseph Besse
@joseph-besse
11 years ago
51 posts

I have a dulcimette with an 18" long fretboard. The strings are regular metal, #10 for bass and #8 for the middle and melody strings. I was wondering if I could add a wound string, instead of the #10 regular string for the bass. I used to have one of the octave dulcimers built by Beebe in Florida and it used a wound string on the bass, but I do not know what size was used. The guy that built the dulcimette does not build them anymore and he did not think it would tune right with a wound string. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.71.gif


updated by @joseph-besse: 06/08/16 09:24:05PM