Preach it, Bro!

As an aside, Michael Rugg told me in an email that he'd rather have the 0+ than any other 1/2 fret.  Indeed he said he preferred his instruments without a 6 1/2

Dan is correct, as always.  It is a fret usually found on chromatic fretboards, placed between the nut (which is sometimes called the 0 fret) and the 1st fret.  As a term,  0+ is less confusing than "1/2 fret"

Chromatic fret between the nut and the Traditional 1st fret. 

What is a 0+ fret? Sounds like an "odd fret"!

Beating the straws, beaters, fiddlesticks,  ....it's an old fiddle percussion technique.  No need to associate it with anything negative, any more so than beating a drum.  Here's a great thread on fotmd about it:

http://fotmd.com/forums/forum/general-mountain-dulcimer-or-music-discussions/4572/fiddlesticks

Hand me that hickory wife beater, Rob,  I think it'll make MacLaren's March sound just right!

Ken, for some reason I figured you'd get the reference.     I still think beater is the best name for it, although I have heard it called a hammer.

Seems to work well on Old Joe Clark. I vote for Sticks for the name.

Being a non native speaker has some advantage, so is being naive

Oh I got the reference!   I've always called them Strikers or Hammers.  I've used the technique for years, but IMHO there aren't many songs where the technique is appropriate -- Little Drummer Boy, and some of the Irish march tunes of the 1916 rebellion come to mind...

That was really interesting.  I'm too old to have much hope of reaching that level but maybe my kids could approach it with a lot of practice. 

In this day and age when people are easily offended knockers, .  Stick would be about as bland and non-offensive as you could get and somebody would still probably be offended.

Oh my!  I can hear me doing a workshop on this technique and saying, "Ok, now, knockers up."

Anyone get the reference       Think 60s.

Sticks?

Chinese pick?

Ticker?

Mallet?

Hammer?

Rhythm Beater?

Snare drum or String durm?

Dulcimer bone?

I have a String drum bass hommel, which is played using a beater. Have to restring it, so no pictures yet. It plays a two or three tone very low drone. The thing which hit the strings is called a 'klopper' in Dutch, which should be translate as 'knocker'.

 That was inspirational! After hearing, seeing and reading I ran to our pantry, found some chopsticks and started practicing. I think we all should come up with a new name, beater sounds too violent for such a wonderful sound.

Very usefull playing chord/melody style. It leaves the melody string diatonic, which is nice playing noter/drone style.

I also like the possum board using the transporting case.

The beater... There goes my free weekend ;-)

I use a beater I got from Jean & Lee Schilling's shop about 30 years ago.  I thought it was a noter when I bought it.  I later got a noter from them as well as many books and records.  Anyway...  here's a little thing I did with a beater a few years ago.  They can be quite fun.

http://fotmd.com/rob-n-lackey/uploaded_video/260/green-grow-the-laurel-lilacs

Interesting

I like the hammered part also, but this is not the first time I have seen it. Little Girly was playing my dulcimer and she was experimenting with the sound by tapping the strings with a chop stick, it sounds pretty neat.

Wow, that hammered part is remarkable!

John Molineux!  It has a 1 1/2 only under the middle string; a 4 1/2 under the bass and middle strings, and a 5 1/2 under only the bass.  Note there is no 6 1/2.  Here's a link to to a solo video of John where you can see the frets plainly.

I'm not the only one who likes odd bits of fret on my dulcimers, here and there: