the heavier the string the better and louder the tone. Tom's string gauge calculator is a great resource. But I usually add 2 to whatever it tells me. Currently my string gauges are 12-16-28. That's on my two Papaw Dulcimers which have 26.5" VSLs.

Ken H., thanks for string guage calculator idea. According to that, CGG on my 27"VSL would need a 22 on the bass and 15's on the rest, rather than the 14's I have on now. Even with the wrestling match involved, it's worth a try.

I use an unwound bass on a couple of mine: a Keith Young hourglass and a John D Tignor large hourglass. Keith Young and the Schillings (Jean & Lee) sold and McSpadden at least sell "squeakless" strings with an unwound phosphor bronze bass string. True, you lose a little sustain, but it is an interesting sound.

Thanks robin-clark for the info. An unwound bass string doesn't sound like what I want, but it's good to know why one could use one. Thanks for the suggestions about the fretting noise, too. I noticed that noise when I was listening to a dulcimer album the other day, too. It's good to know that, like fret buzzing, it happens to even the best players at times . . so I'll try not to fret about it too much. 

FWIW, I ended up deciding to not use any of my ideas. :-) Decided to get strings just a tiny bit heavier and more suited for CGC (or maybe a step lower) tuning - .013, .017, .026 from a set of guitar strings. (Not sure what I'll do with the other 3 strings, though . . ) I'll see how I like that.

I am about to switch to .011 on my melody string, .013 on my middle, and .024 from .012- .014- .024. My VSL is 27, but I will stay with DAd (probably spelled that wrong) as I am playing with so many other players who are in that tuning. These string gauges were recommended to me by a respected instructor at a recent workshop I attended. He played my dulcimer, appeared thoughtful, then told me to try those gauges. He's either a genius, or well, not. We'll see!   

I play N/D and flat picking. I like both styles. I don't do fingerpicking very often, but I have done it.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hi Ken L., thanks, are you playing N/D?

On my Folkcraft I have 0.011s on my melody strings. I have no problem playing in Cgg with this configuration. The Folkcraft has a 27 inch VSL.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Oh sorry, all,I see I put a typo in my post. I meant CGG, not CGC. Not enough coffee...

Hi Ken.Thanks, but I want to go from DAA to CGG, ( or is that Daa/ Cgg?)  just one step down. The melody strings I have on there are 14's, but I find them just a bit loose/slack/flat. Tune to DAA and this dulcimer is heaven, but I need one I can sing with more easily in my alto range.

Annie -- you can use the Strothers String Calculator, here http://www.strothers.com/string_choice.htm  to find out which strings are appropriate for a given tuning and VSL.  For CGc (not CGC which would have two bass strings) and a 27" VSL, you'll want:

C = 22 wound

G = 15 plain

c =  11 plain

C is the C below middle C;  c is middle c itself.

Hi Robin, what string length is needed for playing CGC, please? Switching to heavier strings on my 27"inch dulcimer has not worked out, and I want that lower tuning for singing...thanks.

Regarding an unwound bass string - Noter drone players may use an unwound bass string of 18-20 gauge plain steel (guitar, banjo or piano wire).  This string is never fretted but used as a drone.  And used this way a plain bass string produces the high silvery timbre many noter drone players want from certain instruments in their collections.  I use plain gauge bass strings on some of my noter drone specific instruments (usually made from piano wire).  If you do intend to fret a thick plain gauge string at a relatively low tension then the intonation will be poor to awful   Thick plain gauge strings also have reduced sustain compared to their wound counterparts - so if you intend to fret the string up the fretboard you'll tend to just get an out of tune 'thud'.

Regarding back fretting noise:  A slightly higher action at the nut or using a dampening finger kills this.

Regarding an octave lower bass - You can do this but will need quite a thick string (around 0.054) and higher action, plus wide nut and bridge slots.  However, the dulcimer body itself is not capable of producing the fundamental low frequency D2 (or D3 for that matter!!!!)  So the string will sound 'boxy' rather than rich.

Basically, the mountain dulcimer, at the body size, shape, VSL and pitch we use today was never designed for playing chords in DAd or CGc.  Our modern instruments are based on the size and shape of older instruments that were played in noter drone style with a different set-up, tunings and strings (for which the box size and shape sonically work well).  So contemporary chord melody playing is always going to be a compromise.  As you say, it is not expensive to play around with string gauges and set-ups so it is well worth you experimenting to find out the set-up that will suit your style of playing the best.

Thanks, Kevin. Saved me a trip to the cellar.

Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

The strings that I use on the Prichard dulcimer and others are , .013 melody and middle and .020 on the bass . These srtings are hand made plain steel piano wire. That's what I sent to Ken also.

Thanks for the clarification. On the CN Prichard reproduction dulcimers that Kevin Messenger and I build, the bass string is an unwound string. I need to check what gauge that is. Like KenH said on the tuning: "Sure. Why not."

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks, Ken Hulme, for the info.

Whoops. There was a typo in my post. I meant "D2-D3-A3-D4", but it doesn't really matter. Good point about getting another nut and bridge. I guess I'm realizing that it's relatively cheap and easy to try all sorts of different things on the mountain dulcimer, since one could just buy readily available (single) guitar strings and swap out the nut/bridge (which are also cheap assuming something like this will work).

I don't think not fretting hard enough is the issue. The sound I'm talking about happens even if I don't pluck the string. It's really noticeable if I fret the string really hard, like a hammer-on (where I'd get the desired pitch and another pitch). Playing around on my mandolin, I realized it happens there, too, but it's just much quieter, so I don't notice it as much.

I play unwound bass strings.  I find they help me get the 'high silvery' old time sound I prefer, rather than the more mellow modern sound.  Most of my dulcimers have a 27" VSL and I find that a .018 plain steel string works pretty good for the range of tunings that I use.   I you like that mellow 'guitar-like' sound then use a wound bass string, IMHO.

D2-D3-A3-A4 equidistant  -- Sure.  Why not.  I've not seen/heard anyone do it, but don't let that stop you if you're looking for baritone/bass sound.  You'll probably want a new nut and bridge set up for 4 strings rather than filing a bunch of notches on the ones you'll have. 

re - vibration on the back side of the fret.  I'd say that you're not fretting quite hard enough.  It could be the low tuning with the strings you have, but it sounds more like not fretting firmly enough.  The sort of 'standard' action height is what we call "nickel & dime".  That is strings just touching a dime placed next to the first fret, and also just touching a nickel set on top of the 7th fret.  You can lower the action more if it suits you, by sanding tiny amounts off of the bottom of the net and bridge.

The string gauge calculator many of us use is at http://www.strothers.com/string_choice.htm   It is noticeably light , however, and you can generally go 1-2 gauges heavier.

Hi. Thanks for the response, Ken. I think I made the thread confusing by asking 3 questions at once . . Anyway, right now, I have the dulcimer tuned 1 step below the typical DAD tuning (and I took one of the double strings off so it's 1 string per course). If C4=middle C, then it'd be C3-G3-C4, I think. So, for my first question, I was asking about replacing the low C3 string with a plain (unwound) string. So, putting aside what would be the proper gauge for such a string, I guess I'm wondering if anyone plays with an unwound bass string and if not, why not.

Then, as a completely different question (forgetting about wound vs plain), I was wondering about stringing up the dulcimer as D2-D3-A3-D4 equidistant. With gauges something like .044, .020, .014, .010.

[EDIT: fixed typo]

The strings gauges used on the Sweet Woods instruments are for playing in DAdd. There is no reason they can't be used for C - G - C, but will be at lower tension when tuned to pitch. The "ideal" string for the "C" bass would be a 0.023. Wound strings have an inner core that is a smaller gauge. If you tried to tune up a 0.023 to the C bellow middle C you might break it. In the usual DAd tuning the Ds are an octave apart. The high d being a note above middle C and the low D below middle C. Do you want to go an octave below that?

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hi, all. I recently got a new Sweet Woods Instruments mountain dulcimer. First off, I wanted to say hi! And thank you for all the welcome message I got when I signed up here a while back.

I've been learning a few songs and trying out a few different ways of playing, mostly going back and forth between flatpicking and fingerpicking, both with finger fretting. Anyway, I started thinking about which strings to buy for when I need to replace them. Just for some background, I play the mandolin, so I'm familiar with string gauge and tension, although the mandolin usually has much higher tension and, it seems, usually lower action. 

Anyway, to my questions. First, does anyone ever use a plain string instead of a wound string for the lowest string? If so, what are the differences in how they play/sound? (Or if not, why is that a bad idea?)

Second, I noticed that I get a lot of noise from the string vibrating between my fretting fingers and the nut - basically, an unintentional dissonant hammer-on on the wrong side of the string. And that happens even fretting as close as possible to the fret and trying not to push down too hard. I can mute the back of the string with another finger, but that seems like a lot of effort. I have my string tension especially low since it's tuned to C-G-C (with .024, .014, and .012 gauge strings). Is that low tension probably the cause of the noise? Is there something else that could be done? Adjusting the action? (Although I'd rather increase the tension than raise the action.)

Bonus question: Does anyone ever play a standard (not bass/baritone) dulcimer with a low string an octave below typical (with proper string gauge to get the right tension)? I was thinking of playing around with something like four-string equidistant DDAD (low to high) tuning with all the Ds being in different octaves. Would the intonation just be too far off to be tolerable (if not played just as a drone string)? Maybe GDGD to be less extreme? I'd be curious with people's experiences good or bad if they tried something like that.

Thanks!