Thanks Geoff,
I had seen it but didn’t know the website belonged to someone here in FOTMD. It’s good to know there are still other North Country Dulcimers out there!
cheers,
paula
Help with possible identification of my Dulcimer
If no-one's referenced it yet, here's my website page on North Country Dulcimers . There's an hourglass and a teardrop model pictured. I've sold three, one of which needed quite a but of work to strengthen the neck.
The Dulcimer-cello is a product of the other Dulcimer Ken -- Ken Bloom. Beautiful instruments they are too...
I actually found a really cool picture but it’s on Flickr and I don’t want to either join Flickr or download it without permission and proper acknowledgment of the builder.
it was a cigar box dulci-cello and looks pretty nicely executed.
I was actually surprised I didn’t see more different ones. It seems such a reasonable mating.
cheers,
paula
No need to reinvent the dulcimer cello. It's been done. Now if only I could remember where is saw a photo of one. Try this link: http://www.boweddulcimer.org/pocket-cello.html
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
updated by @ken-longfield: 08/09/21 08:14:59PM
I’d love to play a bowed dulcimer. I am currently taking cello lessons. I imagine with a dulcimer set up with a curved fingerboard and say ddaD tuning; you could either play the dd, the a, or the D or you could double stop and play the dda or the aD strings. I wonder if an old cello fingerboard could be turned into a dulcicello.
Dang. Now I may have to go invent something. Someone stop me!!!!
Cheers,
paula
What a great anecdote Ken! Robert seems like he was a sweet guy. I know he worked with special needs kids too. I was able to find an article about him and his wife Yvonne online in an old issue of Dulcimer Players News. I don’t know if he’s still around anywhere. I found a LinkedIn profile for him but it hasn’t been updated in quite some time. I sent him a message but if he’s anything like me he doesn’t really pay attention to LinkedIn.
Nate, she does seem a sweet dulcimer. She’s the only one I’ve ever played so I don’t have much to compare with. I trying to play all my instruments more. I’m on a bit of a kick. I’ve played guitar for years, strictly amateur. I’ve been taking cello lessons for about a year and have just recently been teaching myself tin whistle. I can easily pick out songs on the dulcimer tuned ddaD but want to work on taking it to the next level.
I need to build a case for her. My wife and I are moving to Europe next year and all of my instruments need to have solid cases. She’s the only one that doesn’t. (Actually, I also have a harmonium from the 1840s but that’s a subject for a different forum!) I’ve seen a couple dulcimer cases on eBay but the dimensions don’t work. Luckily I have a workshop and so knocking one out that will work shouldn’t be too bad.
hope everyone is having a lovely weekend,
paula
Besides building dulcimers, Robert also made kazoos. He made them in various sizes. Often he used leftover wood from building dulcimers for his kazoos. One time I saw him at an arts festival and we sat down to play together. After a few tunes we looked up to see a crowd of about 20-30 people around his booth. We play a couple of more tunes and then he went to talk to some of the folks. He told me to come back later and we could play again. He said it was helping his sales.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Certainly whoever was the builder whether amateur or professional, they knew what they were doing. There are aspects of this dulcimer such as the bridge that connects to the soundboard instead of the fingerboard, and the bizarre hole in the strum hollow that are very neat to me. Thanks for sharing.
-Nate
By Jove, I believe you're right! And, I was able to find a great number of references to him, his wife Yvonne and their dulcimers. It's too bad there's no trace of a label. I'd love to know what year etc. it was made. It looks like he was featured in Dulcimer Player's News several times and actually wrote a book about playing Irish music on the Mountain Dulcimer.
Paula, I sent you a private message, but for those who may look at this thread, I think this a North Country Dulcimer made by Robert Hutchinson.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
