Geoff Black

Thanks for writing back, sorry no I do not have the teardrop but the fiddle-side hourglass.

I  would love to read any correspondence concerning Carrell's dulcimers. Do you know when in '84 he sold his business & moved to Fla?

(The weeping heart soundholes I'm pretty sure I've seen on other Carrells. )  I have seen the 'weeping heart' on an old tear drop add on e-bay but mostly I have seen have the 'f-hole' design. Want to take a guess as to why this soundhole design? 

Your info. on the tunings & care for the pegs, I know I will need to go over many times. Thanks for that information, it could be why I am having trouble with the bass peg, if it had more tension place on it from the heavier strings before. 

If I was to tune DAdd, I probably should put different size strings on for dd, I have 12's on now & tuned DAAA, such a wonderful sound. I took it to practice to see if I could just play in DAAA while everyone else was in DAdd. I don't have many tabs for DAA but the few I had like (Amazing Grace) worked well & I even did part of the song on the bass D, so was able to go back & forth between the two - interesting.

Yes; I had the bridge and where the dulcimer didn't look to have any where, the bridge was more like someone couldn't decide where to place the strings - many notches.

( customer's name inside ("Made for....") I had hear this but mine does not have a 'made for'

What about the head, mine is stretched out making the dulcimer even longer - close to 40".

Thank you again for your reply, I feel like I have a treasure with this Carrell dulcimer.

 marg.

 9/16 post to Jennifer (Interested to know which model you have and how you find it.)

I checked inside my Carrell, he list the wood, the date August 1984 & signed it. It is also signed on the back. 

Did he usually give his dulcimers a model #?

Do you know how often he used the 'weeping hearts' design for the bottom soundholes?

 Since you said you had 2  ( I've found my two to have very good intonation,)  could you give me some info on Carrell & his dulcimers? Do you still have yours?

  Mine is very nice, took some cleaning & setting up & getting the bridge back in the right place. All good now except still having trouble with the bass peg not holding. If you are interested, I found mine in a pawn shop.

In a post on Sam Carrell (9/13 - . Between 1975 and 1984 he made quite a number of high quality dulcimers,) I just saw last night you were asking Jennifer about her dulcimer. Looking at your photos, looks like you have a 'feddleside' dulcimer. I was able to pick up one of Sam Carrell's later dulcimers, August 1984 at a pawn shop yesterday. I have been learning a lot about him & my dulcimer. 

Anything you can tell me about wooden pegs or how to play equidistant courses with 5 strings. Since I am having trouble with the bass peg, I just have the dulcimer set up with 4 strings DAaa, it has such a wonderful tone.  

Looking at the epinette post, you wrote (the melody strings tuned to d are too taut.)

Did you ever come up with a nice tuning? I just picked one up and yes, the d melody is very taut, I usually play DAd - what would be a good tuning for the epinette to sound like it should?

My epinette is 6 strings & 25" VSL

Hi Geoff, No problems with the van this year ? What a great day the Saturday was at Allendale . I had a great time , I think I learned a lot this time round or it feels like I have . What a find that Sobell was , I don't think Helen knew what she had, until the vultures ( Guilty ) surrounded her. I am glad Mr Coe strung it up, It sounded gorgeous

See you next year perhaps Take Care

Hi Geoff

Thanks for the welcome.

I was fortunate to be in North Wales recently and Robin kindly agreed to meet me and gave some very helpful advice, including putting me onto FOTMD.

Your site is brilliant and you have some fantastic dulcimers. If I hadn't decided to buy a Red Kite Mountain Dulcimer from Robin, you would be getting a call from me now!

I hope to meet you sometime.

Regards

Pete

Geoff - I know this is Granny & Eggs - but the lightest possible may work on the Gondola - 8's or 9's melody and a wound string a bit less than 23. At one time i used 9's across the whole instrument and I think a 22 as the bass. PS I nicked a couple of the photos from Facebook. Incidently the Bushby has I think 14's melody 16's middle and i think the bass is 26 or something. Lighter strings sounded too sloppy for my taste somehow. Its so lomg since I changed strings on the other Sobell (More than 5 years if memory serves) I dont know what they are. I will have to buy /borrow a micrometer to check sometime. They have stood up to a good hard hammering at least twice a week and at least 5 festival weekends for that time.They may even be Elixir guitar strings with the ball removed .I really cannot remember.

Yo ! Geoff , Nice photos on Facebook , Pity about that old man holding the Sobell Dulcimer, Nice photo of the Bushby as well(being played by a nice young man ) Its 0130 GMT and have we ( my wife & I) just got back from a sort of practice . This is a wild life we lead these days. The photo of the "Gondola" - Is that the one you aquired from abroad and sorted out?. It looks good. Hope it plays OK.

Hi Geoff - Hope you got home OK - That was some day on Saturday. My brain is still hurting. It was great meeting all the people who are very slightly demented about the dulcimer (like me) . I also now know I need to practice a lot more than I do , including how to read tab & what number my frets are, something I never considered before. On top of that it was a beautiful Northumberlad day. A good advert for those who had never been to this neck of the country before.

Gaan canny DEH

Hi Geoff - I think I may make Deneholme . Wangled some time off & the better half ( The Boss ) said if the weather's OK & I am feeling OK Ican have a drive up. If I do I will bring all 4 of my dulcimers ( IncludingThe Heron in its monster box ) . Will you be bringing any bits & bobs ( strings, Plecs etc ) ?. Hope to meet you even if it is just fleetingly & the Rest of the dulcimists of course. . DEH

Hi Geoff

Just had a quick look at the new web site - Very nice indeed . plenty of reading for night shifts. Keep on keeping on.

On another matter, I hope the floods and windsdidn't cause too much trouble . Newswise, its gone very quiet on that front.

At this moment in time I will not be able to get to the Deneholme gathering ( shifts are wrong ) But the weather seems to be a bit different to last year.

Again congrats on the site - D E H

Hello Geoff,

What a wonderful collection you have here! The wormy chestnut Clifford Glenn looks amazing. I will have to head over to ED and find your Ledford documents, too. I have a couple of Ledfords but neither of them came with anything. Right now my collection consists of two Amburgeys, two Ledfords, one Warren May, an unidentified North Carolina style dulcimer, an absolutely wonderful Mike Slone dulcimer, and one that I built myself. I'm very interested to know...Has your Amburgey been restored yet? I have a solid cherry Amburgey that needs to be restored and was curious about how yours turned out afterwards.

Thank you (better late than never) for your welcome, Geoff. You mentioned to me that there was a group in Edinburgh and I have made contact, as well as with a few others within travelling distance. Thanks again.

My apologies for sending the same question twice. I was not yet used to the delay in posting via an American site. Jan

Dear Geoff,

At the moment I own a hommel made by Evert Kluter here in Friesland and a six string mountain dulcimer made by Jerry Rockwell in the U.S.A. You wrote that the group can advise on buying a dulcimer. Well, at the moment I am looking for a 3/4 string concert solo instrument. Are there any luthiers in Holland making good instruments or do I need to look toward the U.K. or even further afield? I am more into music that building my own instruments.

I also play the theorbe (archlute). However, I started this when living in the UK with my teacher just 10 minutes away. Here in the north of Holland there is no possibility of getting any lessons, so sometimes we use Skype for lessons, but it is far from ideal.

For now, all my best wishes, Jan

Hello Geoff,

Thank you very such for the warm welcome to the community here. You all seem a very nice bunch of people! Looking forward to exchange ideas etc. in the group.

Best wishes Jan.

Too far for me too, Geoff. Maybe sometime when I'm over your way visiting the kids at Uni.

Thanks for the info, but Bristol is a bit of a trek from Swansea and I don't drive/have a case for my piece yet. Perhaps next time! xx

hi Geoff - For some reason the Heron won't stay still on my ( Rather Chubby ) knees so I took the bull by the horns and very carefully removed the strap buttons and replaced them with Straploks and a guitar strap . First time I have tampered with a dulcimer other than change strings. It seems to work with the strap round my ( portly ) waist, but I haven't used it in anger yet . My other dulcimers seem to sit OK on my knee ( thigh really) . but I realised that I am trapping the machine to my right thigh with my forearm. Funny how you do things without being aware of them until you closely analyse stuff.

Hope the rain wasn't too bad your way - take care DEH

Hi Geoff -Glad it arrived in "one piece " .

I cannot remember what the gauges are on my early one , I keep them fairly light in respect of its age. It must be about 10 years since I changed them on that one . But the sizes and set up you mention seems about right . I use octaves on the bass side, it seems to give a little more zing . And ( hands up ) I haven't changed the other dulcimers for about 5 years at least . When I did I think I used Elixir guitar strings and popped out the ballend. Way back I used the cheapest banjo strings I could get , either Rotosound or some I think they were "Lion " If that is the brand name < It had a picture of a Lion on the packets >.

Incidentally I made a box for the Heron, I over engineered it , its too big to get in the car unless I put the seat down and weighs 10 kgs without the dulcimer in it . It has got state on the art Flight case hardware though ! & it looks the bizz, like a bit of furniture . My wife says she is NOT going to polish & dust it everyday either

Looks like you had some rough weather today.

Keep updating the rebuild