Intelisano

Hi Intelisano, and welcome to the wonderful world of the Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer.  It's a good place to come, spend some time, learn about the dulcimer, and to meet some good people.

Ben

So good you were able to get the loops off the brads-- huzzah! 

I'm glad you were able to get the strings off. Best wishes as you restring your dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

That is very impressive that you got those horror-twisted strings off!

So friends, I did it. I got the wound and wound and wound strings off. It took a bit of ingenuity and most of my patience as well as various random household items as they popped into my mind. I will say that whoever put those strings on did not own or play another instrument. Because if they did they never would have done that. Did I mention that they were wound that way at the pegs also?  Pic of random household items attached. 

Also, there is an old newspaper clipping and pics in the case about Keith Young and his band etc. can’t tell how old it is but it’s yellowed. It’s a Virginia paper. And the dulcimer is signed by him on the inside and says 1982. 

I was also thinking of a tool like that. My violin will be visiting the luthier next week and I’m going to take the dulcimer and see if he has a tool that can get those strings off. I cannot imagine why someone thought they should do that. The instrument seems to be like new. 

There are very long and thin strong forceps that one can get to use for aquariums- to do delicate manipulations of plants and such without disturbing surrounding plants. One could snip the string as close as possible, and then try to use the strong forceps to grasp the twisted stub part of the string and carefully UNtwist it until it either breaks off or unravels. There are also long thin strong locking forceps used in medical situations.
Once those pesky twisted bits are removed (hopefully without brad damage) it should be relatively a walk in the park to replace strings without doing all that ill-advised twisting like whoever did in the past.

The string tension  stretches the loop. I've found that sometimes you can slip one side of the loop over the head of brad passing it under the head and slipping the other side off. Another trick is to slide something under the tail end to push the string against to round the loop a little to get it off the brad. I usually try to grip the string as close to end of the fret board with a little leeway to push the loop.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Welcome Intelisano to Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. Glad you joined. Congrats on your Keith Young dulcimer. I see you have already asked a question and received some great answers. There is a lot of info here that should answer whatever curiosity you may have about the mountain dulcimer. Please ask as other questions come up.

Yes I got your message about the twisted loops... unfortunate. Hopefully the luthier can get those twisted loops off without damaging the brads underneath the tailpiece. Though the arrangement Keith designed seems daunting, it's actually a pretty elegant design, especially in the way that the under-brads give a long smooth surface length for the fine tuning beads to be slid up and down on the top surface of the tailpiece. See if you can preserve the design the way it is, since it's a special feature of Keith's dulcimers and he is now gone. His dulcimers are much admired and loved by owners who are lucky enough to have them. I know it seems difficult to restring with the design of the underneath brads, but once you get the hang of it it's not really difficult to do, I have found. BTW all new players commonly find changing strings to be daunting, no matter what the design of their instrument. Practice makes you better at it!  :)

Remember that to remove a string you want to replace, you can also simply cut it in the middle with a wire cutter/pliers and then remove the two pieces a little more easily.

My own Keith Young dulcimer (shown in the avatar for this site) has the same under-tail brad arrangement for anchoring the loop ended strings under the tailpiece. Yes, It's a bit tricky to get the hang of at first. I found that it's easiest to first catch the loop of the string end onto the brad under the tailpiece, kind of like casting for a fish. Then I kind of keep a little tension on the string (sometimes by leaning my arm a bit on the fretboard, pinning the loose string down to keep the end from popping off the brad) while I thread the peg end of the string onto the peg and start winding. I think it would be easier to watch a video than to describe, but I dont think there are any videos specific to the Young dulcimer re-stringing technique. But I can tell you that I do it by first attaching the brad/tail end, and then attaching the peghead end, rather than the other way around. Maybe that will help in some way?

It worked!  

Yes, string changes on the KYoung instruments are not as easy as on some dulcimers yet his instruments are wonderful.  You may need a helper on the first few times changing strings.  When the strings are loosed at the peg head, ideally, you could "push" the loosed string toward the little brad on the underside of the fretboard to free it from the brad.  

Trying again

Use a photo editor to shrink the size of the photo. A good size would 8 x 10 inches. I can easily do that on my MacBook Pro using the Preview app. I would guess that PCs have something like that that can do the same.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Welcome to FOTMD, Intelisano. It's good to have you aboard. You have a wonderful dulcimer in that Keith Young instrument. You're starting off on the right foot. Let us know if we can help you in any way as you begin your dulcimer journey.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hi and welcome to FOTMD!  Keith Young made wonderful instruments so you've got an instrument from a master luthier.  Is it possible you can re-size your photos?  As posted, it is very difficult to see well what problems the instrument has.  

Photo is apparently enormous. I'll try again. 

Hello all. I’ve joined this site hoping to get advice. I’ve been given a Keith Young  dulcimer. I’d love to learn to play it, but it needs new strings and I cannot figure out how to restring it. The little pegs that hold the string loops are on the underside of a very narrow space on the under side of the end of the fret board. And the existing strings have been wound so tight that they won’t simply slip off. I’ve attached a photo. Advice appreciated.