marg

Hi Marg.,

Greetings from Scotland and many thanks for your warm welcome. RE. your message to cacofonix, I got my McSpadden via Robin Clark in Wales. He is most kind and helpful. A few music shops in the U.K. are starting to stock mountain dulcimers - mostly of Rumanian origin.

Bill

...And in answer to your more recent post, you can see I do have the two Carrells still, although I've sold a third.  I deal in dulcimers, so have tried/owned over 330 and counting.... Not quite sure how many I've kept now, perhaps 40 or so.

Yes, I think he usually signed his dulcimers and my two also have a customer's name inside ("Made for....").  I've not seen model numbers, mainly because I believe he only made two models, the teardrop of his own design and the "hourglass" whose design he inherited from his mentor Bill Davis.

The weeping heart soundholes I'm pretty sure I've seen on other Carrells.  My three all had an f-hole in the lower bout, but the upper bout patterns were all different, so he seems to have varied them regularly...or perhaps changed to order.

Yes, the intonation on all seems to be "good"...i.e. modern and setup for mixolydian tuning with a 6+fret... although opinions differ as to whether the older dulcimers were "bad", or just set up beautifully for a different scale, in different tunings and played in a different style (often noter/drone)....!  Incidentally, you were lucky to find one with the floating bridge still attached.  Most of my Davis or Carrell dulcimer had lost bridge - and sometimes nut too.  The wooden triangular section bridges have their limitations.  I've replaced quite a few in bone or horn.

Finally, I have a lot more about Carrell, including some correspondence with the man himself a few years back.  Let me know if you want anything more.

Geoff

Hi Marge

I don't get on FOTMD as much as I'd like these days, so sorry if I've not kept up to date with replies to your interesting posts.

Do you have a teardrop or Davis-style hourglass Carrell?  I've always fancied the former but never succeeded in buying one.  

I have two "hourglass" ones.  One is tuned "conventionally" as a four string equidistant, basically in DAdd.  I play it as you would a conventional DAdd dulcimer with twin melody strings, but I don't always fret the second "d" string - which gives chords an interestingly richer tone is some instances and discords in others!  You can also use four string chords of course.  If I were adventurous (and had the time to learn properly) I would tune the four strings so that I could get more chromatic notes....

The other hourglass is tuned as Carrell himself advised, which is essentially as a baritone. It has strings as follows:  26w, 22w, 13, 13/13, tuned respectively A', E, A, A/A.  It sounds glorious but the heavier strings do put extra tension on the wooden pegs of course.

...And so to the pegs.  I'm not an expert, but this is what works for me.  Take all the pegs off, but keeping them clearly associated with the hole they came from - in other words be careful to put them back in the exact hole/taper they came from.  I use very fine wire wool or similar to get off any residue from peg paste or any gloss.  Then put on peg dope or peg paste, lightly - just on the areas where the pegs bear on the pegbox.  You should be able to see the two rings on each peg clearly.  Put the peg in the hole and turn it both ways a number of times to distribute the paste evenly.  Try putting on an old string of the right dimensions, get it up to pitch and see if it slips.  If it slips, try some chalk on the same bearing surfaces.  That will make it stick more.  If the opposite - it turns notchily - try more paste to make it turn more smoothly.

BUT, there is a technique to tightening the pegs before you attempt the fine tuning of paste/chalk as above.  You have to use a screwdriver-type action, pushing in hard as you tighten.  And the bass strings, with their higher tension, are usually more susceptible to poor turning technique than the treble strings.

....Well that's quite enough for now.  Let us know how you get on and do ask more questions!

Geoff

Thanks!  Happy to be here.

Thanks Marg for your message !

One of these days, I'll have time to play it again !

Jean-Dag

G'day Marg, SMN is Standard Music Notation. I can now read a little but mainly rely on Tab. I got my electric blues box guitar the other day and put it together with a bit of fiddling. For US$30 i am very impressed (if it doesnt fall apart). I have started on the lessons in the book and on the cd and am already feeling quite bluesy. I was surprised how well it plays thru my little Roland Microcube amp. Have you put yours together yet. I found the rivet holes were a little narrow... i just ran a metal skewer thru them and they widened out enough to tap the rivets in with a hammer.  i hope you are enjoying yours and thanks again for showing it to me. H x

Helen,

that is so funny, I got one myself. Have not started putting it together yet, so much easier to dream of the finish piece. You have to up-date me on your progress. I hope it will be fun for you

G'day Marg... well it got the better of me. I received some Christmas money from my brother and he said on the card 'Buy something fun'. So I ordered the little blues box guitar kit. An online book store down here had the same one on sale down here with free postage. Thanks for showing it to me.. i think it will be fun... if i can put it together. Happy holidays and thanks again. Helen x

Hi Marg, it was so kind of you to contact me. Yes i have been missing in action on here for a while... my health has been a bit rough.. with a hand tremor that was affecting a few things including typing and playing... but it has finally improved over this last week.. so i will be back on board soon. How are you travelling Marg?

Hi Marg

You ask about epinette tuning....and unfortunately it's rather like asking how long is a piece of string!  The longer scale modern epinettes have a melody string tuned to D, but play in G - think DAA tuning and the root of the scale being on the 3rd fret.  The smaller ones are in G, but play in C (ditto).  The drones are tuned a fifth apart to match the G or C tuning respectively.  Using a 0.010 or 0.011 string as a reference on the melody string, try each tuning and see whether it is too slack or too tight.  Or just send me the scale length and I'll hazard a guess....!

Best of luck.

Geoff

Hi, Marg!  You were asking about members of our dulcimer family affected by the flooding in Louisiana...I don't know who, specifically, but the Lagniappe Festival is held in Port Allen, LA each year and I know that area was flooded. 

Hi Marg,

Good eye! Yes it is a TK O'Brien! Walnut Creek model. Found it used though basically in perfect condition. I've had it for almost two months now and so far very happy. Just starting to learn my way around the frets, but coming along nicely. I'm thinking the action is a little high on it. But I've decided to play for a while longer before I get tempted to do anything "drastic".

Gee thanks Marg, that is so very kind of you. I have a dream of getting over .... but is a few years away yet. If i do I would probably fly into Fort Worth International with Qantas  But Aussies get terrible jet lag flying in your direction cos of the time difference so i wouldnt make a very good house guest...tired n grumpy. But if i do get over i'd love to catch up with u for a strum. What tune are you working on at the moment?

Hi Marg, thanks for the note. So it sounds like maybe you want to get back into painting? Watercolors? Oils? I would really like to put a few of my painting up here if I could figure out how to do it. I am mostly painting in watercolor these days, but recently did an acrylic painting much larger that I had fun with. Paint with oils too, or have done quite a bit. Would like to see your paintings too. I'm a primitive painter I guess, but not just abstract. There are certain archetypes that keep showing up in my work. It's very relaxing. Follow me back and we can communicate better.

I measured both of them, they don't sit in the same place exactly, but it was where they were when I got them. Measured fromthe edge of the strumming well closest to bridge, and they sit a bit between 1/2 and just shy of 3/4 inch and tune just fine. Hope that helps. 

Hi, just saw your message, I'll measure the distance when I get home and let you know, they are movable bridges.

 As you said, buying used can be an adventure, and actually, my Warren Mays were a surprise because of all my

other dulcimers had fixed bridges, so when I went to restring the Mays as I always do when I get a "new" used one, the bridge came off and I thought I had broken it!

My other big surprise was buying an older John Maxwell and wondering why no matter how i tried tuning it, it just sounded wrong, That's how I learned about Just Intonation, as opposed to the more modern Equal Temperament.

 Glad to say though, so far I've not been disappointed with any of them, just caught off guard every now and then.

Thanks , Marg for your kind comment on "Night Snow". I'll try to make a video. I have a few technical problems to work out first.

Marg, i sent the tab in a personal message, should get notification of same. You can probably copy and paste the tab to a word document. If not I can send it to you through regular email.

Hello Marg, I have tab for "On Eagle Wings" for noter and drone style playing tuned DAA. If you wish to follow my profile, I can send it to you in a personal message. I don't really good internet service here, seems slow this morning, please bear with me. Gordon.

Thanks, Marg!!!