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Location: Oregon
Country: United States
Country: United States
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How does that one sound? Is it worth trying to build one myself?
Hey Jergen. Sadly I can't record it as it has since broken.
The answer depends on your goal. A walking stick by its nature is an instrument that bangs on the ground all day, so building one in a precise way is not worth trying in my opinion. On the other hand, if you were to affix two or three strings to a small box, tin, or bottle on the side of a walking stick, using two or three eye bolts (or real guitar tuners if you prefer) you can pretty easily get an open tuning and play some entertaining slide guitar. If you are someone who would like to have a nice pole to take on a journey that can also play music, I'd say this is a fun solution. Realistically, it's more worthwhile to build a lightweight walkabout dulcimer/ travel dulcimer, but this is definitely a LOT easier, cheaper, and you don't have to worry too much about protecting it.
PS, if you do build one, make sure to take the strings out of tension when youre using it to walk
Nate
How does that one sound? Is it worth trying to build one myself?
A great stick dulcimer and it was lovely to give it to the older man. I'm sorry the police officer broke it and am glad you were able to put together another one, Nate!
I found this picture from 2018 on a thumbdrive of my old hiking pole. One morning, I got out of my tent after a windy night camping and a big branch had fallen right next to me. I chopped a section off and made it into a trekking pole, and put an Altoids tin on the side with a string stretched down the length of the pole. The top of the stick was forked so that one side could hold a glass slide, and the other side could hold a thumb pick. I would set the instrument across my lap with the tin facing upward and stroke downward with the thumbpick while sliding with the glass bottleneck. It was an out of the blue idea that worked pretty well. I had not played a dulcimer at all at this time, but now that I have I can really appreciate the similarities between sliding a diddley bow and noting a dulcimer. I eventually gifted this pole to a very eccentric old homeless man who locals called 'The Mad Hatter' who played it for about a month before a police officer in that town intentionally snapped it because the man was annoying the officer. It only took about 10 minutes to find a new branch, and move all the hardware over to it, but it was still a pretty mean thing to do. Anyway I thought this walking stick was pretty cool and I think it helped me develop some skills that translated to dulcimer when I started playing it a year or so later :)