My little Epinette !

As some of you already know, I received a wonderful surprise Christmas gift out of the blue this month from FOTMD member John Henry of the UK. John Henry apparently knew I had been lusting after an epinette for over a year already. He made this one out of wonderful old wood recycled from various other lives, including mahogany salvaged from a c.1900 heavy paneled bank door.

I have been getting to know this absolutely charming little dulcimer ancestor- it's so lovely and has an amazing full voice. I find I have to use a different touch and strum technique on it as opposed to my usual techniques on my regular sized dulcimers, so I'm busy trying to learn a bit of a lighter strum with restrained drones than I'm used to. This is a good lesson for me!

Because of the shorter string length (21" VSL) the strings feel stiffer, so I am using a stiffer pick than I usually do. Also, there are two pairs of drone strings, rather than just two drone strings. Six strings altogether. So many new things to get accustomed to!

But the sound is so ethereal- just Heavenly and somehow 'Old World' sounding. I guess it's because it just sounds more like a 'real' zither! lol

I am not yet ready to record any clips- still just stumbling around on it awkwardly and experimenting.

I've tried both ionian and aeolian tuning so far, and I need LOTS more strumming practice. Still trying to decide what simple tune to try to polish up first. John Henry's own videos of himself playing it so beautifully will have to suffice for the moment!

I think it's healthy to go back to being a real beginner on a new instrument every couple of years or so. I'll post more here in this thread as I get along better on it, this being a good location for epinette updates. I've had some fun trying various picks and noters on it. I found that a poplar noter (also made by John Henry) seemed to produce the best tone so far, better than my maple and ironwood noters.

Here I am with my sweet epinette on Christmas morning 2011, right after I opened it:

And here is the crusty old pirate sea salt who made it for me:

Here is some of the reclaimed wood he used to make it: