An Abundance Of Harmonics & Man-Glitter
Good Morning, Y'all!
We're getting into fall weather here in Indiana. The leaves have started to change, and it is (finally!) starting to get chilly at night.
But the temperature (and humidity) are still high enough that we're running the air conditioning, still, at the shop. In a few weeks, though, we'll be switching over to the furnace, and that means that wood parts (especially the thicker parts, like fretboards) will start to shrink as the humidity drops. (Forced air heat, which we have, is notorious for drying out the air.)
You'll see that at home, too. (Unless you're in Florida, or another perpetually high-humidity location, of course!)
What does the change in the season (heat & humidity) mean for dulcimer players? The fretboards we use all have "vertical grain" - the growth rings of the trees are oriented so that the fretboards don't move (change with humidity) up and down, but rather from side to side. In the summertime (high humidity), your fretboards are a few hundredths of an inch wider than they are in the winter time (low humidity), since the wood has shrunk a bit.
Your frets (which are made of metal) don't change with the humidity, so they will often end up sticking out past the sides of your fretboard. You can feel them sticking out if you run your fingers up and down the sides of your fretboard.
Filing Down The Frets
Because of this, each February (the coldest, driest month here in Indiana) we'll go through our showroom and file down the fret ends for all of our summer-made instruments. This only needs to be done once for each instrument, and only takes ten or fifteen minutes to do well. If you're in a cold/dry climate, check your instruments - if the frets stick out a bit in the winter, consider having a luthier dress the fret ends. Or bring your Folkcraft® or FolkRoots® dulcimer here to our shop and we'll dress the ends for you - at no charge.
But, enough about fret ends!
Here's what we've worked on in the shop this week (this isn't all, by any means, but I took photos of a few unique instruments):
Here's a repair we did on an early (VERY early, by my estimate - probably 1970, -ish) Hughes dulcimer. Most likely this was a kit that Virgil (Hughes) sold. What makes this particular one unique is the very, very, very deep body - close to three inches!
If you look closely (in the photo below) you'll see frets made of toothpicks. And like all of the Hughes dulcimers I've seen, the tail has the classic "fishtail" shape:
This dulcimer (pictured above) had surprisingly good intonation, all things considered!
Cheyenne finished off a special custom dulcimer for a player. This was a "build me a dulcimer, but use the various woods I had sitting in my workshop" instrument.
The customer had UPS deliver several boxes of wood (pictured above) to the shop: plum, apple, pear, peach, ebony, hickory, sassafras, and more. A piece or two of each species. And they became this instrument (pictured below):
It has a body made of plum and apple woods, a top made of pear wood, a fretboard veneer of peach wood, plus even more species for the fretboard, heel cap, and head. And even though there's no cherry, this dulcimer has a tone like an all-cherry dulcimer would have.
The best part though? The responsiveness. My usual "test" of a new instrument is a fancy version of Spotted Pony, played in multiple locations on the fretboard. I usually follow the "song test" with some harmonics - nothing fancy, but I try all three strings at fret 7, and at fret 14. Wow! Powerful, and easy, even at fret 14. So then I tried this dulcimer where fret 21 "would" be - exactly half way between fret 14 and the bridge. Powerful. Easy! Whoa, we don't see that very often. I then tried for the harmonic at the (imaginary) fret 28 location - halfway between fret 21 and the bridge. And the harmonic (while not "easy" any more) was still doable. It took me a few tries to find the exact imaginary spot, but once I got the correct position, the harmonic came through loud and clear.
My point being, whatever caused this abundance of harmonics - something with the wood combination most likely, is something we'll be searching for with future instruments.
I never, ever, ever, ever (aren't those some lyrics from a Taylor Swift song?) would have made this combination of woods on my own. But we did this at a customer request. And now we're searching for the "why," so we can repeat the results.
I'll let you know in a couple of years...
John Keane Book On Sale This Week
15 ORIGINALS
By John Keane
"15 Originals" has some of the most creative, joy-inspiring tunes found anywhere, for any instrument. You'll LOVE having these tunes as part of your own repertoire!
On sale for 1/2 its regular price until next week. Also available (but not on sale) at DulcimerDownloads.com. CLICK HERE to download it.
This book is published by Folkcraft® Instruments, under the Fingers Of Steel® imprint.
Thanks for reading, Y'all - have a great weekend!
Richard Ash - luthier-who-traded-walnut-sawdust-aka-man-glitter-for-plum-man-glitter-and-apple-man-glitter-this-time-around
FOLKCRAFT® DULCIMER PLAYER OF THE WEEK: ANNETTE SHEFFIELD
Hello, Everyone. Here I am pictured with my set of four matched Folkcraft Custom dulcimers. From right-to-left are my bass, baritone, MaxDAD®️ with radius fretboard, and a standard. Not only are my dulcimers beautiful, but they sound even more beautiful than they look.
Each dulcimer is made of Honduras mahogany with curly redwood tops, ebony veneered chromatic fretboards, Fishman Matrix Piezo Pickup With Prefix Pro Blend, and flamingo sound-holes.
I also play viola, violin, cello, and have played bass with a group when I was in my 20’s. Otherwise, I have played chromatic instruments since I was 8-years-old. So playing a chromatic dulcimer is just easier for me. Also, I think the chromatic dulcimer is the up-and-coming dulcimer. More and more people are playing chromatic dulcimers and with these I can play in any key without a capo.
I have also had three other Folkcraft Custom instruments—a standard, a bass, and a double neck. I love Folkcraft dulcimers and I love my matched Curly Redwood dulcimers.
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT OTHER FOLKCRAFT PLAYERS LIKE ANNETTE & YOU!
HEY THERE - FUTURE FEATURED FOLKCRAFT® PLAYERS
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
No new Folkcraft Player to feature today, but we are happy to re-feature Annette Sheffield, and her mahogany & cedar dulcimers, today.
Who's Going To Write In Next? Keep This Thing Going?
It really is super-easy to join our online dulcimer community. Just three easy steps:
1) Reply to this newsletter email
2) With answers to the four questions below
3) Attach a photo of yourself with your Folkcraft dulcimer(s)
We look forward to hearing from you and featuring you in our newsletter real soon!
1. How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
2. When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
3. Where do you enjoy playing your dulcimer?
4. What other hobbies, or interests, do you have besides playing dulcimer?
FOR JUST A LITTLE WHILE LONGER WE'RE OFFERING A $25 FOLKCRAFT GIFT CARD TO ANYONE WHO ANSWERS THE FOUR EASY QUESTIONS LISTED ABOVE, AND SENDS IN A PHOTO (OF YOU WITH YOUR FOLKCRAFT DULCIMER)
This Week's Featured YouTube Video:
Now let’s get our three main chords a bit farther up the fretboard. Most of what Mandy will show you here are concepts for you to put into use. Get these three alternate locations under your fingers, and start throwing them into your arrangements. Have fun with it! Just click on the image below to watch.
We have a slew (that's a fancy luthier word for "bunch") of videos for you to watch on our YouTube channel. Click here to see the full list. Be sure to comment on a video, and subscribe to the channel - either action helps us a LOT with YouTube's suggestion algorithms.
TUNES & TECHNIQUES - Spotted Pony
by Aaron O'Rourke
When a renowned dulcimer player puts out instructional materials (small books, with audio samples, for example) the dulcimer community takes notice. Nothing new here, except that the renowned player in this case is Aaron O'Rourke. He's created five books in total, each one using a "core" old-time tune as the vehicle for teaching some fundamental (and some advanced) dulcimer techniques.
Learn to play better, and have more fun, while studying with one of the best teachers and performers to be found anywhere! (21 pages)
This book is published by Folkcraft Instruments, under the Fingers Of Steel imprint, and is made available here as an authorized, licensed download.
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