"Woodn't That Be Loverly?"
Good Morning, Y'all & Happy Friday!
I think a lot about dulcimers, and dulcimer building, and the woods we use to make dulcimers.
The different types of woods all have an effect on the sound of an instrument - a denser, less fibrous body wood (like East Indian rosewood) tends to produce a warm, clear tone. But rosewood isn't as loud as a lighter, more fibrous wood (like Northern cherry).
Pairing the denser (rosewood) or lighter (cherry) body woods with various soundboard woods? It's a whole level of complex. So many, many variables.
It's Complicated
I can give a lot of examples like wood "X" for the body combined with wood "Y" for the top gives us "Z1" for tone, "Z2" for volume, and "Z3" for sustain. Add in the other big variables like:
Design. Our FolkRoots instruments have a different character from our Folkcraft instruments.
Body Size. A California body size versus a Kentucky body size.
Scale Length (VSL). A longer scale length has more sustain, and more power, but "longer" doesn't fit everyone's hands.
It Depends
Realistically, they all sound good, but it also depends on the sound that a player wants. Is the dulcimer going to be a "jam" instrument, where power and presence are the most important? Or is this a solo performance instrument, where tone is king, and we can get power by using a pickup? Or is this a living room instrument, destined to be heard by the cats, dogs, and potted plants, and all that matters is a pretty, sweet, pleasant tone.
So, with all that in mind, I was looking at our collection of "started but not yet finished" dulcimers today, and decided to pick one out to share with you:
This dulcimer has two of my favorite woods. The body is Honduras mahogany, which is exceptionally light and fibrous, and generally creates a loud and powerful voice, with plenty of highs, mids, and lows. And utterly amazing sustain. My "daily player" has a Honduras mahogany body.
We paired the Honduras mahogany body with a butternut top. Butternut is generally a beautiful wood, but when we add the new blueberry/vine sound holes, it gets even prettier! The ebony fretboard doesn't affect the tone in any meaningful way, but it sure is nice looking.
Here's a view of this dulcimer's back. Two pieces of Honduras mahogany, bookmatched, and with a really interesting grain pattern. Bookmatching doesn't affect the tone, really, but it looks sharp, so we book match everything we can, just out of principle. Even the sides are bookmatched on this dulcimer.
So how does a Honduras mahogany body, paired with a butternut top, sound? The butternut tames the mahogany just a bit, so the tone is warmer than if we went with Honduras/Sitka spruce. But not as warm as if we went with Honduras/Western red cedar. Butternut is kind of "middle of the road," tonally, and it gives a pleasant warmth to the Honduras mahogany without hurting the sustain.
In other words? It sounds nice!
The point of this post wasn't to make a sales pitch, it was to describe how we choose woods for a certain tone (and look, to a lesser degree). But if you like the looks of this Honduras/Butternut dulcimer, it is a FolkRoots H Series, $1195, and I'll finish setting it up next week. Send an email (reply to this newsletter email) if you want me to set it aside for you...
Final Second Saturday Clinic Of 2025 Coming Soon
On a different note, we had our next-to-the-last Second Saturday Clinic last weekend. Our clinician, Bing Futch, did an amazing (as usual) job, and we enjoyed the clinic and the concert that followed. Next month, we're hosting Dave Haas on August 9. We'll have a jam, a clinic, and a concert. And lunch! Sign up here, if you'd like to come. We host Dave almost every year, and his clinics generally sell out, so don't wait too long.
Thanks for reading, Y'all - have a great weekend. Go make some music!
Richard Ash, luthier-who's-still-thinking-about-Honduras-mahogany-and-butternut
FOLKCRAFT® DULCIMER PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: DONNA SISK
In 2017, at age 60, I decided I was going to learn a stringed instrument - other than the piano - and play along at the next annual family reunion, but I wanted to play something that nobody else played. The word "dulcimer" came to mind, and although I had never seen one in person or in photograph, nor had ever heard what one sounds like, I knew it was a folk instrument; I was just hoping it had strings. Internet searches revealed that there was an annual dulcimer festival occurring in a few weeks' time, just one hour from where my husband and I were then living in the south suburbs of Chicago. We attended the Gebhard Woods festival in Morris, IL and I saw, heard, and played a mountain dulcimer for the first time.
At the festival I found out there was a dulcimer club just 15 minutes down the road from me, and there I found out there was actually a local teacher just another 15 minutes beyond that! The planets were aligning and pointing me to the path of playing the mountain dulcimer. Before the first club meeting that I attended, I scrambled to purchase an instrument quickly, and bought what might be considered a student or starter instrument, while I waited for a custom instrument by another luthier to be made. My starter instrument wasn't the best quality, but I didn't know that. After several months of playing that sub-par (but pretty) dulcimer and still waiting for the custom one I had ordered, a club member who was "thinning the herd" of his extensive collection offered to sell me one of his instruments. It was the dulcimer in this picture - a Folkcraft FolkRoots, dated 8-6-2013 with the name S. J. Ash written in it - a name I have since come to find out is very special. I fell in love with the instrument and couldn't believe the beautiful sound that was coming out of my playing - all because I was finally playing a quality instrument. It had a longer VSL than my little starter dulcimer, which suited me just fine. Pretty soon I took that dulcimer on a day trip out to the Folkcraft shop for an upgrade (a pickup) and I met Richard Ash and...
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF DONNA'S STORY AND ABOUT OTHER FOLKCRAFT PLAYERS LIKE DONNA & YOU!
HELLO FOLKCRAFT® PLAYERS - WE LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!
We don't have a new player to add to our global, online dulcimer community today, but we are pleased to be able to re-feature Donna Sisk. How's your summer going, Donna?
Who's Going To Write In Next? Keep The Family Growing?
It really is super-easy to join our online dulcimer community. Just three easy steps:
1) Send an email to: newsletter@folkcraft.com
2) With the answers to the four questions below
3) Attach a photo of yourself with your Folkcraft dulcimer(s)
We look forward to receiving your submission & 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?
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). IT'S REALLY SO EASY TO DO!
This Week's Featured YouTube Video:
This week Mandy will show you another fun bluesy lick using that 1.5 fret. With these licks we are practicing using the 1.5 fret, practicing our alternate string picking, using our flat picking techniques, and paying attention to specific fingering. Please use these licks as examples to build your own, spice up your arrangements, and remember to have fun!
TAB included below. Just click on the image below to listen & learn.
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.
FINGER-PICK STYLE PLAYING
by Dana Gruber
This method book from Dana Gruber has a variety of songs. They're complete pieces, but the focus on each tune isn't the song itself, but rather on using the song to develop a specific skill.
We've listed the skill introduced for each song next to the title, so you can get a feel for the pace of the book's instruction. Be sure to scroll down to the Table Of Contents listing for more information. All songs are in DAD tuning. (27 pages)
This book is published by Fingers Of Steel, and is made available here as an authorized, licensed download.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mary Had A Little Lamb (Playing A Melody)
Mary Had A Little Lamb (Adding Chords)
You Are My Sunshine (More Chords And Picking Individual Notes)
Brahms' Lullaby (Waltz In 3/4 Time)
All Through The Night (More Pattern Variation)
Believe Me, If All Of Those Endearing Charms (Strumming Chords)
Lavender Blue (Some Left-Hand Techniques - The "Slide")
Plaisir D'Amour (Plucking Chords)
Slumber My Darling (More Variation Of Patterns)
Farewell (More Techniques And Variations Of Patterns)
Wilson's Wilde (Putting It All Together)
NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE IN BOOK FORM
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