Posted by Rand Moore on December 9, 2011 at 4:32am
I have thus far built two paddle box stick dulcimer which I compare here to the standard McNally strumstick. The McNally sounds too treble-ly, and my first build turned out too bass-y, but the second attempt turned out mid-range (just right).The longer VSL also seems to make the notes sweeter, more lie a mountain dulcimer. The box depth is 3cm and it uses guitar strings 1, 2, and 3. My first paddle box is twice as deep and uses guitar strings 2, 3, and 4; which explains why it sounds more bass-ier. I believe the McNally strumstick uses banjo strings and an even smaller sound box to achieve its high pitched playing range.
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That Strumbly looks like a nice instrument. I've read about them and visited their web site. They tune it 1-4-8 instead of 1-5-8, so the drone strings (especially the middle string) sound a bit flat, but still okay. I re-tuned one of my 3-stringers to D-G-D to play some tabs from their songbook. Turns out most their tabs work just fine on a 1-5-8 (D-A-D) tuned instrument because all the notes (for the majority of the songs) fall on the melody string (so for those tunes that occasionally use the second string, those notes are easy enough to transpose). Maybe I'll buy their full Strumbly Song Book some day to see what other tunes I can learn.
Thanks for the encouraging comments. This one is a "keeper" for sure. Will likely build some more, to see if I can consistently reproduce its sweet sound. Have a happy Christmas & New Years.
Nice ! FYI, The strumsticks all come strung .23 .14 .10 . They actually advise customers to use strings from banjo sets . Personally , I immediately swapped them out for .24 .16 .12 from some bulk dulcimer string sets , but even then the sound was a little to "light" for my taste . Shortly after that , I spent a great deal of time playing a Strumbly (above) from Matt Edwards of Musicmakers , which is far bigger and takes guitar strings .
Comments
That Strumbly looks like a nice instrument. I've read about them and visited their web site. They tune it 1-4-8 instead of 1-5-8, so the drone strings (especially the middle string) sound a bit flat, but still okay. I re-tuned one of my 3-stringers to D-G-D to play some tabs from their songbook. Turns out most their tabs work just fine on a 1-5-8 (D-A-D) tuned instrument because all the notes (for the majority of the songs) fall on the melody string (so for those tunes that occasionally use the second string, those notes are easy enough to transpose). Maybe I'll buy their full Strumbly Song Book some day to see what other tunes I can learn.
-Rand
Thanks for the encouraging comments. This one is a "keeper" for sure. Will likely build some more, to see if I can consistently reproduce its sweet sound. Have a happy Christmas & New Years.
-Rand
Hey there Rand! Looks like you've been improving your craft! These look great. Nice work, man!
Nice ! FYI, The strumsticks all come strung .23 .14 .10 . They actually advise customers to use strings from banjo sets . Personally , I immediately swapped them out for .24 .16 .12 from some bulk dulcimer string sets , but even then the sound was a little to "light" for my taste . Shortly after that , I spent a great deal of time
playing a Strumbly (above) from Matt Edwards of Musicmakers , which is far bigger and takes guitar strings .