What is the difference between medium and jumbo frets. How does it affect the action and sound?
Medium fret wire is pretty much industry standard and is what most of my instruments come with.
Jumbo fret wire has been popularized by folks like Aaron O’Rourke who likes the way it feels when he plays.
Neither have any effect on the sound. The folks who like it say they feel a difference in how the dulcimer plays, but many can’t detect this.
Do I have to have movable bridges? Why would anyone want a movable bridge?
Moveable bridges are ideal for setting the intonation [how precisely in tune the frets play all the way up the fingerboard]
I always mark where mine go, so they can be put back in place when the strings are changed, however it is possible to fix the bridge in place with a small drop of glue once it has been set. Some put bridges in a slot and that’s fine however there are some limitations. When setting intonation it is only “spot on” for the gauge strings and the tuning it was set to.
With a moveable bridge and an electronic tuner, anyone can learn to “tweak” the position/intonation in a few minutes. I intend to make a short instruction video on this. By far the most common dulcimer repair/complaint I deal with is problems with dulcis playing in tune all the way up the fingerboard, and the usual culprit is a bridge glued on or fixed in a slot in the wrong position.
Why a hallow finger board? I was told this is not a good thing.
Hmmmm... Well, I don’t know who told you it was not a good thing. Over 40 years of building and repairing dulcimers, I have only found the most rudimentary instruments, often kit built dulcimers with solid fingerboard. Here’s the challenge peculiar to dulcimers. Unlike guitars and other necked instruments, the dulcimer’s “neck” [finger board] is glued to the top of the instrument. And as you probably know the top is the primary producer of sound on any instrument. So, the fingerboard acts like a giant brace on the top and doing it’s best to prevent the top from vibrating, thus degrading it’s sound both in volume and tone. One of the primary ways of counterbalancing these effects is to hallow the fingerboard, making it lighter and a bit more flexible, but still strong enough to withstand the string tension. It’s a delicate dance, but all of the finest dulcimer builders do something like this to enhance sound. A somewhat less common approach is to cut arches under the finger board making it look like a bridge.
While we’re on the subject, even though you didn’t ask, traditional and many modern dulcimers use the build method of attaching the strings to the end block at the tail end of the box. This effectively ties the finger board /“brace” even tighter to the sound board resulting in the traditional “twangy” thin, treble heavy, dulcimer tone. I evolved a “decoupled” tail piece where the strings terminate/fasten to the end of the fingerboard which does not go all the way to the end of the box. This allows the fingerboard to rise and fall with the vibration of the top lending deeper richer bassier tonality to the instrument. It is far from a “traditional” sound, but more pleasing to many ears. [see Koa Bevel jpeg]
I demonstrate my decoupled tail piece in this YouTube clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-EaC7JNEV8
Also told that a laminate fret board is not good. Solid is better. Can you tell me the reasons behind the two.
In a perfect world if you could always get straight grained quarter sawn wood for a fingerboard, solid wood would work fine. However, in the real world the stresses in any given one piece “stick” are uneven and can be inclined to warp over time. One approach to this situation is to cut wood and glue it together in such a way that the internal stresses mirror each other causing those internal stresses to cancel each other out and remain more stable over time.
The difference between a flat back and arched?
I developed the arched back instrument primarily for people living in arid climates. When an instrument dries out excessively [which I don’t recommend letting happen] the wood shrinks. When the back is flat, as it starts to shrink, it has nowhere to “go” so what sometimes occurs is a crack opens up to relieve the stress. If the back is arched, that arch with become less pronounced, and “flatten” as it dries, but won’t crack. When the humidity returns the arch returns to it’s designed height. Most folks don’t need an arched backed instrument.
What is an ergonomic strum bevel?
I’ll attach a photo that shows a koa strum bevel. As you can see it falls on the lower bout nearest your strumming arm. Many modern players now play with the instrument at an angle and their forearms come in contact with that edge of the box. The bevel softens that edge and makes it more comfortable to play long and hard. For those of us who play more flat in our laps, our arms don’t get very near that area and the bevel is of little use, other than eye candy.
Why a radiuses fingerboard?
Radiused fingerbaords have become standard on many instruments, like steel string guitars, mandolins etc. Only recently have dulcimer players been wanting them too. Radius fingerboards are useful for making it easier to bend notes, like in blues or jazz, and to bar a chord using the pinky or ring finger of your chording hand. Again, if one plays straight down on the fingerboard and tends to play bar chords with three fingers in a row, the radius isn’t all that useful.
And would the radius ebony fb have an over lay of mahog/maple/mahog.
A radius can be built into any fretboard overlay. The fret board overlays are made of some hard material like, walnut, rosewood, ebony or “micarta” which is a synthetic that looks like ebony. The mahog/maple/mahog laminate refers to the main wood of the “stick” and only shows at the tail piece and strum hallow. I’ll attach a picture that shows this. This is Erin Rogers with her chromatic that also has the individual sliding bridges. These are for folks that like to experiment with string gauges and tunings but also want their instrument to play as perfectly in tune as possible.
What is the difference between spruce and bear claw spruce?
The attached jpeg of the koa bevel also has a bear claw spruce top. Bear Claw is a name given to an unusual grain pattern that some sitka spruce has. It is in demand on fine guitars and other instruments, partly for it’s appearance but also because if spruce isn’t perfectly quarter sawn [a very desirable thing but not all that common these days] those figures won’t be visible at all, so it signifies a very high quality tone wood.
Here’s youtube clip of Aaron playing Hangman’s reel with his trio back in 2011 on one of my instruments.
It will show you how he uses the bevel, how he bars chords and bends notes when they go jazzy on the tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD-kNlm7ysU
Medium fret wire is pretty much industry standard and is what most of my instruments come with.
Jumbo fret wire has been popularized by folks like Aaron O’Rourke who likes the way it feels when he plays.
Neither have any effect on the sound. The folks who like it say they feel a difference in how the dulcimer plays, but many can’t detect this.
Do I have to have movable bridges? Why would anyone want a movable bridge?
Moveable bridges are ideal for setting the intonation [how precisely in tune the frets play all the way up the fingerboard]
I always mark where mine go, so they can be put back in place when the strings are changed, however it is possible to fix the bridge in place with a small drop of glue once it has been set. Some put bridges in a slot and that’s fine however there are some limitations. When setting intonation it is only “spot on” for the gauge strings and the tuning it was set to.
With a moveable bridge and an electronic tuner, anyone can learn to “tweak” the position/intonation in a few minutes. I intend to make a short instruction video on this. By far the most common dulcimer repair/complaint I deal with is problems with dulcis playing in tune all the way up the fingerboard, and the usual culprit is a bridge glued on or fixed in a slot in the wrong position.
Why a hallow finger board? I was told this is not a good thing.
Hmmmm... Well, I don’t know who told you it was not a good thing. Over 40 years of building and repairing dulcimers, I have only found the most rudimentary instruments, often kit built dulcimers with solid fingerboard. Here’s the challenge peculiar to dulcimers. Unlike guitars and other necked instruments, the dulcimer’s “neck” [finger board] is glued to the top of the instrument. And as you probably know the top is the primary producer of sound on any instrument. So, the fingerboard acts like a giant brace on the top and doing it’s best to prevent the top from vibrating, thus degrading it’s sound both in volume and tone. One of the primary ways of counterbalancing these effects is to hallow the fingerboard, making it lighter and a bit more flexible, but still strong enough to withstand the string tension. It’s a delicate dance, but all of the finest dulcimer builders do something like this to enhance sound. A somewhat less common approach is to cut arches under the finger board making it look like a bridge.
While we’re on the subject, even though you didn’t ask, traditional and many modern dulcimers use the build method of attaching the strings to the end block at the tail end of the box. This effectively ties the finger board /“brace” even tighter to the sound board resulting in the traditional “twangy” thin, treble heavy, dulcimer tone. I evolved a “decoupled” tail piece where the strings terminate/fasten to the end of the fingerboard which does not go all the way to the end of the box. This allows the fingerboard to rise and fall with the vibration of the top lending deeper richer bassier tonality to the instrument. It is far from a “traditional” sound, but more pleasing to many ears. [see Koa Bevel jpeg]
I demonstrate my decoupled tail piece in this YouTube clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-EaC7JNEV8
Also told that a laminate fret board is not good. Solid is better. Can you tell me the reasons behind the two.
In a perfect world if you could always get straight grained quarter sawn wood for a fingerboard, solid wood would work fine. However, in the real world the stresses in any given one piece “stick” are uneven and can be inclined to warp over time. One approach to this situation is to cut wood and glue it together in such a way that the internal stresses mirror each other causing those internal stresses to cancel each other out and remain more stable over time.
The difference between a flat back and arched?
I developed the arched back instrument primarily for people living in arid climates. When an instrument dries out excessively [which I don’t recommend letting happen] the wood shrinks. When the back is flat, as it starts to shrink, it has nowhere to “go” so what sometimes occurs is a crack opens up to relieve the stress. If the back is arched, that arch with become less pronounced, and “flatten” as it dries, but won’t crack. When the humidity returns the arch returns to it’s designed height. Most folks don’t need an arched backed instrument.
What is an ergonomic strum bevel?
I’ll attach a photo that shows a koa strum bevel. As you can see it falls on the lower bout nearest your strumming arm. Many modern players now play with the instrument at an angle and their forearms come in contact with that edge of the box. The bevel softens that edge and makes it more comfortable to play long and hard. For those of us who play more flat in our laps, our arms don’t get very near that area and the bevel is of little use, other than eye candy.
Why a radiuses fingerboard?
Radiused fingerbaords have become standard on many instruments, like steel string guitars, mandolins etc. Only recently have dulcimer players been wanting them too. Radius fingerboards are useful for making it easier to bend notes, like in blues or jazz, and to bar a chord using the pinky or ring finger of your chording hand. Again, if one plays straight down on the fingerboard and tends to play bar chords with three fingers in a row, the radius isn’t all that useful.
And would the radius ebony fb have an over lay of mahog/maple/mahog.
A radius can be built into any fretboard overlay. The fret board overlays are made of some hard material like, walnut, rosewood, ebony or “micarta” which is a synthetic that looks like ebony. The mahog/maple/mahog laminate refers to the main wood of the “stick” and only shows at the tail piece and strum hallow. I’ll attach a picture that shows this. This is Erin Rogers with her chromatic that also has the individual sliding bridges. These are for folks that like to experiment with string gauges and tunings but also want their instrument to play as perfectly in tune as possible.
What is the difference between spruce and bear claw spruce?
The attached jpeg of the koa bevel also has a bear claw spruce top. Bear Claw is a name given to an unusual grain pattern that some sitka spruce has. It is in demand on fine guitars and other instruments, partly for it’s appearance but also because if spruce isn’t perfectly quarter sawn [a very desirable thing but not all that common these days] those figures won’t be visible at all, so it signifies a very high quality tone wood.
Here’s youtube clip of Aaron playing Hangman’s reel with his trio back in 2011 on one of my instruments.
It will show you how he uses the bevel, how he bars chords and bends notes when they go jazzy on the tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD-kNlm7ysU