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| Dulcimer guitar conversion http://mowrystrings.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10137&t=49012 |
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| Author: | Chris Pile [ Fri Feb 17, 2017 1:33 am ] |
| Post subject: | Dulcimer guitar conversion |
So I recently acquired this little brown Luna parlor guitar. Cheap - but a solid top, light as a feather, plays well and sounds pretty good. And yet, I desired something similar to a mountain dulcimer after playing a dulcitar (strum stick), but with far better tone.... Conversion was easy.... I added 3 steel pins between the bridge pins and the bridge saddle, crossed the strings behind the pins, and cut a few new nut slots to match up my pairs of strings (.034, .022, .010). Took less than an hour at a leisurely pace, and I can quickly restring it as a guitar if I so desire. Here's the result - plays easily, plus minor voicings, and sounds a ton better than a mountain dulcimer. http://s588.photobucket.com/user/studem ... sort=3&o=0 Played it for a hour, my fave new toy. |
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| Author: | B. Howard [ Fri Feb 17, 2017 8:17 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Dulcimer guitar conversion |
Interesting contraption..... |
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| Author: | J De Rocher [ Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:43 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Dulcimer guitar conversion |
That looks pretty cool. What is the tuning you are using? Do you have photos of the bridge and the nut? I think I get the arrangement at the bridge, but I'm not sure. |
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| Author: | Chris Pile [ Sun Feb 19, 2017 7:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Dulcimer guitar conversion |
Standard mixolydian tuning - DD-AA-dd.... See what I can do about some detail pix. At the nut I used two of the existing slots, adding four more. At the bridge, added three .125 pins to set the paired spacing. It's essentially a convertible - from guitar, to dulcimer, and can go back again. In either mode, it still has six strings... |
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| Author: | Chris Pile [ Mon Feb 20, 2017 9:09 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Dulcimer guitar conversion |
Bridge detail... http://s588.photobucket.com/user/studem ... sort=3&o=0 Nut detail... http://s588.photobucket.com/user/studem ... sort=3&o=1 Should be obvious now what I did. The pins are 3/8" long sections of 10 penny nail, used a cutoff wheel and a Dremel. Having loads of fun with this thing. |
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| Author: | J De Rocher [ Mon Feb 20, 2017 9:21 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Dulcimer guitar conversion |
Thanks a lot for posting the photos. Both of those were what I was guessing, but cool to see it confirmed. That's a great idea for the bridge. Who knew that a 10 penny nail would provide proper string pair spacing like that? |
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| Author: | Chris Pile [ Tue Feb 21, 2017 1:22 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Dulcimer guitar conversion |
You do have to pay attention when stringing it up. What would normally be the A string goes to the low E tuner, what would normally be the E string goes to the A tuner... And so forth. |
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| Author: | Bryan Bear [ Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:31 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Dulcimer guitar conversion |
Nice! About a dozen years ago I made something similar but nowhere near as nice. I used one of those ultra-cheap import classical guitars that was laying around. I used steel strings DD AA dd, it was fun while it lasted (the neck was not really up to the challenge). It was a strange/interesting sound. Not at all dulcimer like in timbre, basically sounded like a guitar in alternate tuning (go figure) but the drones sounded great. Unfortunately the double course D and A kinda drowned out the melody. For a while I had the low D and A strung with octave pairs, that was interesting in its own way too. |
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