I've toyed with the idea of a dulcimer kit for awhile and was happy to see you share this. The one I have kept going back to is the Simplicity Dulcimer at Backyard Music which has a cardboard sound box. I love how you electrify everything!
I'm familiar with that kit from Backyard Music. I actually thought about doing that one but then decided to give this one a shot instead. Thanks for checking out the video.
I've wanted to build or buy a dulcimer since the early 80's when I stayed a week in Arkansas. Four years ago when I took up cigar box guitar building I put two long thin boxes aside to build one. Well, four years and 56 builds later the boxes still stare down at me. Maybe your video will get me off the dime. I have tons of landscape and remodel projects going so I may have to watch your video again in a couple months to get that inspiration back. Thanks for your demonstrative video!
I believe that's called a dulcitar when you play it like a guitar. Some folks also call it a walkabout dulcimer because you can walk or stand while you play. Thanks for checking out the vid.
@@musicalmiscellany Also "strum stick" or "stick dulcimer" I've actually developed a couple prototype kits for one of these, but not quite happy with it yet, not ready to market. Have a couple other prototypes in the works as well...I'll let you know how they turn out! Thanks for the great video!
I love building instruments too. Right now I have a scratch built Tenor Ukelele in the works. I'd like to give a full sized guitar a go, but I am working from simpler up to it and need a tool or two plus a radius dish for a guitar build. Sure is enjoyable and it helps being retired with plenty of time on your hands.
Always good to find another builder. I've built a lot of instruments over the years but I have to say, this dulcimer kit was one of the simplest. It's really well laid out. Thanks for checking out the vid.
Thats very neat! I ordered a dulicmer kit and balalaika kit from some company in Colorado when I was in high school. After I put them together I traded them for a mandolin. I have been thinking of getting a dulcimer again.Oh wow yours looks like the one I built. Its sounds nice! How fun! Thanks for another great video!
@@Iceland874 There's a link in the description of where you can buy the kit. BTW, I have no affiliation with the seller but I think they seem like good folks. Good luck.
Looks like a fun kit. I built a dulcimer kit a couple of years ago that used a carboard box as the body. It worked surprisingly well! This kit looks very straightforward!
It's funny you say that Steve. I remember seeing your video about the dulcimer kit and that's what made me look for other kits. I found this one and then... never pulled the trigger. Finally... a couple years later... I pulled the trigger.
sweet Who I am and where I want to be. I have had music in my head for as long as i can remember. Around 5 years old, I started trying to build whistles out of wood, copper pipe, and later when I learned to use a lathe out of brass. I built some most wicked whistles and when I got into grad school I added clay whistles to my. I never had much success with flute making as a kid, but it tried and tried again. I made myself diddley bows even though I did not have a name for them then. I built a mean shipping crate for my dad's shop and they were highly valued by our customers and used for tool boxes and many things. My first diddley bow was nothing more than a long 2 X 4 with whatever wire we had around the shop. But my diddley bows gradually became more sophisticated. One of the last diddley bows I built was the box like the one I built to ship a sway bar and rack and pinion. I put the “G” string from a Double Bass. I could play “It's a small world on my box” . My father later took it, threw away the string, covered the sound hole I put in it and shipped something in it. At about age 12 I tried to make myself a lute out of one of my better boxes and fishing line. Talk about an epic fail. It took almost 2 years, but Epic fail. In fourth grade I tried to join the orchestra. I started taking cello lessons. They would let me play the upright bass because I was not tall enough yet. I only lasted 4 weeks because I could not keep my cello tuned. Practice seemed pointless. I was asked to leave the orchestra. As an adult I found out that my father was sabatoshing my cello and how he was sabatoshing my cello. He was sanding my tuning pegs so that they were strat instead of tapered. Then he would put oil on them and put them back into the cello. I went through 3 rental cellos in four week. I grew up in a car racing family and I have developed a lot of diverse skills. I am a machinist and metal worker. I have been a working and gifted traditional draftsman since I was 8. I have drawn race car parts, steam engines, and aircraft all of which have been built. I am an accomplished painter, a traditionally trained weaver. I have restored antiqued and built museum quality looms for both universities and museums, I am a wood carver, and when I have access to tool a wood turner, I have built hand drums and have drums out with professional musicians. At age 5 I decided I was going to be an artist. Much of my adult life I have been a graphic artist for newspapers. Magazines, and television stations. When I was not an inhouse artist I often was a photojournalist. In both modes I actually have a pretty impressive resume. Now that I am retired I want to learn to really play. I want to build nice looking cigar box guitars, gourd banjos, I want to get good enough that I build myself a baroque theorbo, I want to build a taglharpa with a dragon head on top. I want to play old bluegrass music, I want to play J. S. Bach, I want to play medieval music. I thank you for your help and encouragement in getting stated
Thanks for checking out the video. The pickup can be found by searching for "35mm piezo disc" and the jack by searching for "1/4 mono jack". You can get them from a number of different online merchants. If you're not handy with a soldering iron, you can buy them pre-soldered from www.cbigtty.com. Thanks again and good luck.
I've wanted to build a mountain dulcimer for quite some time now. Having "studied" instrument building (mostly in books and on TH-cam, a tiny bit by actually building), I still find somewhat puzzling how well it works: the "neck" vibrates and transmits its vibration to the box. I would have thought that without a bridge directly connected to the box, it would sound thin, yet it doesn't! Anyway. I figure I would plug it to a fuzz and play some punk tunes with it. Maybe because power chords are easy to play on them?
Thanks for checking out the video. I agree with you completely. I was anticipating this one to sound really thin because the bridge doesn't touch the box. I'm not sure why it creates rich bass frequencies but it does. I surmise it has something to do with the size of the box. In any case, I'd highly recommend this kit and yes... it would be perfect for some punk or grunge.
This is a great example of how pickups and amps nullify the natural tones of instruments. Once you plugged the pickup in, all the uniquity was drained and it just sounded like any other CBG or zither with a pickup. Magnetic pickups were a very good *first* idea for amplifying sound, but with modern mics, they're just totally outclassed by all the other forms of amplification that preserve tone.
I think the idea of 'amplifying the instrument' and 'recording the instrument' often get confused when - in reality - they're very different. A pickup is intended for amplification (e.g. to get the instrument loud enough to compete with vocals, percussion, etc). Recording is more of an effort to preserve the instruments natural acoustic tone (and is normally done with a mic). While you can use a mic to amplify an instrument, this method tends to create feedback and/or hot spots and is not always ideal for live performance. Thus why so many people add pickups for simple amplification.
I've toyed with the idea of a dulcimer kit for awhile and was happy to see you share this. The one I have kept going back to is the Simplicity Dulcimer at Backyard Music which has a cardboard sound box. I love how you electrify everything!
I'm familiar with that kit from Backyard Music. I actually thought about doing that one but then decided to give this one a shot instead. Thanks for checking out the video.
I've wanted to build or buy a dulcimer since the early 80's when I stayed a week in Arkansas. Four years ago when I took up cigar box guitar building I put two long thin boxes aside to build one. Well, four years and 56 builds later the boxes still stare down at me. Maybe your video will get me off the dime. I have tons of landscape and remodel projects going so I may have to watch your video again in a couple months to get that inspiration back. Thanks for your demonstrative video!
Glad I could inspire you Bob. This is a really nice kit. I thought it was really well laid out.
Nice looking and sounding kit! Now to convince my wife I need another stringed instrument....
Ha ha. Good luck. If it's any consolation... this kit is pretty affordable.
I love the dulcimer, great sounding instrument, i did build one using a cigar box and play it with a strap on like a guitar and electrified it.
I believe that's called a dulcitar when you play it like a guitar. Some folks also call it a walkabout dulcimer because you can walk or stand while you play. Thanks for checking out the vid.
@@musicalmiscellany Also "strum stick" or "stick dulcimer" I've actually developed a couple prototype kits for one of these, but not quite happy with it yet, not ready to market. Have a couple other prototypes in the works as well...I'll let you know how they turn out! Thanks for the great video!
@@jarominguitars Would love to see them. Thanks for watching.
I love building instruments too. Right now I have a scratch built Tenor Ukelele in the works.
I'd like to give a full sized guitar a go, but I am working from simpler up to it and need a tool or two plus a radius dish for a guitar build.
Sure is enjoyable and it helps being retired with plenty of time on your hands.
Always good to find another builder. I've built a lot of instruments over the years but I have to say, this dulcimer kit was one of the simplest. It's really well laid out. Thanks for checking out the vid.
Thats very neat! I ordered a dulicmer kit and balalaika kit from some company in Colorado when I was in high school. After I put them together I traded them for a mandolin. I have been thinking of getting a dulcimer again.Oh wow yours looks like the one I built. Its sounds nice! How fun! Thanks for another great video!
This kit is really simple. It's well-priced too. It might be time to do it again. :-) Thanks for checking out the video.
@@musicalmiscellany sounds like a plan. I will check it out!
@@Iceland874 There's a link in the description of where you can buy the kit. BTW, I have no affiliation with the seller but I think they seem like good folks. Good luck.
Looks like a fun kit. I built a dulcimer kit a couple of years ago that used a carboard box as the body. It worked surprisingly well! This kit looks very straightforward!
It's funny you say that Steve. I remember seeing your video about the dulcimer kit and that's what made me look for other kits. I found this one and then... never pulled the trigger. Finally... a couple years later... I pulled the trigger.
sweet
Who I am and where I want to be.
I have had music in my head for as long as i can remember.
Around 5 years old, I started trying to build whistles out of wood, copper pipe, and later when I learned to use a lathe out of brass. I built some most wicked whistles and when I got into grad school I added clay whistles to my. I never had much success with flute making as a kid, but it tried and tried again.
I made myself diddley bows even though I did not have a name for them then. I built a mean shipping crate for my dad's shop and they were highly valued by our customers and used for tool boxes and many things. My first diddley bow was nothing more than a long 2 X 4 with whatever wire we had around the shop. But my diddley bows gradually became more sophisticated. One of the last diddley bows I built was the box like the one I built to ship a sway bar and rack and pinion. I put the “G” string from a Double Bass. I could play “It's a small world on my box” . My father later took it, threw away the string, covered the sound hole I put in it and shipped something in it.
At about age 12 I tried to make myself a lute out of one of my better boxes and fishing line. Talk about an epic fail. It took almost 2 years, but Epic fail.
In fourth grade I tried to join the orchestra. I started taking cello lessons. They would let me play the upright bass because I was not tall enough yet. I only lasted 4 weeks because I could not keep my cello tuned. Practice seemed pointless. I was asked to leave the orchestra. As an adult I found out that my father was sabatoshing my cello and how he was sabatoshing my cello. He was sanding my tuning pegs so that they were strat instead of tapered. Then he would put oil on them and put them back into the cello. I went through 3 rental cellos in four week.
I grew up in a car racing family and I have developed a lot of diverse skills. I am a machinist and metal worker. I have been a working and gifted traditional draftsman since I was 8. I have drawn race car parts, steam engines, and aircraft all of which have been built.
I am an accomplished painter, a traditionally trained weaver. I have restored antiqued and built museum quality looms for both universities and museums, I am a wood carver, and when I have access to tool a wood turner, I have built hand drums and have drums out with professional musicians.
At age 5 I decided I was going to be an artist. Much of my adult life I have been a graphic artist for newspapers. Magazines, and television stations. When I was not an inhouse artist I often was a photojournalist. In both modes I actually have a pretty impressive resume.
Now that I am retired I want to learn to really play. I want to build nice looking cigar box guitars, gourd banjos, I want to get good enough that I build myself a baroque theorbo, I want to build a taglharpa with a dragon head on top.
I want to play old bluegrass music, I want to play J. S. Bach, I want to play medieval music.
I thank you for your help and encouragement in getting stated
That is great to hear and I'm glad I'm not the only one. Music can be whatever you want it to be. The most important thing is that it brings you joy.
Cool build and sound!
Thanks. I appreciate that. I think it's gonna be a fun instrument for some future videos.
Nice job! Where can I get the little pick up and jack that you installed? It looks perfect for the job. 😊
Thanks for checking out the video. The pickup can be found by searching for "35mm piezo disc" and the jack by searching for "1/4 mono jack". You can get them from a number of different online merchants.
If you're not handy with a soldering iron, you can buy them pre-soldered from www.cbigtty.com. Thanks again and good luck.
I've wanted to build a mountain dulcimer for quite some time now. Having "studied" instrument building (mostly in books and on TH-cam, a tiny bit by actually building), I still find somewhat puzzling how well it works: the "neck" vibrates and transmits its vibration to the box. I would have thought that without a bridge directly connected to the box, it would sound thin, yet it doesn't! Anyway.
I figure I would plug it to a fuzz and play some punk tunes with it. Maybe because power chords are easy to play on them?
Thanks for checking out the video. I agree with you completely. I was anticipating this one to sound really thin because the bridge doesn't touch the box. I'm not sure why it creates rich bass frequencies but it does. I surmise it has something to do with the size of the box. In any case, I'd highly recommend this kit and yes... it would be perfect for some punk or grunge.
This is a great example of how pickups and amps nullify the natural tones of instruments. Once you plugged the pickup in, all the uniquity was drained and it just sounded like any other CBG or zither with a pickup. Magnetic pickups were a very good *first* idea for amplifying sound, but with modern mics, they're just totally outclassed by all the other forms of amplification that preserve tone.
I think the idea of 'amplifying the instrument' and 'recording the instrument' often get confused when - in reality - they're very different. A pickup is intended for amplification (e.g. to get the instrument loud enough to compete with vocals, percussion, etc). Recording is more of an effort to preserve the instruments natural acoustic tone (and is normally done with a mic). While you can use a mic to amplify an instrument, this method tends to create feedback and/or hot spots and is not always ideal for live performance. Thus why so many people add pickups for simple amplification.