Just A Dulcimer Geek Musing

[Bing Futch]

So, I'm sitting here thinking about Dulcimettes and Eedie Beede's and other soprano mountain dulcimer creations and how little tiny they are - so cute - dainty things. Then I think about your bass and baritone dulcimers, always a little, if not a lot, bigger. I'd say honkin', even. And if you've ever played Mike Oliver's legendary bass dulcimer "The Blue Whale", then you've known that whole "bigger is better" thing rings true.

And then I started geeking out and thinking: "what about a super-big body for a dulcimer strung soprano?" Say for example, it's the same scale length and body length as a Dulcimette or Eedie Beede (am I spellin' that right? Dennis has got one, so that's what I"ve got pictured in my head), but instead of it being shallow - you extended the body straight down, like a platform shoe. You could even make it like a Sitar, where you have to be seated on the floor, and the amount of extension brings the dulcimer to a comfortable spot in your lap. Small scale, big sound box = I'm thinking, some kind of cool extra vibes that would open up the soprano dulcimer sound, like natural reverb.

I dunno. Just geeking out.

[farmrust]

Oh, Harpmaker?!?!?!?

Sharon

[harpmaker]

It could be done, but I don't know how good it would sound. The one reason the Baritone and Bass dulcimers have that bigger box is to accentuate the bass responce....which is exactly what you are trying to avoid in a soprano dulcimer...

[Ken Bloom]

There is a relationship between the pitch of the instrument and the air space that it encloses. When it gets too big you hit a point of diminishing returns. If you look back into the history of musical instruments you will find that there really is nothing new under the Sun. Take a stroll through Anthony Baines' European and American Musical Instruments and you'll see what I mean.
An exceptionally deep dulcimette would probably sound as if it had no back at all. My guess is that it would lack projection and the actual volume would be diminished.
What I do when I get requests for somethhing out of the ordinary, and that happens a lot, is to try to give my best estimate as what it would be like but in the end, I quote Lefty Frizzel.
"If you got the money, honey, I got the time!"

Ken Bloom
http://www.boweddulcimer.com

[folkfan]

You could try the sound of a soprano played on a possum board. That might have an interesting effect.

[paul c]

aaahhh, Bing you would have to go and mention something like this. Once upon a time, I had a train of thought very similar to yours and actually built a soprano dulcimer with a proportionally wider, deeper body. I ended up naming it Squeaky, and thought I was being pretty generous at that.

But the idea has taken root in the back of my mind (along with half a dozen other sorta non-standard designs I'd love to explore someday, when i get the time) and I keep thinking about it. I'm wondering what would happen if six strings were used and you went to the outer limits on the thinness of material. . .one of these days. . .

paul c

[Dulciaddict]

Bing,
When you really build a small instrument you have two
choices put overly large strings on it and tune it standard.
or put smaller strings on it and tune it soprano.

You could not get strings small enough to string a standard
dulcimer up as a soprano.
That means you would have to have a scale length and
fret board of a little instrument setting on your monster
body to make it work.

Wendell

[Bing Futch]

Very interesting - I'm storing all of this input away for future geek-outs, as well as bettering my knowledge of MD construction! Thanks for the many P.O.V.

[folkfan]

I wonder what sort of sound would be achieved with a body of two large gourds, and skin stretched for sound boards?

[Dulciaddict]

I wonder what sort of sound would be achieved with a body of two large gourds, and skin stretched for sound boards?

That one has been done.
If you look hard under gourd and dulcimer you can
most likely find it.
How it sounded ?????

Wendell

[joyfulnoise]

You can tune a piano, but ya still can't tune a fish.

[Bing Futch]

A-ha, found the thread again.