Chiff and Fipple Forums

G'day Friends.
My friend Alana has an Apalachin Dulcimer and we play Irish tunes together with myself playing Flute..
She tunes it to D .. First string D ,second A and third D.
Seeing as there's many Irish Tunes in the key of G,she's tried to tune down to G and was met a 'flubbery' sound with strings too slack..
So, I'm thinking that if she were to use heavier gauge strings to compensate for the lower tuning,the the Dulcimer in the the key of G might work.. ie: ( G D G )
I'm wondering if any one here has experience with this ? and could suggest gauges of string that would suit and not cause potential damage to the instrument ? .
The Strings she's using now are ,022 .014 and .012 (D A D ) .. she's only using single strings and the scale length of the Dulcimer is 27" ..
Thanks all ... regards from OZ ... Charlie.

To play in G I usually just tune my middle string down to G: D G dd. Should work fine with the same strings as for D A dd.

There are a number of guitar string tension calculators online. Here's one I used to pick the strings for my cookie tin banjo: http://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_guitar_string.htm. You can play around with string sizes too get the sound you want without putting too much tension on the instrument.

I just use a capo for playing in G or A.

Thanks Folks for your input ...
Are there 'special' capos for Apalachin Dulcimers Bill ? ..

Weenie...yes. My favorite is a Clemmer made by Mike Clemmer of Wood N Strings Dulcimer Shop. Made of wood. Goes across the fretboard. $21.00. Best I've used. And some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Makes a heck of a dulcimer too.

Thanks Bill... I'll look into those capos..
and... I'll even forgive you for the typo regarding my user-name ..

weedie wrote:and... I'll even forgive you for the typo regarding my user-name ..

And if you do that, we'll all forgive you for misspelling Appalachian.

Sorry....I'm usually pretty good about checking my spell check. Good luck on finding a capo.

As our man MT has pointed out,a spelling make was made myself.. .. sharp as a razor he is ..
Seems as though we're just about even Bill ..
Alana says she's tried the capo idea and is not too fond of them.. I think she'll be trying the dropped A (to G) and see how she goes..
Best wishes and happy tunes to you both ..

What you need is a baritone dulcimer. We normally tune them AEA, but play nicely in gdg. I build them with 28 and 30" scales. Three strings . I'm still experimenting with gauge's but .014 plain .018 to .020 wound and .030 wound bass work's for me in mixolydian. There are many tunings and modes to try, that is what's great about the dulcimer... Bob.

Another thing you can do is tune Ionian. You don't need to change string gagues...Tune bass to G3 with middle and melody strings tuned D4. The G scale begins at third fret... Bob

I tune to DGd. Works great but there are some G tunes that need a low G, not a low D, so sometimes it doesn't work.

Dulcimer Bill wrote:Weenie...yes. My favorite is a Clemmer made by Mike Clemmer of Wood N Strings Dulcimer Shop. Made of wood. Goes across the fretboard. $21.00. Best I've used. And some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Makes a heck of a dulcimer too.

Aren't capos devices for going up, not down a tone? How do you use a capo to make a string longer? And if you're using the capo to up a fourth (not from Dad to to Cgc but from Dad to gd'g', I think) doesn't that sound kinda tinny?

I play with a capo at the fourth fret for A all the time. Tinny? Not really. I use heavier strings and a thicker pick. Has a kind of mandolin sound. A capo is a quick way to change keys rather than retune. And you can play A tunes with a 1 1/2 fret, but by using a capo the familiarity of the fretboard is there.