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Dulcimer Diatonic scale for slide?

I'm nearing the end of my first build and trying to decide on fret scale. First, I'm interested in ducimer scale because I've never played guitar and from what I understand its easier. But my main interest is learning to play slide.....so can you play slide on a dulci scale or should I go with a guitar scale?

Second, if I'm using WFret to place my frets, I don't have to use a standard scale right? I can just measure the distance between the bridge and the nut and enter that into WFret? If so though, what do I enter for number of frets? I know the dulci equivalent to the fender 21 frets is 12, but is that only for the 25.5 scale? I could stick to the 25.5 scale but I want a fairly deep sound that I thought I might get with a longer scale.

Thanks for any help

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on December 1, 2009 at 4:59pm

Head on over to the dulcimer group. There is a discussion there of which frets to include and which frets to eliminate for a diatonic build. As for scale, that's up to you!

But first you might want to go to Shane's how to play videos, up there on Free Resources/Lessons. He'll show you which frets you need for playing slide.

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Permalink Reply by Tres Seaver on December 1, 2009 at 5:15pm

The dulcimer / diatonic scale is just the "chromatic" scale with some frets left out. So enter the number of frets you would want on a chromatic scale (24 would be two octaves), and then omit the unneeded frets, leaving only the following (for each octave): 2 4 5 7 9 11 12.(where 11 is the "six-and-a-half" fret).

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Permalink Reply by Travis "SlackJack" Woodall on December 1, 2009 at 5:45pm

If you are playing slide it doesn't matter if you install 12 frets or 22 frets. You can still play the in between notes without frets.

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Permalink Reply by Tam Givens on December 1, 2009 at 8:23pm

I play my 3 string CBG tuned DAd like a dulcimer and play melodies using a slide on the same notes as the dulcimer. My CBG has frets like a guitar, it's easy to play tunes that way. dulcimer frets work just the same, a little easier to find the melody notes.
Tam