Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on May 11, 2009 at 4:56am

That's a pretty long scale. If you use the EAD strings you might want to tune DAd or CGc.

Either way, that will give you a bass dulcimer. Dulcimers usually use pretty light strings and are tuned an octave or so above that.

String material doesn't matter with a piezo, so pick something you like the acoustic sound of. And make sure you check that the strings you're considering are long enough for that scale.

Permalink Reply by CMcG on May 11, 2009 at 6:03am

Thanks for the reply...what is a good length for the CB dulcimer?? 25" or 26"??

Permalink Reply by David Beede on May 11, 2009 at 6:26am

Just a few points about your string length choice.

Longer strings don't necessarily have a “deeper” tone. In fact they tend to sound brighter.
Heavier strings tuned to lower notes can sound deeper, which might be what you mean. But lower notes on boxes that don’t have the sound board acreage or the air volume to support it can sound pretty thin acoustically. Of course you said you were putting a piezo on it, so plugging it in will let you hear those nice lower notes you’re after.

As Doc said, the heavy strings you considered would be thought of as a bass instrument in the dulcimer world. Even though the DAD you might be tuning those E-A-D strings would be the equivalent of tuning a normal guitar to "drop D" tuning. That’s still an octave below “normal” dulcimers. No matter since I think we’re mostly trying to use dulcimer fretting on a cigar box set up.

What that longer string length will result in is some added stress on your neck/box.
Lets imagine two strings – say guitar D strings at a length of 25.”
Two identical gauge strings at the same length and tension will of course produce the exact same note. Right.
Keeping all other factors equal, (gauge & tension) while lengthening one string, the longer strings will produce a lower note. Pretty intuitive right? Like taking off a capo. That added 3” of length is approximately two frets worth, so it would be about a whole tone lower to C.
But what if you now try to tune that 28.5” string up to the D note of your 25.5” string. You’ll add about 7 lbs of tension.

[The three string instrument you suggest at 25” would have about 66 lbs of tension on it.
At a string length of 28.5” it would have 86 lbs of tension on it.

A decent free string tension calculator can be found here:

http://www.kennaquhair.com/ustc.htm ]

But now if you listen to these two notes, they will sound a bit different.
The longer string will have more higher harmonics in it, making it sound a bit brighter.
Harp makers take this into account quite a bit. The closer you can get a string to it’s theoretical breaking point the more harmonics it will be generating, and the more “lively” it will sound. I know that’s a little vague, but we’ve all experienced the opposite. When you try to tune a string too low, it starts to sound dead and floppy. An electronic tuner may tell you it’s tuned to the correct note, but it will sound awful. That fundamental vibration or “first harmonic” as it’s called does define the note, but it’s all the overtone harmonics that give the quality of the note.

Sorry, I got a bit more detailed than I had intended.

Since we’re in cigar box land, probably most of what I just said can be set aside, and you can pick your string gauges on a hunch and then tune them until they sound good to you, then use a tuner to find out what you’re tuned to. You could tweak to the nearest “concert” pitch, to accommodate folks who want to play along…;~)

Permalink Reply by CMcG on May 11, 2009 at 6:41am

Thanks for the details! That helps a lot...I simply came up with the 28.5" because that's what my friend's old dulcimer was...I'm going to make another alot shorter...for a lower sound dulcimer, would you suggest maybe 26" or so?

Permalink Reply by Roger Martin on May 28, 2009 at 2:33am

I'm finishing up a shorter scale Dulci for a customer Appr. 24.5.
He wants to tune to CgC and I'm not sure at that length what gauge strings to use to get the best tones
Any suggestions guys?