Homemade Mountain Dulcimer (10 year update)

Canadian folksinger Jesse Ferguson provides a 10 year update on his homemade Appalachian/Mountain dulcimer.
The original video about this instrument is found here: • Homemade Appalachian/M...
Support this channel on Patreon: / jessefergusonmusic
Jesse on Apple Music: / jesse-ferguson
Jesse on KZbin Music: / jesse ferguson - topic
Jesse on Spotify: open.spotify.c...
Jesse on Amazon Music: www.amazon.com...
Jesse's Website: www.jessefergus...
Jesse's Facebook: / bardofcornwall

[@suemacias667]

Jesse, you have the feather use as a pick backward. See the cover of .Jean Richies The Dulcimer Book to see how the quill is used. I still play my old dulcimer that I made from that book you used also. 👍👍

[@panzerabwerkanone]

My mother who passed away two years ago had one. It was not homemade but was made of a beautiful red stained wood with two Canadian maple leaves on the front of it!

[@rawlinggdavenportjr9672]

On the piezieo. Look up Del Puckett's building of CBG's. Placement of the piezieo is critical.

[@olgreybear7997]

Hey, Jesse. Great update and some solid info on the possibilities of building your own dulcimer. When building a tricone resonator and other instruments previously I've had some good results for plugged in sound using an undersaddle piezo and internal microphone combo pickup. You can pick them up for around £20-£40 here in the UK but they may be cheaper there. Thanks for the video and greetings to you from the Highlands of Scotland here on the North Sea Coast. Oh, and on Burn's night too! Good health, good sir.

[@BardofCornwall]

Thanks, Ol Grey Bear! I think my mistake may have been buying the world's cheapest piezo.

[@olgreybear7997]

@@BardofCornwall I looked it up for you and this is the exact one I use because it has a blend slider for more or less in the mix of the undersaddle piezo and internal microphone. LC-5 5-Band Acoustic Guitar Preamp EQ Tuner Piezo Pickup Equalizer with Mic. They do come from China for the most part but they're worth the wait and get my recommendation for something cheap and cheerful but gets the job done well. I personally didn't hold out much hope for the internal microphone thinking it would be really shrill or feed back loads but it's actually really good. Hope that you find the solution that's right for you and all the best. Daniel

[@olgreybear7997]

BTW, nearly forgot to add but it pays huge dividends to swap the included undersaddle piezo rod for a decent one. I went for the Artec 3 + 3 split rod and that was my best ever result. Safe travels!

[@andrewwomack3019]

The book mentioned is “Simple Folk Instruments To Make and Play” by Ilene Hunter & Marilyn Jackson. A Fireside book Published by Simon and Schuster. In 1977. I bought my copy from a well known on line market place, for £2.95 last year!

[@krzysztofbednarek979]

Super , I like it

[@rawlinggdavenportjr9672]

Page 2: piezieos are great if installed correctly

[@sillysongs19]

Lovely, I was there for the first one, it is the video that got me to subscribe :)

[@BardofCornwall]

Awesome! Thanks for sticking with me, Brent!

[@adelaidemorningstar1870]

☘️ lovely dulcimer

[@USNAVDC]

NOTE: They played with the other end of the feather!

[@Orandu]

My friend made one of those! Edit: if you don’t like the “traditional” sounds of the feather and dowel, just remember you are supposed to be augmenting your appreciation with moonshine!

[@BardofCornwall]

You're right: I forgot the traditional moonshine!

[@marvinthemaniac7698]

Someday, I'll start a business building dulcimers out of plywood and fence panels in my garage.

[@eyeball226]

Curious, why did you only move part of the first fret? The remaining bit under the lower strings is visibly not in the right place. I would have thought you'd move the whole fret.

[@BardofCornwall]

Hello. The intonation was off for only the double first string. I adjusted it using a digital tuner.

[@eyeball226]

@@BardofCornwall That doesn't make a lot of sense, because the part that's under the lower two strings is visibly closer to the nut than it is to the second fret. Given they're both meant to be full tone frets, the distance between the nut and the first fret should be slightly bigger than the distance between the first and second frets. I can't see how it's physically possible for the intonation to be correct on those lower strings.