When did half-width frets vanish? (was: Full-width frets)

[Ken Bloom]

One other minor note about the West Coast. A lot of folks who got into building dulcimers did it as a "gateway drug". They used what they learned doing this to work up to guitar building and banjo building etc. Fretwire was easy to get and learning how to install them is pretty straightforward. Staple frets require some skill to make well and to install effectively. My guess is that in areas where staples lasted the longest, there was a long tradition of using them and one builder showed the next how to do it. In Hungary, they still use staple frets for citaras. Availablility versus tradition. Builders are practical folks. We just want to get it done and do it well.

Ken Bloom
http://www.boweddulcimer.com

[razyn]

...And NY is important enough to early dulcimer revival history to be included.

Well, to New Yorkers, maybe. Although real, i.e. Kentucky, dulcimers were played there (for the bemusement of intellectuals) some decades before Jean moved to NY.

I never heard of a "Farina" before I started reading this forum, a very few years ago. Would have thought that was a specialized livestock feed. I had heard of the others you mentioned; even got acquainted with all but Dylan, but never in New York. It was a pretty different scene in TN, as I observed it from the inside circa 1957-73 -- but it was still a scene, sort of.

And btw Homer Ledford showed me how to make staple "half" frets in December, 1963. Also, how to disassemble an old broom to get the wire. I already told about that, one time:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15156&p=197312

[berimbau]

I always love Dick's posts, but am curious as to how he manages to compose them by candle light while working the foot-pedal of his steam-driven lap top? Well I leave that up to the chuck wagon gang here to contemplate while I sit in my dank and dusty NYC apartment, kick a few snarling, rabid rats aside, and work up Lou Reed's "Heroin" on my electric dulcimer.



Paz y Musica,


berimbau

[strumelia]

Ok Dick, since apparently it's only important to New Yorkers, then let's eliminate NYC from inclusion in the dulcimer revival and early folk scene histories, in favor of the more relevant dulcimer developments going on at the time in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine.

P.s. where ya been lately?? I was getting worried!

[razyn]

I... am curious as to how he manages to compose them by candle light while working the foot-pedal of his steam-driven lap top?

I only have to use the pedals for my Commodore 64 when I can't keep up enough steam pressure. And at my age that problem is supposed to be forgivable, anyway. The tough part is all the time it takes to upload these messages, using a Vic-20 modem.

Now, you younguns, behave.

[razyn]

P.s. where ya been lately?? I was getting worried!

Well actually I've seen you more on the Minstrel Banjo forum than on the dulcimer ones... just got into a new hobby that's taking way too much of my time. But, all is well here. Thanks for almost worrying --

[pristine2]

I imagine Jean's production of dulcimers included full width frets by the mid to late 60's, but I don't know the exact date of her production transition and whether it was a total switch from staple frets. She did play both full width and staple frets from the mid 60's on I'm guessing. She eventually had quite a few dulcimers, from various sources.

--One very minor note from a New Yorker- Richard, New York state is not generally considered part of New England, but is rather in 'the northeast'. http://www.ne-tc.com/www/ ...And NY is important enough to early dulcimer revival history to be included.

LOL -- just my sloppy writing. I did not mean to place New York in New England. I see New York as an entirely separate & unique phenomenon in dulcimer history. Jean in Greenwich Village, Hank Levin & HMT, etc .

I only mention New England at all because the dulcimers that emerged there all had full-width frets.

I interviewed Hank Levin last year and he mentioned making dulcimers for Jean in 1967 or 68. By that time she'd clearly decided to sell only full-width fret instruments.

R

[Robin the Busker]

Hi Dick,

Thanks for the info you posted about staple frets. I'm very interested in learning more about the fitting of staples, type of wire, shaping, size etc Do you know where I can track down more detailed info?

Thanks, Robin

[strumelia]

P.s. where ya been lately?? I was getting worried!

Well actually I've seen you more on the Minstrel Banjo forum than on the dulcimer ones... just got into a new hobby that's taking way too much of my time. But, all is well here. Thanks for almost worrying --

Well thanks for almost thanking me!

Hope you are enjoying whatever minstrelbanjo related hobby you are into these days!

[pristine2]

In Hungary, they still use staple frets for citaras. Availablility versus tradition. Builders are practical folks. We just want to get it done and do it well.

Ken Bloom
http://www.boweddulcimer.com

Speaking of which, my recent delivery from Gáts Tibor (crappy photos from web cam):

[strumelia]

Richard, that's awesome. Did it come with tuning information? Can you actually play it yet?

[pristine2]

Richard, that's awesome. Did it come with tuning information? Can you actually play it yet?

Tuning info for the citera is covered in this thread. It's pretty straightforward.

http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/discu ... =3&t=23808

Yes, I play it. I love the citera, and the intuitive fretboard, which I think of like a piano keyboard with white and black keys.

I got my first citera -- a much simpler one without so many drones, but essentially the same -- a couple of years back. I haven't made any videos recently, but I've made some progress since then: