Subject: RE: Hammered Dulcimer Kit
From:
JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 05:54 PM
Can't comment on the hammered dulcimer kits, except to say that I've seen them a few places, but not recently. A few sellers who used to bring kits to festivals seem to have only finished instruments in recent years.
The mountain dulcimer action height is determined by the two nuts, one at each end of the strings. Conventional construction is to just slip them into the slots, and let the strings hold them in, but some builders (and probably more home-builders) do glue them in. If you can lift them out after removing the strings, the recommendation would be to take a little off the "backside" so they'll sit further down into the slots. You can usually accomplish that by just rubbing the nut against a piece of sandpaper that's face up on a flat surface.
Since you want to be pretty careful about taking off too much, it's a good idea to mark the nut where you want to cut back to before you start trimming. If you should happen to trim a little more than you find you really wanted to, you can just put a stip of paper in the bottom of the slot to shim it back up. You don't want more than one or two layers of shim, since it reduces the amount of material holding/supporting the nut when you put it back in.
If your nuts are glued in, the choice is between figuring out how to get them out without breaking something or using a file on the top of them. For small adjustments, you can carefully deepen the notch that the string lays in; but tone can be affected if the string is too deep in the notch, so if more than half the string is below the top of the nut when you get the height you want you'll want to file the top down until what's left of the notch just holds the string in place.
The real difficulty is deciding just how much to (or whether you really want to) lower your action. You want to check carefully to make sure that your fingerboard is straight, that the frets are dressed properly, and all in line before making changes to the action height; and then proceed carefully and make small adjustments with frequent "test runs" to see when you get where you want. It's too much easier to take off than to put back, so proceed with caution.
John
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sj
