Wanted: Very Long Strings

[John Maddison]

Hi All

A cry for help; I'm nearing the end of a customised large (bass) sized dulcimer that began in 2006 and has sat in moth-balls for way too long.

What was I thinking? ... in ignorance and with very little thought given to overall string length in the original design, I'm now faced with trying to source a supplier of extra long individual strings of a minimum 45" / 115cm to allow tie-down to the tuners. Preferred strings would be ball-end phosphor bronze, but that's not absolutely critical; am thinking wire wound bronze strings on an insrtument of this size might be a bit more gentle on the fingers than nickel or steel.

As a general guide to what I 'should' install I'm using data from a Cherry & Butternut Bass Dulcimer (see 5th pic down page) at Laurel Mountain Instruments ... that specifies:

2 off .022"
1 off .036"
1 off .052"

I'd even be happy to go to lighter gauges in the region of 2 x .016, 1 x .030, 1 x .046. BTW the dulcimer's VSL is 31.85" (80.9cm). I've come so very close in recent days ... Folkcraft in the States can supply up to 42". Mods ... do you recall any existing threads buried in the archives

Cheers

[Allen]

I don't recall anything being discussed like this that would be in the archives John.

I found this with a Google search. Says that they make dulcimer and piano strings and replacements.

http://www.mapeswire.com/

[jeffhigh]

Superlong scale bass guitar strings should be long enough and the C and G from a 6 string set would give you the wound strings
Double bass strings certainly would be,
piano wire for the plains.
what scale and tunings are you going for

[John Maddison]

Thanks Allen for the heads-up about Mapes website; I did try Google but drew a blank ... have already sent them an email with the info at the top of this thread.

... what scale and tunings are you going for?

Well Jeff, I'm completely hooked on the building side of lutherie but unfortunately, with my extremely limited knowledge of musical theory, this is where I fall into a complete heap (wishing in later life that I should have kept those Recorder Lessons going at age 7 ).

Gotta love Google Books tho' ... this site talks of DAD as a common tuning, but talk of Scales just leaves me feeling dumb and bewildered.

Cheers for the replies

[jeffhigh]

ok John, when I say scale I mean the length between nut and saddle excluding any overhang to reach tuners and string anchorage points.
This and the notes you intend to tune it to are really important in chosing the appropriate string diameters so you are not too tight (breaking strings or the instrument) or too loose and floopy

[John Maddison]

...when I say scale I mean the length between nut and saddle ... this and the notes you intend to tune it to are really important ...

Right, got it now - I designed for a scale length of 80.9cm or just under 32". Sorry, Jeff - I thought you were asking me about Major & Minor scales and all that musical-gook. My design is based on a standard mountain dulcimer that I 'upsized' by a factor of 0.618 (based on the 'Golden Mean'). Don't ask me why ... seemed like a good idea at the time .

[jeffhigh]

Ok so with a 32" scale I guess you would be tuning down from the DAD tuning of the standard dulcimer or there would be no point in the larger instrument maybe GCG in which case a G and C string from a six string bass would probably be good in diameter for bass and middle strings
45 and 32 thou.
Just measured up the strings on a 34" scale bass, 43inch from ball to tuner plus a few wraps around the tuner so should easily be 45" total, so standard long scale bass would be fine.
Get a six string set and use the G and C and get piamp wire fron a piano tuner for the melody strings

[Allen]

There you go. Problem solved and best yet, I got to learn something new today

[John Maddison]

Me too, Allen ... makes my forum membership all that more worthwhile when you get feedback like this. Thanks also Jeff for the great advice .

[John Maddison]

I may have hit pay dirt. The John Pearse Strings website has a diverse range of Single Strings of varying materials for all types of instruments. The International Dealers page lists Eagle Music in Dee Why (NSW) as the Australian agent. Does anyone have experience in using JP strings, or have had dealings with Eagle Music?