G’day Friends.
My friend Alana has an Apalachin Dulcimer and we play Irish tunes together with myself playing Flute..
She tunes it to D .. First string D ,second A and third D.
Seeing as there’s many Irish Tunes in the key of G,she’s tried to tune down to G and was met a ‘flubbery’ sound with strings too slack..
So, I’m thinking that if she were to use heavier gauge strings to compensate for the lower tuning,the the Dulcimer in the the key of G might work.. ie: ( G D G )
I’m wondering if any one here has experience with this ? and could suggest gauges of string that would suit and not cause potential damage to the instrument ? .
The Strings she’s using now are ,022 .014 and .012 (D A D ) .. she’s only using single strings and the scale length of the Dulcimer is 27" ..
Thanks all … regards from OZ … Charlie.
To play in G I usually just tune my middle string down to G: D G dd. Should work fine with the same strings as for D A dd.
There are a number of guitar string tension calculators online. Here’s one I used to pick the strings for my cookie tin banjo: http://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_guitar_string.htm. You can play around with string sizes too get the sound you want without putting too much tension on the instrument.
I just use a capo for playing in G or A.
Thanks Folks for your input …
Are there ‘special’ capos for Apalachin Dulcimers Bill ? ..
Weenie…yes. My favorite is a Clemmer made by Mike Clemmer of Wood N Strings Dulcimer Shop. Made of wood. Goes across the fretboard. $21.00. Best I’ve used. And some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Makes a heck of a dulcimer too.
Thanks Bill… I’ll look into those capos..
and… I’ll even forgive you for the typo regarding my user-name 
..
And if you do that, we’ll all forgive you for misspelling Appalachian. 
Sorry…I’m usually pretty good about checking my spell check. Good luck on finding a capo.
As our man MT has pointed out,a spelling make was made myself.. 
.. sharp as a razor he is ..
Seems as though we’re just about even Bill ..
Alana says she’s tried the capo idea and is not too fond of them.. I think she’ll be trying the dropped A (to G) and see how she goes..
Best wishes and happy tunes to you both 
..
What you need is a baritone dulcimer. We normally tune them AEA, but play nicely in gdg. I build them with 28 and 30" scales. Three strings . I’m still experimenting with gauge’s but .014 plain .018 to .020 wound and .030 wound bass work’s for me in mixolydian. There are many tunings and modes to try, that is what’s great about the dulcimer… Bob.
Another thing you can do is tune Ionian. You don’t need to change string gagues…Tune bass to G3 with middle and melody strings tuned D4. The G scale begins at third fret… Bob
I tune to DGd. Works great but there are some G tunes that need a low G, not a low D, so sometimes it doesn’t work.
Aren’t capos devices for going up, not down a tone? How do you use a capo to make a string longer? And if you’re using the capo to up a fourth (not from Dad to to Cgc but from Dad to gd’g’, I think) doesn’t that sound kinda tinny?
I play with a capo at the fourth fret for A all the time. Tinny? Not really. I use heavier strings and a thicker pick. Has a kind of mandolin sound. A capo is a quick way to change keys rather than retune. And you can play A tunes with a 1 1/2 fret, but by using a capo the familiarity of the fretboard is there.
Many dulcimer players forgo the capo and just get more dulcimers and keep them tuned differently.
That’s true about having extra Dulcimers. I see a lot of performers do that. I played at a jam yesterday. I was the only dulcimer player. They played a lot of C tunes. I could chord tuned DAD with the 1 1/2 fret. This dulcimer was new. I wanted to try it out on C tunes. Next time I’ll take an extra dulcimer tuned CGC. I’m no “musician” They started playing in E and Bflat. That’s when I go get coffee or head to the mens room! But it was fun stretching myself.
I’m a little late to the discussion, but as a couple of others have pointed out the solution is quite simple. From D-A-d tuning, just lower the middle string to G. You end up with D-G-d tuning. Your major scale begins at the third fret of the melody string just like Ionian tuning. This tuning is sometimes called reverse Ionian tuning by dulcimer players.
In the last year I built three 30" scale dulcimers. A Galax with equal temp scale for bagpipe tuning cccc. And two just intonated for ioanian and aeolian tuning. The long scale together with light strings let’s me go between C gg down to A ee… If you haven’t played in just intonation before, you don’t know what your missing… Robert…
Hi,i played and made few dulcimers just manly for myself sa few people…annyway most 3double stringed dulcimers are tuned DAD its good for most music tuning it into gdg style sounds good but it depends on what KEY and what situation your in.
Love the dulcimer 
Jay pickford (uilleann pipe/flute/scottiah small pipe and border pipe maker.