Hi. I’ve decided to buy a stringed instrument and the McNally Strumstick (http://www.strumstick.com/) seems to be closest to what I want.
Do any of you play one of these? Do you like it?
Do you know of other similar instruments that are available? I like the 3 string idea but wonder if there’s something with a larger body available. I do want something held like a guitar, not a lap dulcimer.
I’ve been playing around with a cheap baritone Ukulele with three strings (I removed one) and have been enjoying it.
I’ve played with them (strum sticks) a little at the local folk instrument shop. The clerk said she thought they compared more to a dulcimer than a guitar.
Don’t know much about them other than that, though. They are intriguing, and they seemed fun when I was playing around in the store, but I’d already begun trying to tame the guitar, and that’s plenty of challenge for the time being!
I, too, would like to hear from someone who’s spent more time with these.
Personally, I like its “folksy” look and sound. To me, the demos sound like something between a mandolin and a banjo. I hadn’t heard anyone really play one before, and McNally’s demos do indeed make it appealing!
Great. Just what I need: another temptation… :roll:
I don’t own one, but have fooled with them quite a bit. Every one I’ve seen has been a variation on the mountain dulcimer theme. I’m a MD player, so I’ve always played them either across my lap, or ocasionally held vertically like a sitar. Although I think they’re really designed to be MD surrogates, I don’t see any reason you can’t get the appropriate strings and play one like a guitar. (As has been mentioned, there’s always the backpacker guitar idea, too.)
I haven’t owned one, but I’ve played around with some. They are basically a bodiless dulcimer. They are louder than you’d expect, but probably not as loud as you’d like.
I’ve never bought one because I just can’t bring myself to pay the asking price for something that’s basically a single stick of wood and some frets. I guess I’m just cheap
You can usually find a decent (not fancy, but decent) MD on eBay for about what you’ll pay for a new Strumstick (unless you have a lot cheaper source for them than I’ve seen).
If you’re really looking to cut corners until you decide if you like the instrument, do a google search and see if anyone is still making the cardboard student dulcimers. These were pretty cheap and were popular a few years ago. They sound better and last longer than you’d expect. I even saw a used one on eBay the other day. It’s basically a hardwood dulcimer fretwood on a cardboard box. It will be louder than the Strumstick and if your ultimate goal is an MD then the shape (flat, in your lap) will get you accustomed to the back and forth horizontal strumming and picking action. That was the hardest part for me of going between guitar and dulcimer was getting a smooth horizontal motion.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for an MD sound with a guitar type of hold, go with the Strumstick but be prepared to mic it for anything but solos.
Edited to add: Several years ago I converted one of my electric guitars to dulcimer. I pulled off the extra frets, made a custom saddle so I could string both of the melody strings through one saddle, and so on. The problem was that there was too much sustain (this is exactly the opposite of the problem one usually encounters with MDs).
I eventually refretted it and converted it back to a guitar, but for a while the “Stratimer” was pretty cool.
the strumstick IS a mountain dulcimer, or at least fretted the same (diatonic), but is played upright like a guitar, and is strung “backwards” from a dulcimer. Where as a “regular” dulcimer is strung so that the bass string is away from you and the melody string is near you, the strumstick is opposite, so you fret the melody string and only occasionally reach across and grab the middle or bass string.
Other posters are correct - there isn’t much “body” to these, so there’s not a lot of volume, and the bass sound suffers a lot from lack of vibrating air space.
If you are interested in dulcimers, I can recommend a great “student” model that sells for $100. Check the following website, and give me a yell if you have questions: http://www.strothers.com/sweet_woods.htm
And yes, that is our website - we are hosting for Dave. We own four of the student dulcimers that we loan out (along with a bass, a baritone, a low G, and a fully chromatic on a student base).
My thinking is that they are essentially a diatonically fretted bouzouki (bearing in mind that the more traditional bouzoukia had 3 courses). The stringing is opposite of dulcimer, but they are played on the same principle, the idea being a simple, satisfying, instrument like the dulcimer, but that you can play with the mobility of a lute-family instrument.
There are actually several makers, besides just the Strumstick brand, including Olympia Dulcimer Company.
I saw one played last night for the first time ever. It looked like an easy way to get started in stringed instruments–sort of like the string equivalent to a whistle. The demonstrator had a audience member who didn’t play guitar or anything come up and play the frets while he strummed and it sounded good.
ohhhh - Walden - Glauber’s asking me about dulcimer playing! He has NO IDEA what he is about to start!!!
Seriously, Glauber - there is one thing to ALWAYS remember about dulcimer playing - there is NO wrong way to play it! You can play “traditional” style with a noter (basically a wooden dowel stick) and a quill, or with your finger only on the melody string and a pick strumming across all the strings and letting the others drone, or using fingers to form chords across all three strings. You can strum it, or flat pick it, or finger pick it.
Walden had a good idea about checking out www.everythingdulcimer.com . You’ll get a lot of info by just reading the articles, FAQs page, and discussion pages. Plus a great group of people, and a few names you may “recognize”.
If you want to hear some NON-traditional playing on dulcimer, check out the MP3’s on our website. Tom plays the “regular” voiced dulcimer, while I do all the lower bass sounds. http://www.strothers.com/mp3’s.htm
If you’d like one of Dave’s dulcimers, however, there’s going to be a slight wait. He had a FANTASTIC weekend at a nearby festival, and sold all but 4 of his inventory. He also has a major festival coming up in two weeks, so he’s going to be busy with that. But ANY of his instruments is worth the wait.
If you don’t want to fret the notes with your fingers (which IMHO gices you better contol) you can use a short bit of dowel or the traditional turkey or goose quill. The quill looks sorta cool in action but can get a bit clumsy.
The ones I’ve played have had small soundboxes – the sound has been amazingly loud for something that appears not to have a soundbox.
You can usually find a decent (not fancy, but decent) MD on eBay for about what you’ll pay for a new Strumstick (unless you have a lot cheaper source for them than I’ve seen).
If you’re really looking to cut corners until you decide if you like the instrument, do a google search and see if anyone is still making the cardboard student dulcimers.
But the attraction to a strumstick is the portability, not the price. A cardboard dulcimer is not going to fare well on a camping trip, especially if it rains. The dulcimer is another instrument like the whistle, although an order of magnitude more expensive – most serious players (check out the collection Missy listed awhile back) have a number of dulcimers tuned to different keynotes and modes. We also tend to have different instruments with different timbres – bright, full, dark. A well-made strumstick is bright, but not that full.
