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[David Beede]

Hey Brock  & gang...
I haven't been around in quite a while but I'm happy to report my Ashbory-ish bass dulcimer dreams came to fruition. I finished the first one about a week ago and brought it to a dulcimer retreat in GA. Here is a link to a YouTube clip of my friend Aaron O'Rourke playing it at a coffee house. We're doing Dylan's "Bucket of Rain" - [I'm on one of my full sized dulcimers.] Aaron hadn't seen this instrument before that day but really wailed on it. His first solo is at about 2 min. if you want to skip to it.

The dulcimer uses Owen's strings from Road Toad. It is three string fretless with turqoise inlay fret lines, tuned D - A - D with the low D being just a note lower than the Ash's low E. The string length is 25". It has a twin piezo pickup similar to K&K's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wGadUoQ9Y0

Thanks to all the folks on the Ashbory forum who who were helpful during my research.
All the best,
David
www.davidbeede.com

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I've been lurking on the LS site for a while trying to absorb all available to assist in my bass dulcimer dreams.

I've been building a variety of instruments since '73 - currently dulcimers and gourd banjos.

I'd love to make a bass dulcimer, as too often dulcimer enthusiasts gather in intense circles and sound like a swarm of bees...;-) Some bottom end would do the genre good.

The main thing that will make this Bass-cimer dulcimer related will be the inlaid fret pattern (I'll use turqoise inlay which you can see on my octave dulcis on my web site.) and the tuning. My sketches show a celtic knot motif that I might inlay in the "sound hole" area.

Anyway, I've rough sketched a few possibilities:


This first sketch shows an asymetrical body style to fit leg either holding it guitar style or upright style seated.



This is a symetrical version of the same idea.



And this is a headless version, but doing it without sacrificing lower arc leg rest might be tricky. If I go passive like Owen of Road toad I might make it more stick like and have a pivoting leg rest that could be angled whereever you want it.

I asked in another post in the Tech area if anyone knows how closely the Ash tuners can be spaced. I have all the parts but the bridge as I'd like to go with a 22" string length and think I might ultimately use Polyurethane strings and K&K or home made piezo pickups.

All input welcome...

Brock, thanks for creating and maintaining such a helpful site. I look forward to hearing when you get Ashborys back in stock. There are a couple of places on line that are shipping but I'd rather wait and support you folks.

Dulcimaniacally yours...
David Beede

www.davidbeede.com