Monochord in C
I occasionally get asked to build unusual musical instruments. I’m always up for a challenge and when local musician Ed Mikenas...
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EXPLORING THE MAKING AND PLAYING OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
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james83812
Mar 26, 20231 min read
The Trichordian
At the end of 2022 I was contacted by the producer of a Cleveland, Ohio performance of Howard Shore's award-winning score of Lord of the...
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james83812
Mar 21, 20225 min read
Brendan, an electro-mechanical, computer-controlled system to play the hammer dulcimer
In October 2021, I was approached by Stan Humphries, a New Mexico based electrical and computer engineer, who obviously had too much time...
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james83812
Apr 30, 20171 min read
Building a 16/15 Indian Santoor
After having built a number of aspects of Indian Santoors, I finally got a commission to build a complete instrument based on a...
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james83812
Apr 12, 201712 min read
A Midi Hammered Dulcimer?
Years ago Randy Machany, dulcimer player with the group No Strings Attached, created what became the first attempt at creating a...
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james83812
Apr 7, 20165 min read
Designing an Electric Hammered Dulcimer
A long time customer who plays one of Linear Chromatic Hammered Dulcimers in his band The Botanist requested I make him an electric...
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james83812
Mar 8, 20152 min read
The Flipped Linear Chromatic
Working with Steve Shmania in 1998, we brought to life the first Linear Chromatic; a hammered dulcimer which gave players a more logical...
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james83812
Apr 8, 20129 min read
The Indian Santoor
Lately I’ve become increasingly interested in other instruments in the worldwide dulcimer family so when Dipu Deshmukh (an accomplished...
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james83812
Oct 27, 20112 min read
Tonewoods
Garret our youngest son has taken a shine to the West of late so we have been doing some traveling out in that direction over the last...
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james83812
Aug 12, 20112 min read
The Yangqin
As the yangqin is a type of hammered dulcimer, it shares many elements of construction with other instruments in the hammered dulcimer...
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james83812
Mar 28, 20112 min read
Sound Hole Designs
Making unique artistic sound hole images has always been integral to the overall design of my hammered dulcimers. My first sound hole...
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james83812
Jan 11, 20111 min read
Tsimbls
Although I don’t sell a lot of them, I offer another version of the hammered dulcimer, the tsimbl. This fully chromatic instrument is a...
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james83812
Oct 23, 20101 min read
Four Octave Bowed Psaltery
I make three different sizes of bowed psalteries, the three octave Baritone, the two and half octave Alto and the two octave Soprano. I...
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james83812
Oct 14, 20101 min read
Precautions - Humidity Extremes
As we approach the heating season, I’ll throw out my usual advice about instrument care. Keep the humidity up! Wood in an instrument...
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