Electric
Dulcimer
Shown here is a 4-string
Kentucky hourglass with
Honduras Mahogany sides, and fingerboard and a
Spruce
top.
$1200
Jerry Rockwell
PO Box 79
Guysville, OH 45735-0079
Phone and voicemail:
330-264-0469
E-mail: jerry@jcrmusic.com
We accept MasterCard and VISA payments.
Hollowbody Electric Dulcimer
Large
Hourglass
I grew up in the 1960's playing my Gibson ES 335-TD through
a 30's era table radio, which had RCA auxiliary jacks in the back.
When
the volume
was on "10"-- and my tone controls on the guitar were on
zero -- there was a full, rich, melodic texture coming out of that speaker,
but it was not loud enough to carry to the next room!
From this experience, I guess I have always approached
electric instruments a little differently than most folks do: I see
them as fundamentally intimate and
introspective beings, and I'm always after the richest, most luscious melodic
tone I can coax out of any amplifier.
Usually this just involves boosting the
treble on the amp to maximum or near-maximum, and keeping the tone control
on the dulcimer to zero or one.
Basically it is a Large Hourglass (LH)
model fitted with a quiet, fabulous sounding Bill Lawrence ™ L-250
humbucking pickup, and a tone and volume knob sitting right on the soundboard.
The prototype is owned by Steven K. Smith, who gets
the idea of this instrument better than anyone else I can imagine:
it is
a sweet, melodic, and very introspective
sort of instrument -- both in feel as well as sound -- and Steve was
playing his delicate Elizabethan repertoire right away, creating a
magical texture unique to the electric.
Configuration shown above:
4 String: Double melody OR 4 String: 4-equidistant
4 Circle Soundholes (special shapes available)
String length, Nut to Bridge: 28"
Pickup: Bill Lawrence L-250 Humbucking pickup; tone
and volume knobs on soundboard; jack in endblock. Wiring by Tim Kanke,
Lottridge, Ohio.
Tuners: 15:1 enclosed Kluson style chrome tuners
String gauges: .010" melody, .014" middle,
.022" bass
Tuned D-A-D for shipping
Optional, no extra charge:
Brass or Mother of Pearl dot inlays marking frets 3, 5, 7, 10
Strap buttons
LHE 4
String $1950
Photos © copyright 2003
by Mary Lautzenheiser.
All rights reserved.
Comments on the Hollowbody Electric from Steven K Smith:
This instrument has sustain that is incredible, and
a velvety soft action
that seems
to practically play
itself. I need to do a lot more experimenting with it yet.
I'm using a small Gallien-Kruger amp with it, which has a little
7 band EQ. Per Jerry's suggestion I've been trying it with the GK's treble
bands
boosted, and the instrument's tone set all the way to the bass.
This
gives it a sweet jazz-guitar sort of sound that is very appealing.
It sounds dynamite for the blues on this setting, at least for a
slow, introspective
sort of blues. It generally seems well suited for delicate, slow
sensitve pieces that show off its fabulous sustain, but it also appears
to hold
up well on some more up tempo tunes as well. I did try it with the
EQ and instrument set flat, and the result was actually a quite nice "straight" dulcimer
kind of sound.
Without the amp, the sound is sweet, with nice sustain, but very
soft.
Steven K Smith
www.sksmithmusic.com