Official Luthiers Forum!

Owned and operated by Lance Kragenbrink
It is currently Mon Mar 18, 2024 11:34 pm


All times are UTC - 5 hours





Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 1:33 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:04 am
Posts: 5739
First name: Chris
Last Name: Pile
City: Wichita
State: Kansas
Country: Good old US of A
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional
So I recently acquired this little brown Luna parlor guitar. Cheap - but a solid top, light as a feather, plays well and sounds pretty good. And yet, I desired something similar to a mountain dulcimer after playing a dulcitar (strum stick), but with far better tone....

Conversion was easy.... I added 3 steel pins between the bridge pins and the bridge saddle, crossed the strings behind the pins, and cut a few new nut slots to match up my pairs of strings (.034, .022, .010). Took less than an hour at a leisurely pace, and I can quickly restring it as a guitar if I so desire.

Here's the result - plays easily, plus minor voicings, and sounds a ton better than a mountain dulcimer.

http://s588.photobucket.com/user/studem ... sort=3&o=0

Played it for a hour, my fave new toy.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 8:17 am 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:06 pm
Posts: 2739
Location: Magnolia DE
First name: Brian
Last Name: Howard
City: Magnolia
State: Delaware
Zip/Postal Code: 19962
Country: United States
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional
Interesting contraption.....

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:43 pm 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:47 pm
Posts: 2417
First name: Jay
Last Name: De Rocher
City: Bothell
State: Washington
That looks pretty cool. What is the tuning you are using? Do you have photos of the bridge and the nut? I think I get the arrangement at the bridge, but I'm not sure.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 7:02 pm 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:04 am
Posts: 5739
First name: Chris
Last Name: Pile
City: Wichita
State: Kansas
Country: Good old US of A
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional
Standard mixolydian tuning - DD-AA-dd....
See what I can do about some detail pix.

At the nut I used two of the existing slots, adding four more.
At the bridge, added three .125 pins to set the paired spacing.

It's essentially a convertible - from guitar, to dulcimer, and can go back again.
In either mode, it still has six strings...

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince



These users thanked the author Chris Pile for the post: J De Rocher (Sun Feb 19, 2017 8:06 pm)
Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Feb 20, 2017 9:09 pm 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:04 am
Posts: 5739
First name: Chris
Last Name: Pile
City: Wichita
State: Kansas
Country: Good old US of A
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional
Bridge detail...
http://s588.photobucket.com/user/studem ... sort=3&o=0

Nut detail...
http://s588.photobucket.com/user/studem ... sort=3&o=1

Should be obvious now what I did. The pins are 3/8" long sections of 10 penny nail, used a cutoff wheel and a Dremel.

Having loads of fun with this thing.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Feb 20, 2017 9:21 pm 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:47 pm
Posts: 2417
First name: Jay
Last Name: De Rocher
City: Bothell
State: Washington
Thanks a lot for posting the photos. Both of those were what I was guessing, but cool to see it confirmed. That's a great idea for the bridge. Who knew that a 10 penny nail would provide proper string pair spacing like that?

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 1:22 am 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
User avatar

Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:04 am
Posts: 5739
First name: Chris
Last Name: Pile
City: Wichita
State: Kansas
Country: Good old US of A
Focus: Repair
Status: Professional
You do have to pay attention when stringing it up. What would normally be the A string goes to the low E tuner, what would normally be the E string goes to the A tuner... And so forth.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:31 am 
Offline
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 12:12 pm
Posts: 3290
First name: Bryan
Last Name: Bear
City: St. Louis
State: Mo
Country: USA
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
Nice! About a dozen years ago I made something similar but nowhere near as nice. I used one of those ultra-cheap import classical guitars that was laying around. I used steel strings DD AA dd, it was fun while it lasted (the neck was not really up to the challenge). It was a strange/interesting sound. Not at all dulcimer like in timbre, basically sounded like a guitar in alternate tuning (go figure) but the drones sounded great. Unfortunately the double course D and A kinda drowned out the melody. For a while I had the low D and A strung with octave pairs, that was interesting in its own way too.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
phpBB customization services by 2by2host.com