Seagull Merlin or Mountain Dulcimer

[Dylan]

I'm looking at getting my wife an instrument for Christmas so that we can play music together. She can read music and used to play clarinet in high school but we are looking for something easy to play. Would you all recommend the Seagull Merlin or is a Mountain Dulcimer the way to go?

[amyFB]

I think that any stringed instrument in open tuning is easier to play than one that is not.

Open tuning allows a simple bar to make the chord and the player needs only to know the intervals between chord changes (to know which fret to play).

Lap versus not-lap style could come down to a matter of which is more comfortable to hold while playing.

good luck =- let us know what you decide to get and how it works out.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Dylan

...my wife...can read music and used to play clarinet in high school but we are looking for something easy to play...

If your wife can read music and used to play clarinet in HS, I'm sure she has enough background to recognize common chord forms - major, minor, dominant seventh, etc. - when she hears them, and enough manual dexterity to be able to handle basic guitar chord/scale patterns with a little practice; that said, there's also a psychological factor - one that I didn't fully appreciate until my wife and I joined a seniors' uke group at the local community center - which, in spite of the reality of the situation, just makes some instruments seem "easier" to play. I say go with a nice tenor uke:

• It's small and "cute" enough not to be intimidating, and portable enough to take just about anywhere
• There's more space to get around on the fingerboard compared to a standard soprano uke, while still being small enough overall to handle easily
• The sound is "bigger" and fuller
• It can be set up with a low-G fourth string to extend the tonal range
• It blends very nicely with a standard 6-string guitar (speaking from experience here)
• It doesn't restrict her to barred "one-finger" major or minor chords (as an experienced musician I suspect she'll tire of that in a hurry), and the forms/fingerings are transferable to guitar when/if she decides to step up

A decent student tenor uke can be had for around $200; just as with guitars, you're starting to get into solid tops (and occasionally all-solid construction) once you get into this price range - and since both of you have musical experience I wouldn't recommend going with the lower-priced/poorer-sounding laminated instruments. FYI one of our regular posters runs a uke group, whose website provides some excellent information - you might want to check them out before you take the plunge:

www.boiseukulelegroup.com

Happy shopping...

[MikeBmusic]

I'd agree with Steve that a uke might be a better option. I've got a Merlin (gift from my wife) and it doesn't see much use - the diatonic frets really do limit the potential use. Also, the volume is low, playing with a pick is difficult because of the proximity of the strings to the soundboard, so I strum with fingers/thumb.

[FrankHudson]

I'll agree that volume could be an issue if you envision playing with a guitar. I used to put my lap dulcimer on a large wood tabletop to get a little extra volume out of it with playing with others. From habit, I ply my Merlin "lap style" even though you could hold it more like a guitar.

There is a Merlin with a pickup, Elderly has them in stock

https://www.elderly.com/seagull-merl...merlin-meq.htm

I don't recall having an issue playing with a pick on my Merlin. Maybe if I used big sweeping strums it would be, but I don't. I do fret more than one string on the dulcimer at times. The combination of dulcimer playing more the drone/modal center and the guitar gently picked with greater voicing freedom was proved out years ago by Mimi and Richard Farina. It sure can work.

If your partner is musically knowledgeable and/or willing to give it a try, another option would be something like a Kala bass. The short scale and nylon strings are easy to the hands, the sound is, at least on my solid body and fretted variation, somewhat upright bass like without the fretless articulations. There are Kala hollow body bass ukes too, but I'd assume acoustically they'd be way to low in volume played acoustically, but I've never played one.