Dulcimer friction pegs - your thoughts/comments/advice?
 

I recently purchased a circa 1970 mountain dulcimer. Very traditional style, shallow body, no extra frets, and: friction pegs.

I like the traditionality (?) of the instrument, but am having some trouble - kind of a lot of trouble, actually - using the friction pegs to tune the thing.

Does anyone have any advice on how to use the pegs, or thoughts on maybe swapping in geared tuners? (Not guitar style, but the kind you see on some banjos and ukuleles.)

If you want to try to salvage the current friction tuners, the key is getting them to actually have some friction! I’ve used some powdered violin rosin in the past. Just sprinkled in the gap next to the pegbox when you loosen the screw. This is not a long term fix. Lava soap can be used the same way but I’ve had issues with it not “adhering” to the metal face of the tuner.

So…as a longer term fix, try putting a soft, flat rubber washer between the face of the peg and the outside of the peg box.

Banjo and geared uke tuners could certainly both work. I think you’ll find the Banjo tuners stick out to the side quite a bit and won’t look as traditional as you think they would. You also want to make sure there’s enough space between the holes for them to fit 2-on-a-side as they have a larger footprint than friction pegs.

Another option could be the Ratio Tune-a-lele pegs. Being an all black composite material, they look a little modern. However being all black and having a matte finish means they really don’t draw the eye to them. Keep in mind that these would each need 2 screw holes. Oh, also the banjo pegs will put a hole in the wood. There’s a little pin that sticks out that gets pressed into the wood to keep it from turning.

I have a chuck lee banjo with peg head tuners. They looking like friction tuners but are geared. I’m a fan and would suggest looking at those.

Frank, mountain dulcimer was my first instrument and I’ve been asked this question a lot. My recommendation has always been to remove the friction pegs and replace them with either planetary banjo pegs or Schaller or Gotoh minis.

You’ll need to shim the tuners so that the tuner shafts aren’t too long for the peghead box; I recommend using rosewood bridge stock with a little oil on it for that.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

I have owned and played a LOT of traditional mountain dulcimers with friction pegs and no additional frets, and I used them exclusively for noter drone playing. I have had dulcimers by Ledford, Presnell, I.D. Stamper, Wilson, Orthrey, both Glen's, Tignor, May, Amburgey, Jeffries, and a number of others. I have built dulcimers with wooden friction pegs and bought reproductions from other builders with wooden pegs.

I love to use wooden friction pegs as it is a very kinaesthetic activity, and I see tuning the instrument as a ritual before playing. There are definitely some "tricks" to using them:

A little W E Hill peg composition or candle wax helps.

The last string wind should come off the peg as close to the outside of the peg box as possible.

Pull out to loosen and push in to fix. You will not find a "middle ground" where you can turn the peg to tune like you can with geared tuners, so don't bother searching for the "perfect" amount of friction.

If you are not playing with anyone else then basically ignore your electronic tuner.

Get the bass string to somewhere around D - you do not need to be accurate. And a lot of dulcimers actually sound better with a little more tension - say close to D#, which is where Jean Ritchie tended to pitch her early recordings with an Amburgey dulcimer. And I have just realised that I had pitched my Ambergey just sharp of E for the recording "Supplication" below.

Then pitch the middle and melody strings by ear to a perfect 5th above the bass string. This is an easy interval to hear. Check that the note at the 3rd fret (on the melody string) is an octave above the bass string. Sometimes, on old dulcimers (or new dulcimers with the frets set in equal temperament!!!!) the open melody string cannot be a perfect 5th above the bass because the 3rd fret then is not perfectly in tune an octave above the bass string. Place the priority on the melody string 3rd fret being an octave above the bass string, rather than prioritising the open melody string note.

Basically, what you are aiming for is the root note on the melody string at the 3rd fret to blend perfectly with the bass and middle drone strings. If you use an electronic tuner then you will never get this perfect blend.

To get a string perfectly to the pitch you need, tune the string slightly sharp and then pull the string to stretch and settle it down to the pitch you want. This will also lock the pitch in and you will be able to play a whole session without retuning. With guitar tuners you start under the pitch you want and tune up. With wooden friction pegs you go a little above the note you want and stretch the string to go down to the note.

For your set up, go a little heavier on your strings than modern DAd string sets. 0.026 bass and 0.013 middle and melody work well.

If your dulcimers has 4 strings then don't use one of the melody pair. You will get a much cleaner timbre with just a single melody string. You can always move the second melody string across to become another drone (set to either the root or 5th of the scale). The tune "Sussex Carol" below was played on a Wilson dulcimer with 3 drones and a melody string.

On a lot of old dulcimers the frets were set for a high action at both the nut and saddle - this is fine for noter drone playing. I know a lot of folks who have bought old dulcimers and then lowered the action at the nut and saddle, and then can't get the instrument to play in tune!!!!! The Warren May dulcimer in "All Glory be to God on High" below is a case in point. I had to get the nut and saddle both quite high to get the dulcimer to intonate. From my experience I would say that the temperaments used by many of these old builders were absolutely wonderful for noter drone drone playing, and absolutely awful for modern chord melody style LOL!!!

Below are 3 examples of noter drone playing on traditional dulcimers (Ambergey, May and Wilson) with wooden friction pegs.

Thank you Robin!

I figured there was a knack to it. Will keep trying.

I had it tuned to DAD and did not much like the sound. Plus the strings (D'Addario nickel-plated, 12/14/22) were uncomfortably taut. I tuned it down to CGC and it sounds much better.

It's an AW Jeffreys, by the way, with an interesting and perhaps unique carved log cabin at the end of the pegbox.

I had a Jeffries, I thought that it was a lovely instrument. I have found a recording I did of it back in 2014:



Try it in DAA tuning with a noter. The thing with noter drone playing is that you have much less to work with, so the "trick" is to make the melody believable.

I sold all my dulcimers just before Christmas to a collector but have just had one back now that I recovered when clearing my mother-in-laws house. It is hanging on the wall in the lounge and is my "Heritage" model. It has staple frets just under the melody string and fiddle edges. It should have wooden pegs but I actually replaced them with Wittner Fine Tune pegs when I gave it to her. I may drop wooden pegs back into it now that it has come back to me.

Yes, noter/drone is what I'm mostly interested in exploring, as being the most characteristically dulcimer sound from my point of view. Nothing against David Schnaufer and others, I enjoy listening to them too.