MIMF

Welcome to the Forum, Matt! I unfortunately build the other kind of dulcimers (Appalachian) and have no personal experience with hammered dulcimers, but I have heard of builders using both floating and non-floating tops, so you should be fine either way. Sam Rizetta is a very well respected builder ...

I am about to make a shekere from a dried gourd, but I have not built any banjo-type instruments. The gourds take a good couple months to dry. If you can dry them in a sunny place, they will be lighter and less mottled. Also dry several. They can develop soft spots that break through, although you m...

For those not keeping track, today (July 5) is the MIMF's 27th anniversary. In our more active days, and long before COVID, we used to have live, virtual birthday parties including all manner of virtual chocolate (founder Deb's favorite food) treats, from chocolate cakes to chocolate beer to just pl...

We just did a server swap, and it did not go as smoothly as we had hoped. The new server was online, but the DNS took forever to propagate. Not sure what is up with the certificate, other than it is a brand new server. Charlie will have to address that.

We just did a server swap. Depending on the timing, it is possible your message may have gotten lost in the transition. Sorry! I would just go ahead and post it again. BTW, if you break some rule, we generally will tell you.

Please do not quote every message. The messages are all in the threads already for anyone to see. We ask that you only quote a line or two, and only what is directly relevant to your response.

See: http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1656
Basically, use an external took like Irfanview or similar to resize. There are also plenty of on-line tools as well.

Lovely! Congratulations!

LMII closed its doors this year, but it looks like Stew Mac may be taking over some parts and distribution.

Love the translucent blue!

I make a variety of instruments and don't specialize on any one (well, dulcimers if anything), so versatility is necessary. But the instruments I build are all very roughly the same size. The same principle would work for guitar sides, but they are wider, and the tallest normal sanding cylinders are...

I've never tried rehairing a gamba bow, but I have rehaired a violin bow. It was not that difficult to get a decent result if you take your time. Years ago our own Amy Hopkins (correction: it was Craig Tucker!) taught an MIMF class on rehairing. I don't think the courses were archived, but there may...

Best Cam Clamp
https://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6907

I am pretty sure Matthew is overseas, so none of our laws apply.

Sorry, David, we really try to keep discussions to one place only. This is really the best forum for this kind of instrument. If you see a discussion in String Instruments where a mention of this would be appropriate, you can post a link back to this discussion, but please try to keep the main discu...

Came out nice! I really like the triangle knot in the soundhole. Have you tried to play it yet?

Welcome Vincenzo! I am afraid very few here speak Italian, so I had translate.google.com have a go: "Good morning to all the group and thank you for accepting me into the group. I would like to ask you for advice, I own a 1982 Gibson ES 175, unfortunately a few years ago I entrusted my guitar t...

@David - Think moveable hurdy gurdy tangents inside your drum if you want to change notes, but talk about complicated mechanics! @Teresa - David's instrument is conceived of as a drone, but like the video I posted, he could play it with a bottle slide. Fingers will dampen the strings too much withou...

All of what we have been discussing above is essentially the same thing as a Luthier's Friend, just homemade and FAR cheaper.

For kids, I would even suggest starting much simpler, along the lines of a cigar box guitar. All you need is a stick for the neck, and some kind of box, be it a wooden cigar box, large metal can, cookie tin, old mailbox, or whatever. Used tied frets, and the tuners can be as simple as a screweye in ...