OT: Hammered Dulcimer Value?
Steve Scott
dulcimer. I looked at Elderly, also on "The Official Hammered Dulcimer
Web Site", got a rough idea for models and makers.
Here's the particulars on this one:
It's a Jim Round, stenciled model # looks like JR D2?
Made in Grandville, Michigan, 1984
Maple frame. Maybe mahogany soundboard?
12 treble / 11 bass courses
I played in a band years ago with a national hammer dulcimer champ, and I
still know a few dulcimer folks I might be able to check with. I can
maybe ask Jim and/or Jay Round, if they're still making instruments --
anybody know?
But I know what a great resource this group is too, so I thought I'd
throw out a line and see if I caught anything.
Wade? Stv? Anybody playing these things, and have a feel for what nice
old Rounds might sell for? Or where to ask for more information?
Thanks for any help
Steve
Wade Hampton Miller
> My little sis asked me to help her sell her
>dulcimer.
Been taking up space in the spare room long enough, eh?
I swear, there must be twice as many unplayed hammered dulcimers out there as
there are unplayed five string banjos....
>Here's the particulars on this one:
>
>It's a Jim Round, stenciled model # looks like JR D2?
I've heard of Round, but know nothing more than his name.
>I played in a band years ago with a national hammer dulcimer champ, and I
>still know a few dulcimer folks I might be able to check with. I can >maybe
ask Jim and/or Jay Round, if they're still making instruments -- >anybody know?
I don't, but chances are good that they're still around.
>Wade? Stv? Anybody playing these things, and have a feel for what nice >old
Rounds might sell for? Or where to ask for more information?
There's a dulcimer newsgroup that gets little to no traffic, but which someone
might see a notice if you advertise this instrument.
Your best bet might be to track down some of the local and regional dulcimer
societies - there's the Prairie Dulcimer Club in suburban Kansas City, an
equivilent group in suburban Chicago, and so forth.
There's a publication called "The Dulcimer Player's News," which, last I heard,
was still in publication as a quarterly. A quick phone to the current editor
might give you a better sense of the instrument's current value than anything
else. And it would be the obvious place to to put an ad trying to sell it, as
well.
Sorry I can't give you any phone numbers or web links, but I've never been as
locked in with the dulcimer clubs as some other players. But that's where I
would start, anyway.
Hope this helps.
Wade Hampton Miller
Chugiak, Alaska
Remove the "Howdy" to reply...
Steve Scott
> Steve Scott wrote:
>
> > My little sis asked me to help her sell her
> >dulcimer.
>
> Been taking up space in the spare room long enough, eh?
>
> I swear, there must be twice as many unplayed hammered dulcimers out there as
> there are unplayed five string banjos....
Yeah I've seen that too. And I'm pretty sure she does still have a banjo
in that closet as well :-) here's a little story about my sister and her
banjo -- Jana was learning the banjo when she was pregnant. As the belly
grew, the resonator started to high-center, so she took it off and played
open-back. Now, at 7-8-9 months that open back banjo just fit perfectly
on that round tummy. We played lots of good Ozarks bluegrass and she got
pretty good at the instrument. Stopped playing for a while to have the
baby boy. When the baby was a few months old we got together for a jam
again. Jana started in on Cripple Creek and I swear that kid started
dancing! I mean, it knew every hammer and trill, had the exact rhythm
down cold. Poor little guy, I'm not sure he ever got over it ;)
Well anyway, she actually did play this little dulcimer for many years
also, and was quite good. She wants to go to nursing school and needs
cash, so in an indirect way she asked me to sell the dulcimer for her.
But I have no intention of actually selling it. I'm going to try to get
an idea of its value, and I'm going to give her the money for it, then
surprise her by having it cleaned up and restrung and give it back to
her.
Unfortunately I can only front $400-500, and if by some chance the
instrument is worth more than that she might actually be better off
selling it and later buying another less expensive one.
> There's a dulcimer newsgroup that gets little to no traffic, but which someone
> might see a notice if you advertise this instrument.
>
> Your best bet might be to track down some of the local and regional dulcimer
> societies - there's the Prairie Dulcimer Club in suburban Kansas City, an
> equivilent group in suburban Chicago, and so forth.
I'll likely head that direction, and this part of the country is just
saturated with dulcimers too. I'm still pretty good friends with David
and Dennis Moran, and I've met the Rounds years ago, so I can probably
get something figured out. I'm just lazy, it's easier to ask you guys
first!
> There's a publication called "The Dulcimer Player's News," which, last I heard,
> was still in publication as a quarterly. A quick phone to the current editor
> might give you a better sense of the instrument's current value than anything
> else. And it would be the obvious place to to put an ad trying to sell it, as
> well.
Ok good tip Wade, thanks.
> Sorry I can't give you any phone numbers or web links, but I've never been as
> locked in with the dulcimer clubs as some other players. But that's where I
> would start, anyway.
No problem, I can track some down. I just kind of remembered you might
have played (play?) hammer dulcimer along with your mountain dulcimer,
and thought you might have run into some Rounds. They used to be pretty
popular years ago, til the guys playing them started building their own!
> Hope this helps.
As usual, it does...
> Wade Hampton Miller
Regards,
Steve
David Kilpatrick
I don't know the make, but gauging from the factory price I paid for a
largish Romanian model (about the maximum weight any normal human could
sling round neck and sit with, maybe walk if superhuman) a retail price
in the UK would be £499 for a new one, maybe down to £299 if discounted
and the dealer got really fed up with tuning it - double those figures
for USA. I've seen several on sale in Edinburgh secondhand, generally
they are £200-350 each, and seem to be individually made items but not
'quality luthiery'. That would be $400-700 each s/h.
David
misifus
The little town where we have the D/FW gatherings specializes in
musical gatherings. Ours is one of the smallest. The Bluegrass
get-togethers are huge. My point is, they have a really big
dulcimer gathering, both lap and hammered. Unfortunately, this
was about three weeks ago, the weekend after D/FW-4. While we
were there, there were a number of hammered dulcimer players in
attendance who had simply come early. It seems not all dulcimers
are sitting unplayed.
-Raf
--
Misifus-
Rafael Seibert
mailto:rsei...@cox-internet.com
http://www.ralphandsue.com
David Eastwood
>
>The little town where we have the D/FW gatherings specializes in
>musical gatherings. Ours is one of the smallest. The Bluegrass
>get-togethers are huge. My point is, they have a really big
>dulcimer gathering, both lap and hammered. Unfortunately, this
>was about three weeks ago, the weekend after D/FW-4. While we
>were there, there were a number of hammered dulcimer players in
>attendance who had simply come early. It seems not all dulcimers
>are sitting unplayed.
>
> -Raf
Would that be hammered 'dulcimer players', or 'hammered dulcimer'
players?
------------------------------------------------------
David Eastwood - eats...@mchsi.com
TarBabyTunes
Sorry, I don't know much about these...
There is a big dulcimer (all kinds) confab in Roscoe Village, Coshoction, Ohio,
where Wildwood Music shop is. The Village is a restoration of an early 19th-C.
canal town. Cute, and there's great food there.
Min and I went up there so I could play a bunch of Weber mandos and heard about
it there. Also, great, great instruments at Wildwood, big fun.
I don't have any specific info, but I know it's there. I'm sure there will be
some sort of link to Dulc societies.
From reading Wade's response and yours, you have some pretty good lines to
local resources! Great!
Also, just for pure market valuation go on over to eBay and dial in Hammer
Dulcimer and look at the completed auctions. Be sure to check on how many hits
each auction got, too, not just how many bids.
Since you're not really selling it, you can bookmark that collection and check
in from time to time to get a longer view. eBay doesn't really keep enough
completed ones on file, IMO, for really good mkt research, so one has to go
back fairly often.
HTH,
stv
Conrad Shiba
> There's a dulcimer newsgroup that gets little to no traffic, but which
someone
> might see a notice if you advertise this instrument.
The newsgroup is rec.music.makers.dulcimer, and, as Wade has said, it gets
little traffic.
Even better would be to subscribe to the hammered_dulcimers listserv and
post a question there. Send an email to
hammered_dulci...@lists.fmp.com
Conrad
Kevin Krell
http://rtpnet.org/~hdweb/ ), which has most of the resources about the
instrument. I also list resources on my web pages at
http://www.worldtrad.org , under the category Instruments->Hammered
Dulcimer.
Kevin Krell
International Traditional Music Society, Inc.
Steve Scott
nice instruments, I could never get a feel for playing one though. Maybe
my sis will pick it back up again, once it magically "reappears"...
Steve