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Hammered Dulcimer Sustain: What's Best?
Copyright 2004. All Rights Reserved. Printing this article for personal or workshop use is permitted. Permission
for any other use must be obtained from author.
A Hammered Dulcimer Resource Article from Ardie's Handcrafted Dulcimers, www.ardiesdulcimers.com
by Randy "Ardie" Davis
Prospective hammered dulcimer players have many things to consider when purchasing a hammered dulcimer, not the least of which
is how much sustain they need from it. In fact, I think it is fair to say that, along with tone and volume, sustain can determine whether players will get ultimate satisfaction from the music they play. Too much sustain, and the
music gets muddy as tone rolls over tone and mingles into a musical mush. It can produce, as one player put it, "a wall of sound." Too little sustain, and the music sounds tinkly - not a good thing when you're playing
"Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound."
Consider the Kind of Music You Want to Play
Few players want to just play one kind of music, that is all fast tunes or all slow ballads. And unless you have the budget to buy one dulcimer for fast music and one for slow, your best bet is to find an
instrument that will make you happy playing all kinds of music. Hymns, ballads and waltzes are wonderful, but so are American traditional tunes, jigs, reels, and even rock'n roll! Unless you are a professional who needs multiple
instruments for just the right sound, you may find yourself stuck in one type of music if you don't choose your instrument carefully. What a shame not to be able to move into different types of music because you love the sound of
your dulcimer for slow music but hate it for fast.
You Can Move Up But You Can't Move Down
In a recent discussion on EverythingDulcimer.com about hammered dulcimer sustain, the point was made that it is easier to move from a medium sustain instrument into slow music than it is to move from a
high sustain instrument into fast music. In fact, it may be practically impossible to move from a high sustain instrument to fast music because the player cannot control the rambunctious overtones. However, on a medium sustain
instrument players can employ easy-to-learn techniques (repetition, ornamentation, chording and using bare wood vs. padded hammers, for example) to increase the impression of more sustain. In effect, a medium sustain dulcimer is more
versatile than a low or high sustain dulcimer. Hammered dulcimer player and recording artist Marcy Prochaska elegantly states that "medium sustain does not get in the way of fast tunes, and it gives a sort of sweet and wild
lingering flavor to everything." Very nicely put.
Playing Well With Others
High sustain can also be problematic if you plan on ever playing your hammered dulcimer along with other instruments - especially the guitar. If the dulcimer and the guitar play in the same pitch range,
the music can get muddy as the long sustain of the dulcimer effectively overpowers the tones of the guitar - a sure way to lose your accompanist!
Offering a Definition
At this point I think it would be helpful to define sustain, and to distinguish it from other characteristics like decay and volume.
First it is important to recognize that the hammered dulcimer is a sympathetic instrument. That is the whole instrument resonates with sound when a string is struck. Interestingly, for example, if you
strike G3 on the Treble bridge, and then immediately dampen just that course, the rest of the strings will continue to ring at the same pitch as G3. For this discussion, "sustain" means the sounds produced by the entire
instrument when a course is struck, and is determined by the duration of those sounds until they are practically inaudible. It has little to do with overall volume. For example, Dana Hamilton's "Old 100" has tremendous
volume and moderate sustain.
G3 is the middle G on the right side of the Treble Bridge
Sustain is also different from "decay," which means the speed at which the initial volume of sound falls off toward being inaudible. A dulcimer can have rapid decay, and yet still have
moderate sustain, or can have gradual decay with moderate sustain.
Now, for the purpose of this discussion, I am going to hazard definitions of "moderate" or "medium" sustain, "low" sustain, and "high" sustain.
"Medium" sustain is defined as the duration of sound, after smartly striking G3 on the Treble bridge, which lasts between 12 and 15 seconds. (I use the G3 course as the standard simply
because different courses produce different lengths of sustain. For example, the high F on the Treble Bridge typically produces less sustain than the low F# on the Bass Bridge. Since G3 is
roughly in the middle of the instrument, it seems an appropriate course to measure).
An instrument trends toward "High" sustain, therefore, when the duration of sound produced by G3 exceeds 15 seconds; it trends toward "low" sustain when the duration of sound is less than
12 seconds.
This is an easy test to reproduce whenever you are looking at buying a hammered dulcimer as long as you have a watch or clock with a second had (or can count using the tried and true "one
one-thousand, two one-thousand" method).
After testing the sustain of G3, you may also want to test the sustain of high Treble F and low Bass F# just to make sure that they don't disappoint you. For example, G3 on my Western Red
Cedar top typically rings for 13 or 14 seconds. High F rings for about 2 seconds less, and low F# rings for about 2 seconds more - all within acceptable limits for a medium sustain hammered dulcimer.
So What Creates Sustain - Or Prevents It?
So what influences or determines sustain on a hammered dulcimer? Well, a whole variety of things. Here's a partial list:
- Soundboard material: Laminates and Mahogany typically produce less sustain while Redwood, Sitka Spruce and Western Red Cedar tend to produce more.
- Delrin Rod: The use of delrin rod (usually black or white plastic 1/8" rod) on all bridges (Treble, Bass, and both side bridges) typically produces more sustain. Using delrin rod on
just the Treble Bridge reduces sustain. Adding delrin rod to the other bridges increases sustain. The same goes for the use of brass or steel rods.
- Bridges: The use of slotted or chessman bridges tends to reduce sustain as sound cannot travel uninterrupted along the top of the bridge to influence neighboring courses.
- Wire Gauge: Using the same gauge wire for all strings on a course typically produces more sustain than using different gauges of wire on a course. Using two different
gauges of wire per course tends to produce less sustain. Using a wide variety of gauges throughout the instrument also helps reduce sustain. Instruments that use a lot of 7- and 8
-gauge wire throughout the instrument tend to produce more sustain.
- Wire Type: The use of Bronze Phosphor Wound string typically produces more sustain, as does Bronze Phosphor string.
- Wire Gauge, Length and Tension: There seems to be an optimal ratio between string length, string diameter and string tension. For example, I use both 7 and 8 gauge wire on
my lower D course on the Treble Bridge, right side. If I tune those same wires down to, say, G, the sustain is quite a bit less. If I tune them up to G, the sustain is also less.
Optimal sustain is obtained by tuning them to D for the vibrating length of those strings.
- Wire Condition: Wires that are rusted or heavily tarnished tend to produce less sustain than bright, clean wires. Some dulcimer players actually want their wires to be rusted or
heavily tarnished (David Lindsey's and Dana Hamilton's personal hammered dulcimers are two examples).
Internal Bracing: The way a dulcimer builder designs the internal bracing influences sustain by allowing the sound to resonate freely, or be driven into the bottom panel, or be
isolated into structural "pockets," etc.
- Internal Bridge Supports: Sustain can be influenced by placing the internal support bridges off-center from the Treble and Bass Bridges. Placing support bridges directly
beneath the Treble and Bass bridges tends to reduce sustain.
- Hammers: Using bare wood hammers rather than padded hammers usually produces a sound that creates more sustain.
Considerations
So what can you take away from this discussion about hammered dulcimer sustain? Here are a few considerations:
- Choose your dulcimer by the type of music you want to play. If you want to only play slow music, consider a high sustain dulcimer. If you want to play variety of music, get a
medium sustain dulcimer. If you only want to play "high octane" music, consider a low sustain dulcimer.
- Choose your dulcimer by your budget. If you think you will buy more than one dulcimer, then you can select one for slow music, and one for fast music.
- Choose your dulcimer by whether you will be playing with other dulcimers or stringed instruments. If you will be playing with others, you may want to lean towards a medium sustain dulcimer.
Parting Thoughts
Remember that no one thing makes a hammered dulcimer high, low or medium sustain. Usually it is all of the design elements in harmony that produce the sound that is perfect for your favorite type
of music. Test a dulcimer before you buy, or correspond with the maker, or listen to a sample of it played to make sure you get the kind of dulcimer you want.
Play what you like, like what you play, and have fun!
(This article is based on a thread discussion from EverythingDulcimer.com. Special thanks to Marcy Prochaska, Larry Darnell, Christina
Connell, Steve Smith, Bill Wheeler, Ken Longfield and Warren Swan for their contributions to the discussion, and their ideas on sustain. Thanks
, also, to Dana Hamilton for acting as my own "sounding board," and suggesting the technique of immediately dampening a struck course in order to listen to the resonance of the other strings.)
Ardie's Handcrafted Dulcimers
www.ardiesdulcimers.com
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