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I touched on this in one of these threads but I'll proceed here. We have contentions that an instrument's acoustic properties ('sound') change 1) over the course of days (if new) or 2) over years,...

Yes, it's still exciting after since forever playing string instruments. Over a half-century (intermittently) on mountain dulcimer but finding new fingerings for SURF CITY still knocks me out. Almost...

Quite. Flexing fingers really opens-up the sound.

There's also the matter of changing environments. Does the instrument feel more 'open' when playing in large or small spaces, or with reflective...

I have no doubt woods change over time. But the questions are:

* How do various instrument-making woods change?
* What are the changes of woods in different environments, different humidities,...

To be comprehensive, since all woods are not the same, we need a set of boxes made of veneers of spruce, maple, koa, redwood, et al. A further experiment would double the number of boxes, half of...

I suspect analyzing constructed instruments over time would be NP-complex i.e. it ain't gonna happen. It *would* be possible to acoustically analyze representative samples of commonly-used woods over...

If you like the strings there is no need to change them unless you want to experiment. As for a "sweet spot" -- it depends. You get the richest / deepest tone by picking midway between the bridge and...

I polished the poop on my cheap but decent Rogue RM-100A by installing D'Addario FT74 FlatTops (semi-flat PB) which the local music shop had on clearance, marked down from US$24 to five bucks per set...

Everything used to be artisanal. Everything. If something was made it was made by hand because The Machine Age had not yet arrived. Everything was custom-crafted. Interchangeable parts didn't. Didn't...

No, you need not retune from standard to play blues. But to accompany the common guitar blues key of E puts a standard mandolin into rather a high voice range. I get a more 'gutsy' sound by tuning...

If I'm sitting around the house playing (which is most of the time) I prefer the mellowness of my three ovals (Celtic, flattop, and mandola) to the sharpness of my three ff-holes (an F2 and two...

Learn on instruments that are setup to feel RIGHT for you, not DIFFICULT. Yes, injury is a possibility. Standard tuning with high action is usually desired by experienced pros for banjo-killing...

I would never buy a pricey instrument based solely on recommendations but I haven't the disposable cash to shop thusly online. I play various instruments in shops; if one sings to me, I ask the price...

UPDATE (Final): It's over. We have unloaded the wagons. We are not unpacked yet -- that will take a while, with a re-ordering of what was where. (We will grab any excuse for that. It is an old...

As with guitars, many different instruments are called cuatros.

The Venezuelan 4-string is probably the original -- like an oversized baritone 'uke (around 18-inch scale) with a characteristic...

One could claim that country-rock began with Johnny Cash's thumping cover of It Ain't Me, Babe -- 1965 IIRC, about the time We Five invented folk-rock with You Were On My Mind. Or maybe the first...

Whether I'm tuned in Eye-talian GDAE or Irish GDAD I tend to play partial single- and double- and triple-stopped chords with open strings vibrating. A high open string is 'singing'; a low string is...

At my sister's near Flagstaff AZ a couple of months ago I saw bits and pieces of the DVD interrupted by conversation and a leaping dog. I recall that Henley and Frey paid themselves more because they...

And on my Lunacharsky (Soviet) flattop mandolin. That sucker was a nightmare to string. It looks so straightforward, hey? But three or four hands ARE needed to achieve anything. I need to grow...

Reminds me of two steeet marimba players I heard in the Yucatan. (Tulum, Quintana Roo.) They came up to our sidewalk eatery and played, each with a small marimba, in tight unison. One's marimba was...

Oh yeah, I almost forgot my tiple. It's still packed for evacuation and not right in my view and if I don't see it I don't remember it and... Anyway, it differs because its standard tuning...

Well, I hope it has been better for y'all than a reality TV show. ;)

My posts here (and on Ukulele Underground) started as a reflection of how I would deal with my many instruments viz the fire....

UPDATE: Warmer and drier today, air smells good, and the winds are not blowing in our direction. Good. The fire's northeast corner (nearest us) is still hot and dangerous; the eastern (uphill) edge...

As a PS to my last post, I just looked up IN THE MOOD and found that it derived from Fletcher Henderson's HOT AND ANXIOUS which derived from Wingy Wanone's TAR PAPER STOMP which also spawned Joe...

UPDATE: We are back from town. This all started one week ago. We drove from the big-box-stores area over a ridge into the valley containing the county seat and saw across town a plume of smoke rising...