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1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 11:56:26 EDT Adam

   I stumbled across someone selling one of these on Facebook marketplace and, wow, I kind of want one. An instrument designed for "the musically hopeless." LOL

   https://strumstick.com/pages/what-is-a-strumstick

   1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 13:38:08 EDT Adam

      in reply to

      OK, and now I see Seagull makes a similar instrument. They call it a "Merlin," and it's basically a strumable dulcimer (Appalachian lap dulcimer, but in a sort of guitar shape). A brand new one is priced slightly cheaper than the secondhand Strumstick I was looking at, so now I'm torn between the two. I do love Seagull guitars, so the Merlin would no doubt be good quality. But the Strumstick is appealing for it's small size and incredible simplicity (though the Merlin is almost as simple).

      1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 13:38:21 EDT Adam

         in reply to

         Musicians of the fediverse, do you have any advice?

         1. thurloat 📌 (thurloat@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 14:50:36 EDT thurloat 📌

            in reply to

            @ink_slinger I've used the Martin Backpacker quite a bit while travelling and camping.

            https://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/backpacker/

            it has a surprisingly full bodied sound, and nice light fret play.

            I've used others similar out of other people's bags, and the martin is def. my favourite.

            1. thurloat 📌 (thurloat@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 14:51:05 EDT thurloat 📌

               in reply to

               @ink_slinger clarification: fav. sounding and playing outdoors

               1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 14:53:13 EDT Adam

                  in reply to

                  @thurloat Looks nice. My wife actually has a nice travel guitar that's a similar size. I'm looking at these strumstick/dulcimer type instruments because they're diatonically fretted, which makes them super easy for a talented hack like myself to pick up and have a lot of fun. LOL

                  1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 14:55:17 EDT Adam

                     in reply to

                     @thurloat Then, of course, the question becomes do I get a standard D-tuned stick (which the song books tend to be written for) or a G-tuned one so I can more easily play along with guitars (in standard tuning).

            2. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 15:28:30 EDT Adam

               in reply to

               @thurloat Fun side note: the guy who designed the original Martin Backpacker created the Strumstick, so he apparently knows how to get a big sound out of a deceptively small soundbox.

      2. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 13:50:58 EDT Adam

         in reply to

         And yet further research shows that a Merlin essentially *is* a strumstick. It's laid out and fretted the same way. So it's not a true dulcimer, but a "dulcimer inspired" instrument, much the same as a Strumstick. I suppose that should settle it, and yet, I'm still kinda torn for no rational reason.

         1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Jul-2019 14:44:25 EDT Adam

            in reply to

            Ah, I see the main difference and the reason the Strumstick is more expensive: it's got more frets (and, therefore, more notes), so it's a slightly more versatile instrument. And since the used one I'm looking at comes with a case, the price difference is essentially a non-factor, so this is actually kind of a difficult choice.