Stringed Instrument Workshop Held At Museum
April 27, 2014 at 8:07 PM
Ken Longfield presents his program.
The DuBois Area Historical Society’s E. D. Reitz Museum was on loan Saturday, April 26, when Ken Longfield of Reedsville presented a workshop: Care of the Mountain Dulcimer and Other Stringed Instruments. The workshop attracted people from DuBois, Reynoldsville, Clearfield, Punsutawney, and Williamsburg. Virginia Schott of DuBois organized the program.
In his presentation Longfield explained how to keep a mountain dulcimer and other stringed instruments in tip-top playing shape. Participants learned how to maintain tuning pegs and strings, and care for their instruments. Longfield explained how to adjust string action, make simple repairs, and where to go when help is needed.
Longfield is celebrating his 40th year in the dulcimer world having made his first dulcimer in 1974. He has made both mountain and hammered dulcimers and does repair work on guitars, mandolins, banjos, autoharps and the two types of dulcimers. At one time he wrote a column on dulcimer builders for the magazine Dulcimer Players News. He presented workshops at the Sawmill Dulcimer Festival in Cook Forest State Park, the Chestnut Ridge Dulcimer Festival and at Shenandoah University’s Mountain Dulcimer Week.