Robs Strummable Dulcimer Piano
A Seagull M4 Strummable Dulcimer turned Piano
ByRob Asselstine
The story
I always like to visit Music stores in small towns. They’re Owner-operated which means that the items on sale are personally selected by the Owners and that can lead to some pretty interesting finds. Recently I came across the “Seagull M4 Strummable Dulcimer” made by the Godin company (https://godinguitars.com/), a French-Canadian Guitar manufacturer based in Montreal. “Seagull” is a sub-brand of Godin. This instrument caught my eye because it is do much different than any other stringed instrument I’d ever seen! It’s made from a single piece of wood, has 4 strings tuned 1-5-1 (the top 2 “1” strings in octaves) and has excluded some frets to allow anyone (literally) to able to play it (in the case of the M4 – in the key of “G”)! Amazing! Here, I’ve sampled the octave/unison strings (“G”) for this piano. If you play 1-5-1, you’d be amazed at how much it sounds like Pete Townshend’s intro to “Baba O’Riley” – ENJOY!
Reviews
You had me at strummable
Right away this is another interesting sound I didn't know I was looking for and now need to build a project around. The Strummability is fantastic, I really like just a touch of the reverb to sit it deep in the background for a video game. But then those low end plucks caught me off guard.. absolute horror in a good way! This'll be in my regular rotation for a interesting ethnic sound.
Very clear and vivid sound of dulcimer
Very nice library! The sound is very clear and distinctive. It is fund to play with this library!
A nice dulcimer with a weird tail
As a first impression, this sounds like a decent dulcimer, with a nice attack and great overall character. If you play a little longer, you might notice the tail having a very wet background noise, but if you play shorter, non-sustained melodies you will be fine. I think, shifting it one octave lower would result in a more natural position, though the more you go to play towards the edges, the more artificial might sound. The included settings make this much more versatile, too.