(upbeat banjo music) - Good evening and welcome to the Expressions Digital Director's Cut featuring Bernd Krause.

I'm Andy Pioch, the show's producer and I am broadcasting live from Television Production Control, here at WSKG's Vestal Studios.

Now if you missed Bernd's recent Expressions episode, you can check it out by visiting wskg.org/expressions and a link to the program will be posted in the chat-box at the conclusion of this event.

You can also use this chat-box to introduce yourself and let us know where you are tuning in from.

And feel free to ask a question about the Expressions program or to Bernd at any point in the next hour and we will do our best to answer.

So if you have had a mountain dulcimer question just eating you from the inside, now is the time it can finally be answered.

So let's bring in Bernd right now, live from his workshop right here in Broome County.

Welcome to the program Bernd.

- Hello.

How are you?

- Hello.

Thanks for joining us.

First of all, can you tell us the reaction.

What's the reaction been since we aired the premiere of your episode back on April 8th?

I understand that you couldn't even be in town.

You had to leave town, you were worried about the reaction.

- Yeah, I actually watched it myself on the road.

We were gone for four months traveling around the country getting away from winter.

But I got a lot of good comments on it from the dulcimer community especially and from a lot of players, builders, people who have my instruments, so it was really good.

And a lot of great comments on the quality of the program, the filming, everyone was real happy with it.

So, it was great.

- All right, well, we'll keep you around for the next hour with that compliment.

Well, we thank you and I can tell with working with you and learning more about the dulcimer community, it definitely seems like a tight-knit group and it's been really interesting to learn a lot about it.

So, you're broadcasting live from your shop.

We filmed an interview with you during that (indistinct) on the episode.

So, what's cracking in your shop tonight?

How many dulcimers are you building just this evening.

- Not too much this evening.

I'm sort of straightening things out, getting this back in order again from before we left.

It was a little crazy here trying to get some instruments finished.

So, I've got too much work outside to do before I work in the shop again here.

- Yeah, well I have to mention you said you left to avoid winter and then you come back, and I know we have some people streaming you who don't live in Broome County, but we got socked with a foot of snow the other night.

So, you should've stayed out another week, I guess.

- Yeah, I think so.

- So, how big is that shop of yours.

When we went to visit, it's a fairly big size shop.

How long have you been working in there?

- I started building it 12 years ago.

Before that, I worked in a one-car garage area in the basement of my house, which worked pretty good for quite a few years.

The biggest problem was I still had a regular day job, so I was working in the shop at night and running the planer and some of the equipment at two o'clock in the morning didn't sit well with my kids and my wife, the bedrooms were directly upstairs.

And then wood-dust all through the house.

So, I decided to build another building.

So, what I did was I build a garage, I needed a garage for my vehicles, and I built the shop on the second floor.

And it's 26 by 40 and one of the things I wanted to do when I built a shop was I didn't want to be on concrete floors anymore.

It's hard on your back, hard on the knees.

So, I have maple, tongue-in-groove flooring.

So, I have hardwood floors, it's so comfortable standing because I'm standing pretty much all day when I'm in the shop.

- Well, I have to admit that is not a factor that I would've considered when I am going to be planning to build my own workshop, which will probably never happen.

But now if it does, I will consider what the floor should consist of.

We did get a lot of compliments about how clean your shop was, because obviously a workshop, it could be scattered.

Who knows what might be there.

But I have to ask is it always that clean or did you just tidy it up, because you knew TV cameras might be there?

No, it's not always that clean.

Usually about once every two, three weeks, I'll just take a day and do nothing but clean.

And it takes me pretty much the whole day, because everything's covered in dust, wood shavings.

So, I'll just take a day, clean everything up.

You just happened to be here at the time that it was already clean.

- Well, we picked a good day.

And I know Bernd, while his shop might be a great place to work on dulcimers, the wifi connection is not the greatest.

And I'm not sure if he is able to see the pictures that we're throwing up there And we just threw a picture up there - No, I can just imagine what pictures you're putting up.

- Yeah, let's just say we saw a picture of your shop and it was not nearly as clean as it is right now or when we came to visit.

So yeah, you'll definitely have to re-watch... everyone can re-watch on WSKG's YouTube channel when this is completed.

But Bernd will probably be first in line because he's gonna want to know what embarrassing pictures we've put up over him that he's not able to see now.

Well, one of our favorite aspects of going over the shop was just the sheer amount of tools and clamps that you use to build all these dulcimers.

You started building these dulcimers, like you said over 40 years ago.

Can you even give an estimate on how may tools you might have in your shop right now.

- Clamps alone, I probably have over 400, all different sizes, little ones, even closed pins that I use for clamps.

And they all have a certain job that they do.

There's some clamps, they have one job and that's it.

When I first started building, I didn't have any clamps.

I didn't have any tools, so I had to buy a lot of the stuff.

So, over the years I've accumulated more clamps, thinking I had them all, but last fall in November/December, I was building a guitar and I needed some special clamps to glue the bridge in.

I didn't have them.

Right away, I got online and ordered those clamps.

So, you can never have enough clamps.

- Clearly, you said you have 400 clamps.

I can't imagine that you could have 400 clamps and not have the correct size for any type of job that you need, but that shows you the clamp industry, it's always going to be - Oh yeah.

- It's never going away.

So, you said that shop is... Well, looks like maybe the wifi gremlins have possibly disconnected Bernd for a little bit.

I'm sure we'll be getting him back very shortly.

So Bernd began building dulcimers back in the early 1980's and he was inspired by a famous country musician.

I believe, him and his wife were in Branson, Missouri... Oh, you might be back.

Is Bernd back?

Okay, we lost you for a little.

Don't worry.

I feel that's an industry term, it's called filled.

And while I might have been slightly panicking inside, I think I did all right.

I was talking about how when you first discovered... You were inspired to build the dulcimer, I believe on a trip to Branson, Missouri.

Is that correct?

- No, actually we were living in Rochester at the time and it was our first wedding anniversary, we went to see Dolly Parton in concert.

And she was playing one and my wife said, I would love one of those instruments, it looks so easy to play.

And I had gone to all the music stores at the time.

None of them had any dulcimers.

Some of them looked at me like, what's a dulcimer?

So, back then, there was no internet.

We're talking 1977.

So I went to the library to find out some more information about the instrument itself.

I happen to come across a book on how to build them and I decided, well if I can't find any, I'll build one.

- And here you are 40 years later still building them.

- Yep.

- Well, were you happy with that first one?

And we did kind of go over all this in the episode, so I encourage everyone to check out the episode.

- Yeah, it still sounds good, it's still all together, all in one piece, it hasn't fallen apart or anything.

So, yeah, I was real happy.

I had a blast building it.

My wife of course, rolled her eyes I hadn't done any woodworking before that really.

Had no tools, we lived in an apartment, I soaked the sides in the bathtub, wood shavings around the apartment for a while, but I finished it, had a blast.

Decided to build one for a niece for a Christmas present that year and then next door neighbor said, I think my daughters might like one.

So, I built one for him and just went from there.

- And it's just kept going.

How many have you built?

This has been a point of contention here at the station.

- Yeah, well I have a weird numbering system.

It's not a 1-2-3 numerical system.

I have the date sort of in with it, but I was going through again the other night and total instruments is just shy of 400, that includes everything.

I mean, I build cigar box, guitars, I build kalimbas, I build other instruments, guitars, ukuleles and things, and there's some of my kalimbas that I built But with dulcimers, it's just shy of 300 dulcimers.

- [Andy] Okay, so-- - [Bernd] And it was nine years during all this time, because of kids events at school and work and everything else going on just life in general, where those nine years where I didn't build any instruments at all during that whole time.

- [Andy] How long did it take you to build the first one and compare that to putting one together now.

- I never kept track of the actual hours but it took me a couple months actually.

The wood I had to put in a form and let it dry for a week to hold shape.

Now I don't have to do that, I have a totally different method, I think you showed it on the first program, I bend it on a hot pipe and it's pretty much dry when I'm done with it so it's ready to use right away.

But generally on a dulcimer, I'll spend 40, 45, 50 hours on one all the way up to over a 100 hours on some models.

- That's really cool, we're seeing some of the (talking in unison) - Yeah, I see the bending iron there.

- Oh, now you're able to...

Okay, so now you're able to (talking in unison) You must've paid your wifi bill just between now and when we started, now you're even able to see a little bit more that's great, that's great.

But yeah, it was a lot of fun to visit that shop.

We interviewed you in two locations that's how important this episode was.

Anyway, well let's get to... You're not a builder of stringed instruments, you are a luthier, correct.

I am pronouncing that correctly?

- Yep, luthier, which is a builder of string instruments.

- (indistinct) just a fancy name.

- Yeah, it goes back to the day when they were building lutes, a person who built a lute was a luthier.

And lutes and violins and all the string instruments.

So now it encompasses everyone, anybody who builds string instruments.

- Now do you have a card or something, as like an official luthier, or is there a special knock when you go to conventions or get together with other luthiers (Bernd laughing) or is it just the Hawaiian shirt-- - It's the Hawaiian shirt.

And I don't even know where that started.

I started going to a couple of the conventions a long time ago, back in the early 80's and they have a convention every couple years and the builders would get together and everyone was wearing Hawaiian shirts.

A matter of fact, they even had someone there selling Hawaiian shirts to the luthiers if they forgot theirs at home they didn't bring any.

And the price for anyone who wanted to buy the shirt, it was one price, if you were a luthier and they had to buy a shirt because you forgot yours, the price was double (both laughing) - You see, I thought you were going to say they were going to get a discount, I was just going to say (talking in unison) it should be more, because that seems like a...

I mean, it would make more sense to me if you built ukuleles.

- Oh yeah.

- And you wore the Hawaiian shirts, because that obviously is synonymous with Hawaii, but yeah, you kept showing up to these interviews and then the performance in these Hawaiian shirts and I'm like, what?

That's really interesting and it's funny that no one really knows how it got started.

- Yeah, I know.

It just happened, so now I wear it wherever I go if I'm playing somewhere I wear my Hawaiian shirt.

- Well we had to check.

This show does give you a behind the scenes look at how TV and these shows are produced and Bernd and I were on earlier just to make sure that everything was working and his shop looked nice and he wasn't wearing a Hawaiian shirt and then me and Alyssa who's helping out on the backend we had to make sure, you're going to wear a Hawaiian shirt, right?

I mean, come on, you'd probably be kicked out of the guild.

- Yeah.

- If you don't, so... Now an interesting... You mentioned the Dolly Parton story, there is an interesting epilogue to that story, didn't you end up building a dulcimer for Dolly Parton?

- Yeah, I told that story, people ask me all the time how'd you get into building dulcimers and I tell them that story, that we saw Dolly Parton playing and everything else.

And I always said that someday I would love to be able to build her one.

And this was when I was first building.

It was probably about five, six years later, I get a call and the gentlemen with a heavy southern drawl said he was Dolly's manager and said that Dolly would like one of my dulcimers.

And I thought it was a joke, someone was playing on me, I didn't think that was real.

So, I called the local country station asked them if Dolly was coming to town and they knew nothing about it, so I was convinced it was a joke.

But then I found out yep, she was coming to town.

It was going to be a few later, they just hadn't announced it yet for ticket sales and she was going to be picking it up right here in Binghamton.

So my wife took a day off for work, so did I.

Took the kids out of school and we went up to Bennington and spent the afternoon with Dolly.

- [Andy] Yeah, are you able to see that?

We just have a picture up of you and Dolly, that's great.

So how did she find out that you were making these?

Were you... - [Bernd] (indistinct) I don't know how.

I didn't ask at the time how, I was just-- - [Andy] I was going to say, you don't seem like the type of person who would be sending letters or whatever to Dolly Parton like, hey I can build one for you-- - [Bernd] Yeah, I know.

- It must've just been word of mouth, that's really cool.

- Yeah.

- Is Dolly the only famous musician that you've build instruments for?

- You mentioned I don't call somebody but there was a country singer, Clint Black who was playing a guitar, he played a Gibson Jumbo guitar, big country western guitar, which is what I build too.

And I said, my guitar sounds better than what he's playing.

So I actually called his manager, I found his managers name, I called up his manager and said, I have a guitar, same size and everything else that he plays, but I think he'll like mine better.

(Andy chuckling) And I never heard anything back, I was out mowing the lawn one day, I came in to get something to drink, phone rings and it's his manager.

Clint was playing at the state fair in Syracuse.

He said Clint wanted to see my guitar.

So I'm scrambling, taking a shower quick, running up to Syracuse, got to meet him and the band all passed my guitar around, he loved it.

While they were all playing it I had my photo album with me, in that photo album and that was just a year after I had built the one for Dolly.

But I had a picture in there of me and Dolly with the dulcimer.

And he looked at it and he said, hey did you bring your dulcimer?

And I said, no your manager said you were interested in the guitar.

And he goes, he knows I wanted a dulcimer.

And I say, well I can build you one.

He goes, okay.

So I built one for him, we couldn't hook up and then during the year he was either on the West Coast or somewhere else touring.

The following year he actually ended up coming back to Syracuse to the fair, so I met up with him there to deliver the guitar to him or the dulcimer I should say.

He wanted me to build him a guitar too, so I think I'm going to be working on a guitar for him.

But he like the dulcimer, he picked up...

The thing was, he never played a dulcimer before.

I don't know why he wanted one.

But he sat there and he started figuring out the cords and he just started playing along and everything else and he didn't put it down.

I think he stopped for a minute just so I could get a picture with him, but other than that he was just playing along with it, it was great.

- That's really...

I can't even imagine how cool that must've been to be in the group and have them pass around the guitar-- - Oh yeah, it was great.

- That you built, that's really really neat.

Well definitely, you can see how important the history of this instrument is to you.

Why do you think it's important to keep the traditions alive?

I did mention in the program that the mountain dulcimer is one of two original American instruments.

- Yeah, it originated in the Appalachian mountains.

The history of the instrument, not everyone knows the full history.

A lot of it wasn't written down.

So it was a lot of research going in, there's a lot we still don't know about it.

We know a lot of the builders, because we see their names.

But a lot of the instruments were (indistinct) If you think about it a lot of the builders built these instruments for either their own use or their neighbors or friends just to play for their own enjoyment.

They weren't planning on selling them somewhere else.

A lot didn't have labels in them.

But the instrument itself, the music that was written for the dulcimer, to me is important.

It's a story of the lives these people led back in the Appalachian mountains.

And it was not an easy life for them.

Those stories are going to disappear.

A lot of them have disappeared with the dulcimer music, because the dulcimer itself is changing over the years.

A lot of people are putting more frets in it, they're making them chromatic and getting away from what the original instrument was.

And I started building them that way too.

I've made some chromatic dulcimers, but this past year I made the decision I'm not going to build any more of those, I'm going to try to stay traditional to the instrument to try to keep it, because we need to keep those stories, that's part of history and that's what I don't want to see get lost.

- That's great.

And I noticed even on your trip, I think you stopped in Virginia right?

For someone's putting together a museum for dulcimers.

- Yeah, there's a new museum going to be in Virginia, not far from Washington D.C, Sperryville.

It's not open yet, but I saw the instruments that are going to be on display, they're waiting for custom display cases to be built to protect the instruments.

But he's got quite the collection there.

And that's going to be really nice to keep that going.

There's going to be performers there playing quite often.

Playing the old traditional music especially.

But it's the history of the dulcimer from the early instruments that came over from Europe called the scheitholt, which doesn't look anything like a dulcimer but it's the old folk kingsmen from Europe that evolved here in the US and he's got a lot of those that are going to be on display.

So it was a real honor to be able to see that whole display because it's going to be there, hopefully by this summer, early fall it'll be open.

- Well, I think WSKG might have to take a road trip when it opens and do an Expressions recording down in Virginia.

- Yeah, that's going to be nice.

And I have some old antique instruments, I'm going to have some things there in the museum also.

Just to help out their collection.

- That's great.

We do, as mentioned, if you have any questions about Bernd, about dulcimers, I think he'll definitely be able to answer them.

So throw those in the chat.

We do have a question from Michelle who's interested in where you got your wood working skills from.

- Pretty much self taught (Bernd chuckling) The first thing I did with wood cutting was in our apartment.

We needed a new refrigerator, the landlord bought a new refrigerator, well it was too tall for the cabinet.

So he said I could cut them down.

He paid for me to go buy a little Black and Decker jigsaw and I just cut the cabinet off.

So that was really my wood working skill.

But it's pretty much self taught.

I was building dulcimers for almost three years and then I decided to go to guitar building school up in Vermont.

I was actually in Vermont looking to buy wood for my dulcimers, I used to get them through the mail.

But you're getting the next piece on the shelf, so I wanted to pick it out myself.

Then he told me about a school that was up in Vermont.

So that following year, I actually took a leave of absence from my job and went up to Vermont for a couple months and learned how to build guitars.

So now I use what I learned building guitars to build dulcimers.

- Yeah, there's a good section about the guitar building school in the episode.

That looked like quite the bootcamp for guitar.

- Yeah, we had no radio.

It was way out in the middle of nowhere.

They only took eight students.

We had no radio, no TV.

We had our cassette's to listen to music.

And all day, every day, seven days a week, that's all we do.

We were in the shop building.

So we were really emersed for that entire time, which was a great time.

- I was going to say, was that more than you thought it would be or did you not even want to come back home when the two months was up.

Besides missing your family of course.

- I actually had to leave a couple days early to go to my brothers wedding in Dallas.

Talk about culture shock.

- Yeah, to go from a-- - (indistinct) Vermont to Dallas.

(Bernd laughing) - Did he get a nice guitar for his wedding present?

- No, he got a dulcimer.

(both laughing) - So Bernd, we first interviewed you for the program, I believe it was last summer, we interviewed you at the Roberson Museum and Science Center right here in Binghamton, because of an exhibit that you put together with all your dulcimers.

I'm sure a lot of the people watching today, especially if they're local probably check that out.

Can you tell me how that came about?

- Quite a few years ago, I was trying to think, I have the posters still I have to look it up.

I did a little short program at Barnes & Noble before Barnes and Noble went to their new location over there when they were still in the plaza and Connie Barnes who was one of the assistant managers there at the time.

She had me come in and do a program, she remembered me from that.

I ran into her a few years back, and she said, oh I would love to have you do something through the Broome County Council of the Arts.

So I was all set up to have this display at their gallery in downtown Binghamton and then there was a issue with the building and then they had to close that down and I thought maybe it wasn't going to happen, but Roberson stepped up and said we could use that space which was great.

To me Roberson was really nice.

I used to go to summer art classes when I was 12 years old at Roberson.

And I never would've thought that I would be there at this point showing any kind of art and to have my instruments there was really great.

So it was really thanks to Roberson that I was able to have that there and of course the Broome County Council of the Arts.

- That was where we did your first sit down interview and it was really neat to see all of the dulcimers lined up.

There must've probably been at least 30 or 40 on display.

- I had 50 total instruments there.

- How fun was that to transport-- - It was crazy - From the second floor of your shop to Front Street in Binghamton?

- Oh yeah, that was crazy.

The car could only hold so much.

But it's not just that, I had of course all the stands for the instruments and everything else to take down there.

So it took a number of trips down there.

But I had my hurdy-gurdy, I had four ukulele's and everything else was dulcimers.

Some of them belonged to other people, they were gracious enough to let me show it in the show.

But yeah, it was a great show.

That was on for a whole month.

- What was the reaction from the community?

Did you get a rise in orders after that?

Did a lot of people-- - (talking in unison) orders from that and there was a gentlemen there actually who was there for a wedding his niece was getting married at Roberson in the ballroom.

And during the break he came down and looked at the dulcimers and fell in love with one of them and a couple of weeks after the show was over he actually called me up and said he wanted one.

He wanted that one that he really liked and I told him I'd deliver it.

So when we went on a trip, we started out going to Florida and I told him if he wasn't in a hurry I'll deliver it.

So I actually delivered it to him in person in Florida.

- There you go, another positive on your road trip.

So if anyone's watching across the country, next year when Bernd gets out of Broome County to avoid the winter, maybe he can stop by and personally deliver a dulcimer to you.

- And I do that quite often.

If it's within reason, I'd rather deliver it in person than send it through the mail.

- I can imagine that a person who is so meticulous in crafting it together I can understand not wanting to trust the USPS to deliver (indistinct) - Although I knock on wood, I have been very lucky with ones I have sent.

I've sent them to England, Ireland, Hawaii, California... - You didn't want to personally deliver it to England Bernd?

Uh oh, looks like we might've lost Bernd again.

I'm sure the mice who are controlling his wifi will bring him back in just a little bit.

What we can do before Bernd returns is as promised every week or every month during the Digital Directors Cut, we promise a performance that was not seen in the regular episode.

And we're going to showcase Beth Fallon, who met Bernd a few years ago and actually took up the dulcimer because of Bernd and we had her perform at the Artfarm Studio and Gift Shop in Chenango Bridge that's where we filmed both Bernd and Beth performing some dulcimer songs.

So what we're going to do is we are going to play Beth performing a dulcimer song and why don't we run that right now and when we come back, we'll talk more with Bernd.

(dulcimer strumming) Beth Fallon and her dulcimer here on The Expressions Digital Directors Cut.

I'm sure a dulcimer probably made by Bernd Krause right here.

- Yep.

- And of course that was I can't help falling in love with you made famous back in 1961 by Elvis Presley.

Now I have a trivia question for everyone out there.

Can anyone tell me what album that song originally appeared on.

And hopefully I'll remember to give the answer later in the program, but feel free to throw your answers in the chat until then.

So 1961 album from Elvis Presley, thank you very much.

All right, let's catch up on some questions here in the chat.

Tanya has a question, this sounds like it might be some inside baseball Bernd, but she's wondering, who do you think will learn the business, Franklin or Erik?

- Who will what?

- She asked, who do you think will learn the business.

And then in parenthesis, Franklin or Erik.

I have to admit, I don't really know what that question means, so hopefully it was appropriate for me to ask.

- Probably neither one.

(Bernd laughing) Erik is my son, he actually lives next door.

But with three kids he's really busy between work and everything else.

And I know how it was when I was building too.

He comes with me to some shows.

Franklin is his son so my grandson.

He's only four, so I'm not sure if he's going to be building dulcimers real soon.

(both laughing) - You never know, you need an apprentice.

- You never know.

- It's like the jedi, there always needs to be the master and the apprentice.

- Yep.

- Another question we have from an old friend of the station, Barb, would you talk about the various dulcimers that you make?

And she put out examples, the resonators, the backpack, travel, etc.

- Yeah.

- You obviously don't just make one standard size or style of dulcimer.

- No, I make the standard... What people would think of the dulcimer hour glass, which is this one right here, shape.

That's my standard one.

The one next to it is my resonator one.

And that came about because I want...

The problem with the dulcimer it's not very loud.

When you're playing with other instruments it's very hard to hear sometimes.

So I wanted an instrument that would project the sound more which a resonator does.

There's a (indistinct) aluminum cone in there and acts like a speaker basically.

So you don't even have to plug it in and it's loud.

So I build the resonators.

My backpacker one is just the small dulcimer, it's only 16 inches long.

And really that came about because I didn't wanna waste wood.

I have two big pieces of wood, they're glued together and the cut it out for the dulcimer there's pieces on both sides that are left over and I actually put those together and it makes a small dulcimer.

So that's my backpacker dulcimer.

But then I also built the replicas of the original dulcimers.

I have a couple of original historic instruments and I built exact replicas of those for people who want something that original to play with.

- Beth would like to know if you have any festivals or shows planned for this year.

- Unfortunately a lot of the festivals are still on Zoom.

With the Covid and everything else, some of them are starting to come back again.

The only one I have planned, I'll be in Newark Valley at the Apple Festival.

That's the first show I ever did and this will be my 29th year at that festival.

So that one I will always go to as long as they keep wanting me there I'll go.

- As long as they keep growing apples in Newark Valley, Bernd will be there - Yep.

- With his dulcimers.

- And then in October there is a luthiers exhibit.

It's a luthiers invitational in Woodstock and there's builders from around the world there.

Probably 95% are guitar builders, there'll be a couple of ukulele builders and I'll be the only dulcimer builder there.

- You'll be the only Hawaiian shirt.

What type of shirts do the guitar players wear?

- A lot of them wear Hawaiian shirts (both chuckling) And that was quite an honor, because that's invitation only.

And I've been invited a couple of times now.

So that's a really prestigious show and I'm glad to be a part of that.

- Well we know that a maker of stringed instruments is called a luthier, we have a question from Eric, wondering what a dulcimer player is called, is he just called a dulcimist or is it just a dulcimer player?

- Yes, a dulcimer player, dulcimirist, some people won't say they're crazy (both laughing) - So again, if you have any questions...

Okay, Nancy does have a question.

You showed accordion dulcimer probably in one of the pictures that we showed, could Bernd explain how that is used a courting dulcimer.

- [Bernd] Courting dulcimer, it's a dulcimer made to be played by two people.

And basically it's like this dulcimer here and another one put together with it.

So it's double wide, played on the lap between two people facing each other so they can both play.

And the story behind that was back in the day, that a couple that were courting, could go off by themselves with the dulcimer and as long as the sound of music was heard, they didn't need a chaperone.

(Bernd and Andy laughing) It's not as popular as it used to be maybe that's why the divorce rate's higher, maybe they need to get dulcimers.

- [Andy] If only Valentines Day was coming up, - I know, I know.

- This seems like it will be the perfect gift for your significant other.

We do have one more comment in here, someone wants to know more about your coffin base.

(Bernd laughing) I think I remember seeing this at the exhibit.

Oh no, he's been cut off again, oh man.

We just had a picture of it I think.

But yeah, Bernd built a base that I believe was shaped like a coffin.

Well let's talk a little bit more about Artfarm.

It was a great location that we had to film the dulcimer performances and as you saw in the bonus clip we actually had a nice day here in Binghamton, no blizzards thankfully when we filmed last autumn.

I really need to thank Michael Schnurbusch for letting us film at his property, where he has transformed what was once a family farm into a truly unique local business.

The Artfarm Studio and Gift Shop.

And we will have more about Michael's shop on a future episode of Expressions.

But please, please check out his business if you're passing through in Chenango Bridge, it's located at 200 Prentice Road, in Binghamton and you can visit his Facebook page for more information, I believe we'll throw a link in the chat for that as well if you want to take a look.

You can see some scenes of that autumn day and it was a great day to play, it was a great day to film, you can see it was kind of windy I have to give a lot of credit to Mike Micha who is our audio engineer, because as you could hear in that dulcimer performance that we heard from Beth, you couldn't hear the wind at all in the final product.

So kudos to Mike, he does a great job of doing a lot of our audio engineering.

And he made all of the dulcimer performances sound great.

And of course you can hear all of Beth's performances you can hear Bernd's performance by going to wskg.org/expressions and you can see the whole program, you can check out the extra songs again and of course you can learn more about Bernds history with the dulcimer and just the great story.

Let's see, I'm still not seeing Bernd unfortunately.

That's the problem when you... At this rate, the problem was he designed his workshop probably before wifi was really popular, because I can tell by Bernd, if he realized that this was going to be an issue, he probably would've designed an entire wifi or hard wired internet system into his shop preparing for this.

We can go over a little of the...

If anyone has any questions about the actual Expression program, how I put that together, we can do that while we wait for Bernd to come back.

We had a couple of funny incidents that happened right in the middle of that recording at the Artfarm.

There's a little train track that runs right next to the road.

And I think we crossed it when we got to the shop.

And we were like, okay a little train track.

And wouldn't you know it, right in the middle of one of Beth's performances a train rolls through.

And it doesn't just roll through, it stops, I don't know if they cleaning the tracks or what but probably like a two car train just drove right in front of the Artfarm, right in the middle of her performance.

So it just goes to show you Murphy's Law is gonna strike.

It could be a beautiful day but there's always gonna be something that's gonna affect the performance and the recording.

Okay, it looks like maybe we got Bernd back, yes, he's back.

- Actually that train, I was watching them they were unloading railroad ties.

(talking in unison) - Unload some more, move ahead and unload some more.

- Well yeah, because they were probably there for a good 10 to 15 minutes.

I think we considered, okay, what are we going to have to do?

I mean, we obviously weren't gonna try to talk to Casey Jones and have him move his train for us, but just goes to show, you can't plan for everything.

If you noticed, we filmed it in the autumn, there was a lot of pumpkins and corn stalks.

I think at one point one of the corn stalks fell over right in the middle of Beth's performance.

These things happen.

But Bernd you mentioned originally the dulcimer was meant to be played outside, so that was one of the reasons why we decided to perform outside.

So I don't know if you can talk about the traditional performance areas.

Like you said there weren't even performance areas on the original dulcimers.

- Right, they would just play on their front porch.

The dulcimer really was for their own entertainment.

They didn't have TV and all the stuff like we have today to entertain themselves.

And Thomas, J Edward Thomas, one of the original builders of the dulcimer, he's credited with being the first one to build the hour glass shape which is this one here, from Kentucky.

He used to go up and down the howlers with a cart with the dulcimers on them.

Sometimes he would take his chair down off of that and sit and play for people he would run into.

Sometimes they would invite him in for dinner into their home.

They'd sit in the cabin and he'd sit on the porch and play music for them afterwards.

But back then he was selling the dulcimers for 25 cents.

If you couldn't afford it, you would just pay every week a little bit of money until it was paid up.

I think it was $5.

It was 25 cents a week until it was paid off, for $5 he was selling them for.

But it was really just a...

He would sit on the porch and entertain the people.

And people who bought the dulcimers, that's all they did.

They would just play for their own enjoyment.

- Well I know you have a son in law in a band.

Have you been trying to push him into either playing that coffin bass possibly (Bernd laughing) Or maybe incorporating some dulcimers into...

I know they have a new album coming out soon-- - Yeah they got a new album coming out.

I don't think the dulcimer's gonna fit in with what they have so...

I have a flying V dulcimer maybe if I electrify that a little bit more maybe that'll fit in with that (both chuckling) - I know our friend Eric in the chat would very much appreciate a flying V dulcimer as he is a big fan of the rock band Kiss.

- Yep.

- We have a shout out from Facebook, Sandra... Let's see, I don't really understand what was written in my rundown here.

But Sandra, Hi Bernie, from your friend Sandra and sisters Linda and Darryl.

So hopefully you know who those people are.

(Both chuckling) I have to ask why you built a blue dulcimer I'm being told in the chat.

(Bernd laughing) - [Bernd] I built a...

I wanted to be different.

There was actually book out quite a few years ago of blue guitars.

And if you were a guitar builder anywhere in the world, whether it was electric guitar, acoustic guitar didn't make any difference, they built blue guitars, they put them in a book.

And there was a rumor that there was going to be another book coming out and I figured why not have a blue dulcimer.

So I figured I was going to be ready in case they come out with this book, I was going to submit that for the book, have the blue dulcimer.

So that's how that came about.

I actually built it for myself, I take it to shows, it attracts people to my table.

But the dulcimer ended up going to England.

A gentlemen over there really wanted it, I didn't want to sell it, but I ended up selling it to him.

But it's going to a good home, he's playing it quite regularly and I get notes from him every once in a while and he loves it.

- Well we have a first on the Expressions Digital Directors Cut, I know your wifi, you might not be able to see it.

But thanks to director of development here at WSKG, John Bell, I have been given my own Hawaiian shirt.

So for the remainder of the program and I know I'm not a luthier, but I figure producing this program and getting this information out to the public, maybe I can be granted luthier membership just for the remainder of the program.

It's not nearly as loud as your unfortunately, but we'll work on that.

I do remember to give the question, I believe we did have someone who I'm sure probably checked on the internet, the Elvis album was Blue Hawaii.

So fitting in perfectly with our Hawaiian shirts right now.

- Good.

- So you've mentioned... Obviously you don't just build dulcimers you've mentioned some of the other stringed instruments that you've built.

It does look like an inmate shirt right now.

All anyone's seeing is orange here, I'll stand up a little bit, there's the Hawaiian part right there.

So yeah, just go into... Tell us a little bit about the other instruments that you build.

- Yeah, I'm always interested in building something new.

I started building cigar box guitars a while back too.

They've been a lot of fun, they have pick ups in them.

I built a stick dulcimer, I was just experimenting with it.

Of course I built guitars.

I build a couple banjo, I built one banjo, I want to build another one.

Quite a few years ago I built one.

I built a couple of mandolins.

I started building ukulele's here a number of years ago just for something different.

And again, I had a lot of smaller pieces of wood that aren't big enough for a dulcimer, what can I use it for?

So I decided to build ukuleles.

So I didn't build ukuleles for a while now too.

They've been a lot of fun.

I build mostly dulcimers still, I still like building them.

Every once in a while I wanna build something different.

You'll see the one on the end here, that ones about as different as you can get.

It's just a raw piece of wood, it has a little bark on it still.

It has a natural knot hole for the sound hole on it.

So I'll experiment with a lot of different styles.

- Well I remember seeing at the exhibit and it was encased in glass, so I knew that this one must be real important was the hurdy-gurdy that you built.

- That was only my most challenging project ever.

- [Andy] Yeah, look at that.

We have a picture of it up now, I don't know if you can see it.

- [Bernd] Many times during the construction of that I walked away.

A couple days or a week saying what was I thinking.

And I'm glad I didn't start it 10 years ago, because it probably still wouldn't be finished.

So it took pretty much everything that I knew in building all these years to build that.

And with the help of a lot people online which has been great.

Most of the builders are in Europe, most of the players are in Europe.

So I was in communication with a lot of the people in Europe asking them a couple of questions that I had about this part or that part.

But that took me 11 months to build.

And that year I built one dulcimer that year when I built that hurdy-gurdy.

All the rest of the time was building that one instrument.

There's over a 1000 hours that I put into that.

- I mean, just looking at it right there it looks so much more complicated than the dulcimer.

- It's a complicated instrument.

- So I'm assuming you're not going to be building another one of those any time soon.

- When I finished it I said, that's it, I'm not building another one.

I'll build another one.

I'm already planning another one.

My daughter wants one.

She thought she was getting that one.

(Bernd laughing) - She'll get the better one.

Probably the second one will be a lot easier to build than the first one.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Well, I know you also build instruments for... A couple of months ago we had an Expressions episode featuring Samite, the great African folk musician and I know you built some instruments for him.

And die hard viewers of Expressions will know that this was not your first appearance on this season of Expressions.

Hopefully we can get this photo up and yes right there, the back of your head was showcased as an audience member for Samite's performance.

Unfortunately for you, you were in front of the one camera that we just programmed to move back and forth and back and forth.

And that's the camera that I used when I had nothing else to go to which happens more often than you want to think.

- Right.

- So we definitely featured the back of your head.

But you framed it up perfectly, so we thank you for that.

Can you tell us how you've helped out Samite.

- Yeah, as I said I was listening to music at Barnes and Noble back when they used to have all the CD's on the (indistinct) And I came across a CD of Samite and listening to it at home, I was reading all the information on the CD and found out he lived in (indistinct) I had called him up, I had been building some kalimba's and I asked him if he'll been interested in taking a look at them.

So I went up, took my daughter, we went up and met Samite and he really liked what I had and he had a lot of volume.

And for when he goes to Africa he can't take his electrified one, one that has the pick up on it, there's no electricity or anyway to run it when he was going over there.

So mine projected a lot of volume.

So he says, yeah, I want one of those.

So I built him a couple of those, he took those to Africa and then through his organization Musicians for World Harmony to help the orphan kids over there, I actually ended up... Quite a few years ago, I built four dulcimers for him to take to Africa to the orphanages.

So that was really great to be able to do that.

- That's really cool.

That's really cool.

Well, tell us about your future plans, besides I guess building another hurdy-gurdy.

- Yeah.

(Bernd laughs) - I know you've been using the same wood from a tree to build a lot of your dulcimers for close to 40 years now.

Is that in danger of running out any time soon?

- It's getting down there.

I probably have just under half of that left.

Because I was using other wood also not just that.

But that was a black walnut tree that was going to be used for fire wood believe it or not.

It was a pretty good sized tree.

And 26 foot tree, it was hit by lightning, the gentlemen had already topped it and was burning that when I came across him and he'd left the tree standing on the truck, put plastic over the top so it wouldn't rot it out and he was planning on using that for fire wood.

I asked him how much it would cost for an equivalent amount of fire wood that that tree would have and he said $200.

So I paid him $200 for that black walnut tree.

- Wow.

- I (indistinct) 400 plus dulcimers out of that tree.

- I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

- Yeah, yeah.

And I'm still using that.

But I had to wait...

I split the tree so it goes to the grain.

I split it and then I sealed the ends up with paraffin.

I actually melted paraffin wax and sealed it up.

And it has to sit, the rule of thumb is one year for every inch of thickness it has to wait before you can use it, because it won't be dried enough.

So some of these pieces were pretty good size so I had to wait 10 years for it to build my first dulcimer out of that walnut tree.

(Andy laughs) - That's patience right there.

- And I have no patience, but I did with that (both laughing) - Oh man, well any final thoughts?

I think we're pretty close to the hour.

We've made it through - Yeah.

- It was probably like building a dulcimer, it doesn't always go perfect.

Sometimes you just have to leave...

It's like when you built the hurdy-gurdy you had to leave the room for a little bit.

But, I think we made it and I can't thank you enough for joining us tonight, allowing us into your workshop.

If anyone is interested please visit Bernd's Facebook page @Krauseinstruments for more information about his work.

- Also, if anyone local here especially, if they want to learn how to play dulcimer, if they have one and just haven't played it in years, there is a local group.

The Vestal Mountain Dulcimer Players.

They meet every Monday, they play locally, they've done a lot playing at Mercy House, they play at senior citizen homes, they play at Roberson during the Christmas holiday, Porch Fest.

But it's a great group.

Beginners, all levels.

Check them out, they're on Facebook.

It's the Vestal Mountain Dulcimer Players.

And Beth and I are both in the group, so there's a lot of other people in there and it's a fun group.

- Well, thank you for mentioning that, I was gonna bring that up at some point.

We do have one more question.

And Michelle is wondering if different wood delivers different sounds.

- Yeah, it does.

I use a lot of my tops of the dulcimer I use sitka spruce, which I use a lot for guitars, most guitars have sitka spruce or cedar top.

And it does soften it up a little bit over the whole walnut.

Maple has a little different sound to it also.

It's not a bad sound, just a little bit different.

Some of them may have a little bit more sustain than others.

Some are a little brighter.

I started using redheart which is a very (indistinct) picture or the hurdy-gurdy, that was out of redheart and it's a bright red color.

Grows in Southern Mexico, Central America.

And that was a really bright wood.

Nice sound out of it.

It really surprised me when I started using that.

So I've been using that quite often now for that.

But walnut, it's a traditional wood, it has a very nice sound to it.

But different woods do change.

- These are the things that you realize after building dulcimers for 40 years.

The correct wood matters.

Also remind everyone that they can check out Bernd's and Beth's Expressions episode by visiting wskg.org/expressions and a link is going to be provided in the chat for that if you want to follow that.

If you listen to podcasts, check out the Expressions Directors Cut Podcast.

This months episode features all of Beth's and Bernd's performances, plus some of the interview that we recorded at the Roberson Museum and Science Center.

And you can find this on many of your favorite podcast platforms or visit yourpublicradio.org to learn more.

And again a link to that is being shared in the chat.

I want to thank Alyssa Micha and Patrick Holmes for their great behind the scenes help tonight.

And this event will be archived and available to view on WSKG's YouTube channel.

So thank you so much for checking out the Expressions Digital Directors Cut.

Bernd thank you again and we will see everyone again soon, we'll see you next month.

Until then, this is Andy Pioch.

Goodnight.

(slate clapping) (banjo music)