I saw Mark White playing "Up From The Ashes" and Greg Howard playing "Tomorrow Never Knows" on YouTube and knew I had to learn this instrument.

She is gorgeous! #6968 blue Railboard with aqua glow linears and pearl grey open gear Hipshot tuners. I decided to wait on MIDI but will definitely be looking at it in the future.

I'm having those same butterflies that I had when I built my first mountain dulcimer. Coming from a guitar background, I had no idea how to play. I was fairly isolated (and no Internet) so I just taught myself. Most dulcimer music is not to my taste so I incorporated it into my setup.

I played in front of a huge crowd in the Seattle Arena at the annual Folklife Festival as well as at the World's Fair in Vancouver BC.

And now I'm ready to lose (or find) myself in Stickology!

Oh by the way...

How do you play this thing?

Congrats, awesome! You should post pics!

As far as "how to play it" lol I have no clue, but there's a bunch of teachers who post here!

Huge Congrats Elvensong.!!

Play the hell out of it, any which way you want!

Don't forget what Emmett always said in Free Hands, just flail away and see what your hands feel like doing.

You'll be able to tie yourself in all sorts of knots later, with all sorts of grand ideas, try not to do that too early. If you have the urge, then be happy with the way you can play today.

Anyhoo maybe too much sage advice too early. Just go for it mang, play the way you want.

Congratulations and enjoy!

Everyone is different as to what works for learning. Lessons are best atleast initially, but if no ones around and if, like me internet is limited, videos or books work too. Post questions. People are helpful here.

Congrats!

I'm happy to see we have another Dean in the group...

Congrats. A new frontier awaits.
Guidance is available
All the best

Steve A

Congratulations! Welcome to the Railboard and to Stick! As to how to play it, that's a longer conversation....and it sounds like you're fine figuring things out on your own, but I also recommend many of the fine Stick teachers around here that would be more than happy to school you up on your journey via Skype. Best of luck and congratulations!

Big congrats on your new Stick, Dean. Best wishes in all of your tapping endeavors. Btw, Mark White was my partner in our Stick duo Heartstrings, but we're both soloists now. I wrote "Up From the Ashes" back in 2008. Really glad it was of inspiration to you!!!

Congratulations! Free Hands, Greg Howard, Steve Adelson, Bob Culbertson books/DVDs give you the "how to". Then, Inspiration and Perspiration (a lot). But it's fun to just go "skronk".

OK Jayesskerr here are pictures of my Railboard and my Blue Lion dulcimer. Being a huge Breaking Bad fan, I think I'll name her Baby Blue.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I have taken your advice and signed up for lessons with Greg Howard and purchased his DVD as well. I have not heard the other players YET but am immersing myself in the instrument so I will look them up for sure.

Matt from Heartstrings: Hearing your song Up From The Ashes was the first I'd heard a Stick. That was the first moment I knew this was for me. How the hell I managed to miss this amazing instrument for so many years is beyond me.

I posed this question to Greg in an email but I want to hear others' opinion as well:

When I ordered the instrument, I had the understanding that Matched Reciprocal tuning was best for learning. However, the FreeHands book by Emmett is in classic tuning. Would it be better to change to classic tuning, and if so, can I tune to classic using the medium gauge strings already on my Railboard?