CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
All of my instruments are book matched solid wood. Tone woods are generally used for the tops…and usually quarter sawn; however, some tops look absolutely beautiful when flat sawn. You get some extremely beautiful patterns. I use a flat tuning head exclusively on my instruments as they are so extremely “user friendly.” You cannot possibly have this ease of use with a scroll type head. You can change strings in a snap… and I use highly geared tuners on the tuning head to facilitate fine tuning. The nut and saddle are grooved for double treble strings, or four equally spaced strings. And, of course, you can play them with just three strings (as I do). The pin end (where the strings are attached permanently) is so designed as to allow a quick shift from double melody strings to four equally spaced strings. It is also designed to handle either loop or ball end strings. It is extremely adaptable. I build now on a 27” string length. I have found that this is an excellent compromise between getting very good sustain and yet be short enough for a person to handle almost any necessary reaches. Each fret board has MOP position dots at the 3rd, the 7th and 10th frets. Depending on the instrument, others position dots, or fancy inlays may show up in my instruments.
Because of the mountain dulcimer’s domestic history, I tend to use native woods in construction.
I also enjoy adding various MOP and Abalone inlay, fancy purfling, and binding on occasion. But, keep in mind that all that “eyewash” does nothing to the musical quality of the instrument, just the price. All of my instruments, plain or fancy, have the same musical qualities. My finish is hand rubbed lacquer, requiring little to no maintenance other than dusting. My finger boards are simply oiled with finger board oil to keep them looking nice. I normally build with the new one and a half, the six and a half, the eight and a half, and the thirteenth and a half frets.… as more and more people are playing with other instruments, and more are playing in the other keys besides “D.” Also, I am very given to making fully chromatic instruments. Although these are new on the dulcimer horizon, I am sure they will have an increasingly prominent place in our dulcimer community.