Hammered Dulcimer Plans

I'm providing these images of scale plans I drew up long ago when I was building accoustic dulcimers. I used to carry these so if anyone wanted to build one, we could step into a copy shop and they could make a copy. I figure this is where to start in developing your own plans, since the string lengths and bridge placement is the same whether it is accoustic or electric. I made these plans to scale of 1/2"=1", except the pinblocks, which are full size templates for drilling the holes for hitch and tuning pins. I have scanned them as full size images, at 200dpi, so each should fit on a legal size piece of paper and provide better detail compared to what you see on the 72dpi available on the webpage. Each image overlaps the adjoining one so they can be printed out and taped together carefully to assemble the complete plan.

An important point is that the bridge angles are based upon the distance between each course. These plans are based on a spacing of 1.5 or 1.25 inches. In my present dulcimers I have reduced the spacing to only an inch, with a corresponding change in the bridges, to place more strings in a smaller area, though it doesn't allow for the 3 and four string courses on some dulcimers. It does make accuracy in playing more important, but I have been playing a long time. You have to make your own decisions. I suggest that, like me, you build smaller prototypes, like 9-10 string, or even as few as 6 strings, to work out construction and design details. Something this small is still playable for testing but requires less time and effort than a "full-sized" model. Even "full-size" is relative. A 13/14 course as pictured gives a reasonable range, but standard dulcimers range from 9/10 to 15 or 17. It is important to remember that for a given spacing or the courses, the bridges can be extended up and down as far as you can reach. Rick Fogel at Whamadiddle wrote up an excellent paper on the mathematics of calculating string lengths if you want to go that far. Otherwise, as long as it is gclose you can tweak the desired string tension by adjusting the end rails in or out slightly. This is to suggest that in your designs you leave a bit of margin, at least in your prototypes, for the rails and bridges to be slid around slightly to the best placement. The center bridge divides the string for a perfect fifth betaeen sides, the right bridge uses the double octave node, and even if not played, the high notes on the right side of this bridge will be clearly heard in the harmonics if not damped, especially in an electric instrument. So, I get into suggestions more on the electric dulcimer page, so I'll let this go as it is. Anyway, please think of this as a starting point for your own plans.

This is a diagram of the lay-out of the strings so you can understand the essential principles of the string lay-out. Similiarly this lay-out can be extended as far a s you want to reach. As you can tell from the diagram I start out by drawing in the strings at the spacing I want and then build the dulcimer on top of that. The important thing here is to note that the bottom right note should be a dominant, like the "D" in this case, while the string above it on the center bridge is it's fifth ( "A" in this case) on the right side and another fifth higher ("E") on the left side on the bridge. The bottom string of the center bridge is tuned to G# (below the A) and D# (below the E) which provides the major thirds for both these keys, A and E, and especially the major third for the mayor triad and diatonic scale for the E above the bass D on the right bridge. You can see that if you go straight up the bridge from the E you end up with the minor triad and scale, while to get the major triad and scale you run across the bridges proceeding to the left.You'll note that if you start at D that if you go straight up the bridge you get a natural flat 7th. For the diatonic scale you have go across bridges, with every four notes and their mates to the left make a single diatonic scale. The next set of 8 notes one note above is another diatonic scale, in a modal progression.. D major to E minor to F# minor to G major etc till you progress modally up to D minor finally. All the sharps and flats are in this pattern but placed appropriately in the scales and keys they belong in, rather than in the non-harmonic chromatic arrangement of the piano,. In fact, if you tuned the dulci by ear to perfect fifths, you would end up with a B flat AND an A sharp, slightly different from each other.. the complete natural scale rather than the 12 tone tempered scale. Though I suggest tuning to the tempered scale, not as harmonic as the natural one, but people are used to it and it helps if you want to play with other instruments. Once you establish these patterns you'll see they continue throughout the instrument, with a few exceptions. To understand this you must imagine this as part of a larger pattern with more bridges to the right and left. Also this is adjustments of the stright pattern evolved over millenia to facilitate playing. It is interesting to note that a dulcimer in china and a dulcimer in the the Mountains of Virginia are tuned the exact same way, despite all the claptrap of "western" and "oriental" scales. There are a few options.. one used in china is to place one chromatic step in the middle of the instrument, where middle C is placed on the right bridge. This extra course allows for a C# to be placed below the C natural on the right bridge and a C | F to be placed above the C#|F# on the center bridge. Another option was the use of levers like on a harp to retune specific strings to, specifcally the D to a D# changing the predominant mode from C major/B monor to B/major/C minor. In other places they placed a second course next to the D for a D#, usually below it. Latter they built entirely chromatic instruments, though they required dampers since you lost the harmonic advantage of sympathetic strings resonating when vibrating in close proximity. Harmonicvs and resonance are another intrinsic aspect of the instrument. When you strike one note.. every string with the same note vibrates across the entire instrument, and harmonically related notes also ring to a lesser degree. When you play you are not actually dealing with single notes, but with the sum total of harmonics resonating out of the entire instrument with all the strings contributing, more or less, to a shifting harmonic peak. This is the great advantage and intrinsic nature of the dulcimer, this pattern of placement of notes, versus the patterns inherent in the chromatic arrangement of the piano's 12 tones or in the arrangement of notes on a fretted instrument. It means the most harmonic notes are in close proximity, the modal progressions and which is important in this instrument that has so much sympathetic harmonics, while the least harmonic chromatics are as far apart as possible, and the natural harmonic and modal scales and chords are closely interlaced, literally. Each pattern of notes: keyboard, fretboard, or dulcimer, is reflected in the playing patterns that fall naturally to the hand when you play.. just as there are natural guitar licks and piano rolls, there are natural dulcimer runs. In fact, since the dulcimer predates the other instruments by a few millenia, you might say that the traditional styles of playing almst any instrument evolved from trying to play along with or reproduce natural dulcimert runs and the melodies and rythums that evolved from them. The dulcimer is the grandparent of all other stringed instruments, and they all reflect some aspect of it, and the music that developed around it for thousands of years before any other stringed instruments were invented.
For a right-handed lead, it is best to have the bass on the right, where you start more common ascending chords and scales, it would be perfectly resonable to build a "left-handed" design.

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