DULCIMER BUILDING

I don't consider myself a dulcimer builder, but I have built my own dulcimers, from the first to latest, as well as a few for other people at the same time. My first dulcimer was roughly copied off of Rick Fogel's, who I was hanging out with as we both played on the street in Alexandria, VA, about 1980. It travelled on the back of my mountain bike, sometimes with my wolfdog riding on top. It played for the machinegunner on the corner in El Salvador. It sailed the seas and climbed mountains. It wasn't much to look at, but had a gorgeous sound that I just can't explain, and it drew big crowds and small, everywhere we went.

The next Dulcimers came about in Missoula, Montana. I actually rented space in a friend's instrument building and repair shop late one fall around 1991. Though I knew I needed a new dulcimer, my original one having warped almost to unplayability, the real impetous came from a friend in Florida. He wanted a dulcimer for his wife, for her birthday, and to celebrate the birth of their first child, and so he asked me to do it (and he knew I wouldn't charge anything more than the cost of doing it). In the end, I decided to production line it and built five dulcimer that time, in a couple different sizes. The most important event though was that while I had all my dulcimer plans and information out, I drew up plans for the first solid body electric dulcimers. Two were built with the extra bass section I'd jury-rigged on the original, one for me and one for a spare, since by now I realized that having a dulcimer was a nescessary part of my life.

My original dulci had two litle 3/4 moons for soundholes. As I thought about what to do this time, I thought, "well, this one is for a lady, so I'll do a three moon design." I liked the look of it so much, and it was similiar to my old one, so I used the design for all of them, and still do.

I remember I started playing the new one the first tour I made of Alaska, in the summer 1992, and my original dulcimer retired to hang on the wall at my ma's house, with my first guitar. I only sold the last remaining dulcimer of the 5 that I'd built in Missoula a couple years ago, since I'm even less of a dulcimer salesman than I am a builder! When people ask me why I don't build dulcimers, I explain that as a touring musician, I don't have time and energy, and don't have the space and tools, to be a builder or a seller. I only build dulcimers because mine are unique (at least they were) in their wide range, and they are built tough, with 1/4" bolts holding the backs on, so even under the worst abuse on the road, and at festivals, or on trips like the last one to Belize (see the ARCHIVE page); it just can't come apart no matter how hard it tries, unless the back snaps clean in two. And it doesn't cost me much to build them, compared to buying one.

In the Fall of 1998, after I'd finished performing at the State Fairs, I stayed in Alaska an extra 6 weeks.

I took up an offer of free woodshop space to build two new accoustic dulcimers for myself, a cleaner looking, slightly improved copy of my present dulci and a "next generation" expanded model; and a third for the owner of the woodshop. This one was interesting because I built it using a solid spruce plank for the back. The woodshop owner built saunas and cured his own wood, so he had plenty, and he really wanted an instrument built with local materials as much as possible, so I obliged, though I told him I couldn't guarantee the results of using solid spruce for the back. On the other hand, there's no reason not to, though it might not be as stable over time as plywood. I believe in the same principle, and I incorporated local woods, or wood with a history, as much as possible. In Alaska, that doesn't give you alot of choices, mostly spuce and birch. But I did use local Birch plywood and locally cut and cured birch for the rails and bridges, and some of his spruce for interior bracing. I thought of trying a new design for the soundholes, but ended up staying with my "three moon" design, maybe I've just gotten used to looking at it after all these years.

I didn't finish the dulcimers, simply because I didn't have a sander (his shop built saunas so fine sanding wasn't part of the setup), and didn't have the time for handsanding. So I boxed them up and shipped them away, and they finally saw light again in the Florida Keys, a whole continent away.

There, once again, I was offered woodshop space by the owners of Woodenhead art gallery, after I did a free show for one of their opennings. This was a custom cabinet and furniture shop, so fimishing was definitely part of their setup. So I finished the dulcimers, and gave them a good start on their history, built at the northwestern corner of the continent, and finished on its southeastern tip. But as soon as I finished them I packed them away in the car, still wet with linseed oil. I didn't realize it then, but in the end, I would never use them.

I took off for one last trip with the old dulci, and a trip worthy to complete a wild career for an instrument. In fact, when I was agreeing to sail this 16 foot trimarran across the Gulf and down to Belize, my only stipulation was that the dulcimer had to fit. I said the dulci was 17" wide, and they replied that the cockpit openning (it's like a kayak) was 18", and it was settled. I went (see the Archives) and the dulci went with me. Now it has taken its place on the wall with my first dulcimer. If dulcimers could talk...

Though I ended up leaving the new acoustic dulcimers behind and moving to the solid body electric version I designed and built, I still miss my old one sometimes. Though the electric works fine as an acoustic instrument, and generally is better, which is why I play it, it is big and heavy. I miss the easy spontenaity of the days when I could just wander the streets with my dulcimer on my shoulder, with no case, just draped with a garbage bag if it was raining. I could fit it in the overhead bin of the airplane, or ride with it beside me in a car seat, or get on a bus, or throw it on the back of a bicycle, or into a frieght train, or the cockpit of a small sailboat. The electric dulcimer, especially in the airline case, is just so big and hard to handle, hard to put anywhere or fit anywhere. Though I know that the electric is what I have to do, the true direction of my life, I sometimes dream of having one of my old small acoustics with me just to take on trips and places where the electric is just too much trouble, like an old beater guitar. So who knows, maybe there will be a place in my life someday for my old "hobo's dulcimer".

If you'd like to build yourself one, I have recently added a basic set of acoustic dulcimer plans to the website as well as basic information on building and setting it up.