Cat Tone Holes On A FolkRoots Teardrop

Classic "F". Vine heart. Celtic shield. The list goes on and on. Those familiar enough with the Folkcraft and FolkRoots line of dulcimers know that these are some of the tone holes you may see cut and burnt into our dulcimer soundboards.

"F" heart. Hummingbirds. Sun, moon and stars. We'd keep going, but we've decided to take this portion of the Folkcraft newsletter to focus on one particular tone hole. If it was a cartoon, it may be Sylvester. If it was wearing boots, it may be named Puss. But when it's on a dulcimer soundboard, we take the easy route and simply call it... Cat.

Original layout with cats on bottom and paw prints on top

We recently took an order for a FolkRoots D model dulcimer with cat tone holes. Since this particular dulcimer was to be a teardrop, the shape of the instrument left no room for the "upper paws." The future owner of this dulcimer wanted the look of the original design, but with an updated feel. Naturally, we said "No problem!"

Starting at the head, our cat begins his trek down the right side of the dulcimer...

...jumps the fingerboard, then leaves a couple more tracks before taking a seat.

If you're active enough in the folk festivals, or spend time interacting with other dulcimer lovers on Facebook or online forums, you've probably seen a few more custom creations that Folkcraft has done. Being able to transfer someone's thoughts and ideas from their head to a piece of wood is one of the many things we take pride in when making our instruments. You're unique... your instrument should be, too!

So while we didn't reinvent anything, we did make a pretty nice looking dulcimer with a playful twist on an old design. Nothing to do now but the hardware and strings, then it'll be... purrrr-fect.

Insert cat pun here __________________