Ten-Hour Trips Are Finally In The Rearview Mirror
Good Morning, Y'all!
I'm baaaaaccck. Yes, for real. The Richard Ash who's finally finished moving the Folkcraft workshop from Indiana to Michigan. You might be thinking "Indiana and Michigan share a border, it can't be that far..." but you might be wrong.
Our Indiana workshop was near Fort Wayne, about an hour's drive south of the Michigan state line. Our new Michigan workshop is in the west-central part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, almost a three-hour drive west of the Mackinac Bridge.
Tons Of Ten-Hour Trips
Overall, it's a 10-hour drive from the old shop to the new shop. It was faster when not towing a trailer, or driving a big Ryder box truck, but I didn't make many trips with just my van. The whole point of the driving was to move tools, and books, and lumber, and shipping boxes, and (etc!!!) for Folkcraft, plus household/personal items for me, my wife Aly, and my father Jim.
I've turned over my keys to the Indiana building's new owner. Here's the now empty Indiana workshop:
Plenty of you took classes here at our festivals and clinics, and a LOT of you had your dulcimers made in this room. I'd been in this building (in Woodburn, Indiana) since 1989, so it was weird turning out the lights for the last time.
Deep In The Woods
Now I'm living in Michigan, with my Dad, and my wife, deep in the woods, far to the north. We still have some snow on the ground from last winter, and the temperature is still dropping below freezing at night. By contrast, the wheat growing in the fields near Woodburn is nearly knee-high and the fields are green and lush. But dulcimer-making? It's an indoor activity, and we're raring to finish getting the workshop situated, and dulcimers going out the door!
One of the last tools to leave Woodburn - our wide belt sander. (This sander is the perfect tool for making flat parts like tops and backs!)
But What About Your Staff?
I've said this before, but someone still asks me nearly every week: "What about your staff? Did you move them to Michigan with the workshop?" You know that Folkcraft is a giant, ginormous, gargantuan, giga-corporation, right? Thousands of staffers, churning out dulcimers on a scale similar to Chevrolet turning out trucks and cars. Well, not quite.
We have a huge staff of four people - three of us making dulcimers, and one making cases. Dad and I are two of the three instrument makers, and we're now in Michigan. Our third instrument maker, Cheyenne, is still making instruments, but now from his home workshop in Indiana. Our case maker, Pam, will be making cases, same as she has since 2016, but now she's sewing from her home workshop in Indiana.
I'll give UPS some extra money each week, shipping instruments and cases between Michigan and Indiana, but that extra expense is far smaller than the cost of losing the skills of two amazing people.
This photo above shows my van, less than two months ago (March 19, 2026). After a couple hours of shoveling snow, I stood in the workshop's doorway, and photographed the sunset, right before unloading the van and trailer. This was a couple of weeks after a record-setting blizzard dumped over four feet of nice, fluffy snow on our property.
And for those of you curious "where" in the Upper Peninsula, I convinced a dulcimer model (a.k.a. my wife, Aly) to stand on our approximate home/workshop location:
A map of Michigan, with the Great Lakes. Brilliant marketing by the state! The Michigan DOT has these maps in nearly all of the many rest areas we've visited in our explorations.
To continue the theme of "dulcimer model," here's the new workshop, as of last September:
Aly (dulcimer model/wife) is standing at the far corner of the shop. I'll share photos of the finished shop in a future newsletter.
Still So Much To Do
I arrived with the last trailer load less than a week ago (at 11:52 PM!), and got the shipping and warehouse areas set up right away. Things are still messy, but functional:
Now the focus is on the workshop: dust collection, compressed air, electricity. It's a big job, and will definitely take a few weeks.
I appreciate all of your support, and patience, as we made this move (and as we're finishing the shop setup!). My dulcimer is at my desk, providing moral support even if I don't have time to get it out of the case - just yet. I'm planning on getting it out, even if just to say "Hi", very soon. Don't want my dulcimer to get lonely...
Thanks for reading, Y'all - have a great weekend. Happy Friday!
Richard Ash - luthier-who's-sitting-at-his-desk-looking-out-the-window-at-the-gorgeous-sunshiny-forest
P.S. I haven't had a window at my desk since 1997. This is going to be fun!
FOLKCRAFT® DULCIMER PLAYER OF THE WEEK: SAM EDELSTON
It took me 30 years to be willing to try something with only three strings and too few frets. I preferred playing fancy stuff on finger-style guitar or, later, hammered dulcimer. But, when I became chair of the nascent Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival, I decided to get acquainted with the other side of the family, bought one, and quickly discovered it could play songs like "Mellow Yellow" and "Bang a Gong." I call this my “Green Eggs and Ham moment.”
The surprise is, with only 3 strings, it’s easier to play complex music, because you always have a couple of extra fingers available. I often play melody together with distinct accompaniment. And on chromatic dulcimer, you can jam with guitarists in any key. I’ve come to believe that dulcimers are a more logical first-stringed-instrument than guitars.
I play mostly a wide variety of rock and pop songs, but also classical, Scruggs-style bluegrass, or whatever catches my ear. In 2014, in a stroke of cosmic good luck, my YouTube cover of Led Zeppelin’s "Whole Lotta Love," on electric dulcimer with a bunch of effect pedals, went viral. In 2019, I was lucky enough to go viral again, covering The Ramones’ "I Wanna Be Sedated."
I decided I wanted a special dulcimer that would really suit my style: a short fretboard so I could reach more chords, CGC tuning to fit my voice, and chromatic. And, most importantly, I wanted the best pickup - which meant it had to be a Folkcraft. I remembered Richard Ash's Facebook posts from when...
FOLKCRAFT® PLAYERS - WE WANT TO INTERVIEW YOU!!
No new player to add to our online dulcimer community today, but we are happy to re-feature contemporary dulcimer player, Mr. Sam Edelston. Sam's interview includes a link to his Unleashing the Dulcimer website, in case you'd like to go check out what he's playing on the dulcimer these days.
There's still plenty of room for more of you, folks! Maybe we could feature you and your Folkcraft dulcimer(s) next week?
Who's Going To Write In Next? Keep The Family Growing?
It really is super-easy to join our online dulcimer community. Just three easy steps:
1) Send an email to: newsletter@folkcraft.com
2) With the answers to the four questions below
3) Attach a photo of yourself with your Folkcraft dulcimer(s)
We look forward to receiving your submission & featuring you in our newsletter real soon!
1. How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
2. When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
3. Where do you enjoy playing your dulcimer?
4. What other hobbies, or interests, do you have besides playing dulcimer?
WE'RE OFFERING A $25 FOLKCRAFT GIFT CARD TO ANYONE WHO ANSWERS THE FOUR EASY QUESTIONS LISTED ABOVE, AND SENDS IN A PHOTO (OF YOU WITH YOUR FOLKCRAFT DULCIMER). IT'S REALLY SO EASY TO DO!
WE JUST LOVE HEARING FROM Y'ALL!
This Week's Featured YouTube Video:
Learn how to spice up your melody with Mandy Tyner. She starts out the video with a simple tune, then adds some decorations. Hammer-ons, pull-offs, and all kinds of fun fluff. Perfect for a strong beginner, or intermediate player. Click on the image below to listen & learn.
We have a slew (that's a fancy luthier word for "bunch") of videos for you to watch on our YouTube channel. Click here to see the full list. Be sure to comment on a video, and subscribe to the channel - either action helps us a LOT with YouTube's suggestion algorithms.
Maybe you'd like to learn to play some classical music, or more contemporary tunes, on the dulcimer like Sam Edelston? Or Steve Eulberg? We've got a couple of books that might interest you.
This book has 26 classical tunes arranged for solo mountain dulcimer. These intermediate arrangements include both standard notation and tablature, and are written for a DAD-tuned dulcimer.
All of the arrangements require the 6.5 fret, many require the 1.5 fret, and a few require a 0.5 fret. All songs are in DAD tuning. (37 pages)
Nearly 30 arrangements of classical dulcimer goodness. There's nothing like an old-time jam tune, but these songs (mostly going back to before the dulcimer was invented) have stood the test of time, and are a ton of fun to play.
Add in the fact that the arrangements are from Larry Conger, and you have a must-have collection! (46 pages)