A Dulcimer Player Sitting On A Fence

August 2, 2024

Good Morning, Y'all!

I hope you've had some stellarly good weeks and that your August is treating you well.

This'll be a short "In The Shop" segment today. I'm up to my neck in dulcimers this week! Casey, Dad, and Cheyenne have been "Hey look, Richard, we have a lot of instruments nearly done this week and now they're coming across your desk" maniacs.

Making More Dulcimers Than Usual

Some weeks the three of them finish just a couple of instruments. But when the stars line up "just right," they'll finish off more dulcimers than usual. We're mostly through the slowdown from designing and prototyping our new DulciVox dulcimers, and now we're back to our regular production schedule. And we're gaining, slowly, on the backlog of orders. Also nice. Both for us, and for our incredibly patient customers!

Dad was working on LAP-JO necks this week. Here he has a couple of them glued up.

two folkcraft Lap-jo pro necks with clamps on them

LAP-JO necks with lots of clamps

The LAP-JO necks pictured above are both LAP-JO Pro models - with the ebony fretboard veneer. One is a personal instrument for Dave Haas. The other is to fill an order for a customer.

A Trip Back In Time

I had a person email last week, with a question about a 1970s FolkRoots dulcimer. This paper tag was glued to the inside/back of his instrument:

FolkRoots® Dulcimers "inside the instrument" tag

The dulcimer player sitting on the fence? FolkRoots founder Howard Rugg. The artist? His brother, Mike Rugg. This instrument dates to the "Rugg, Rugg & Jackel" years: 1973 (approximately) to 1976. For a full history of FolkRoots, Folkcraft, Rugg & Jackel, and the evolution of our company, check out this page.

One final thing, here's the final volume of Shelley Stevens' Baker's Dozen series which is on sale this week - Patriotic Tunes.

Shelley has outdone herself with this awesome collection of tunes. For starters, she's included 15 (I thought a "baker's dozen" was 13) arrangements of service songs (Army, Navy, Air force, etc.), old-school patriotic (Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, and more) and traditional American "feel good" songs (America, Battle Hymn Of The Republic, to name a few). Her arrangements are very accessible, all in DAD tuning.

No capo required. Five of the arrangements use the 1+ fret and they're all songs you should know, and be able to play, on your mountain dulcimer. You're sure to have fun with this one!

This book will be $3.99 for the next week, then it goes back to the regular price of $12.

Special Order Instruments Timeline

We're still about four months out on special order instruments, so an order placed now would be done in (roughly) early December. If you're thinking that you want an instrument for your New Year's Eve celebration, I suggest that you order it right away. Wow! In another month, I'll be reminding folks to "Order Now" for Valentine's Day!

I'm going to head back to the shop now, and try to get a few more pieces and parts made up (it's been dulcimer tops for me, this week) before I head home for the evening.

Thanks for reading, Y'all - Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Richard Ash, luthier-who's-grateful-for-each-and-every-one-of-you-and-for-all-of-your-support-over-the-years