Dulcimer At Work And At Play

April 8, 2022

Hello Everyone - Happy Friday!

It takes a lot of work to make a dulcimer. There are three of us making instruments, and while all three of us can to most any of the work, we tend to specialize to some degree.

Dad (aka Jim, left) makes most of the heads and fretboards. The fretboard is the most critical part of an instrument, and the fussiest (and most difficult) to make.  A simple fretboard with no veneers and no racing stripes can take a couple of hours to make. Adding the three racing stripes and an ebony veneer can double the time it takes to make a fretboard.

in this photo, Dad's using epoxy adhesive to attach an ebony (Gabon ebony, the good stuff!) to a walnut fingerboard. He'll clamp the veneer to the fingerboard, then let the assembly cure overnight before taking the next steps.

Cheyenne (right) is preparing a side set in this photo. On the table in front of him, you can see a teardrop-shaped body. He bent the sides (using a side bender made by FolkRoots founder Howard Rugg in 1974) earlier in the day, and he's just finished gluing the sides to the head block and the tail block.

Cheyenne is doing most of our dulcimer assembly these days. He takes Dad's head and fretboard, plus top, back, and sides made by me, and carefully fits the pieces. It is slow, painstaking work, and (if you want perfect joints) the job can't be rushed. After the instrument is fully assembled, Cheyenne then spends between two and three hours hand sanding each instrument.

When he's happy with the dulcimer, Cheyenne then passes it off to me for lacquering and setup. A coat of sanding sealer, then hand sanding. Then three coats of nitrocellulose lacquer, with sanding between each coat. and finally, steel wool with polishing compound after the final coat of lacquer.

There are a LOT of discrete steps, and it's a well-choreographed routine as we work together.  We do this (build dulcimers) for you. Our shop worksheets list the specs of an instrument - scale length, woods used, sound holes, etc. - plus the names of the person that we're making it for. Thank you for having us build your instruments!