I’ve been using three tapered pegs as both a mechanical joint and decorative feature on dulcimer pegheads for a few years. The pegs alone would hold the peghead on very well, but the peghead is also fully glued to the support beneath it.
Until today, I glued on the peghead and added the tapered pegs once the glue had fully set. Due to the angles involved, this is one of the glue-ups that can get a little messy while holding the peghead in place with one hand and cleaning up glue squeeze-out with the other and avoiding letting the peghead slide out of place. I have gotten pretty good at peghead wrangling, but today, I had an “Aha!” moment.
I drilled 1/16″ holes where the pegs will go and used two 1/16″ bits as pins to hold the peghead in place, and the peghead happily stays exactly where it needs to be. Cleaning up glue is simple again, birds are singing in the trees, and all is well in my happy place.
I had hoped to be posting more regularly on this blog, and I still hope to do so. I began this blog in 2007, and sometimes I wonder if it has run its course. The primary obstacle to posting more is not having anything to say. That statement will amuse people who know me, but it does happen!
But I’m not giving up on this blog, and I will be posting as inspiration comes. I don’t want to create “content” just for the sake of creating content.
In the meantime, I often post photographs of what I’m working on via Instagram if you want to take a peek.
And thanks for continuing to follow this blog. Some of you have been with it since the beginning!
On the bench is a prototype dulcimer waiting for a few days of scraping, filing, sanding, and detailing.
It looks very much like the dulcimers I have been making for several years, but there are some differences in both the design and methods of construction.
On this dulcimer, the soundboard is significantly thinner than I usually go with Adirondack spruce, and the bracing is different to accommodate this.
The fingerboard is built up in laminations to keep it stable. I have laminated the fingerboards using 2 pieces stacked, and if using ebony or another exotic wood for a fingerboard, a third layer. On this dulcimer, as on the last several dulcimers I have made, I’ve also laminated side pieces to the fingerboard. To my eye, it looks nicer, and it also adds stiffness and stability without adding any extra weight. The difference on this dulcimer is the fingerboard is less tall, which makes it weigh less, and my thought is it will provide stronger transmission of the vibration of the strings through the fretboard into the soundboard.
The back has a center reinforcement strip and two light cross braces rather than the 3 or more cross braces I usually use, and it is built to have more flex than usual. As per usual, I plane an arch in the back braces and force the back flat while it gets glued on to add strength.
I’ve gone back to a smaller peghead, similar to the size I used in the past, but the block the peghead is mounted to is more massive. I like the way it looks. The spacing of the tuning machines is asymmetric, which is what I typically do, but I modified the design so drilling a hole and adding another tuner to turn a 3-string into a 4-string is possible.
There are some other things. I’ve moved the zero fret slightly to adjust the intonation at the first fret because, due to the compromises of equal temperament, there are certain chords using the first fret that never sound quite right to my ear. The hitch pins for the strings will go on top of the fingerboard behind the bridge, like I used to do years ago. I think it adds a bit of tension, slight though it may be, on the soundboard that adds some power but without the shorter sustain that can happen with a floating tail.
My ability to work has been more limited lately; my back issues missed me and have come to visit, and the hope is to avoid another surgery. With this comes fatigue, and on some days when my body feels up to working, my mind is sometimes a little too foggy to do accurate work with sharp tools. I have learned, repeatedly, that when I decide to work on those days, I don’t do my best work and end up doing it over, so it is best to take a break.
I’m still coming to terms with these limitations, as I have for quite a few years. Generally, I’m okay with it, and I find that though I make fewer dulcimers than I once did, it is easier to enjoy the process of making the ones I do get to make!
It has been a long time since I have built one dulcimer at a time, and I enjoy working this way. I have usually started three dulcimers at once, gotten the woodworking done, and then gone back to working on each dulcimer individually. Once this prototype is completed, I might try working on two dulcimers rather than three.
I’m no longer taking advance orders, but I do have a waiting list, so if you are interested in having one of my dulcimers, please feel free to contact me about getting on the list. As dulcimers become available, I’ll contact whoever is first on the list, and if they aren’t interested, then the second person, etc.
I do this work because I love to do it, and I plan to do it for as long as I can!
There hasn’t been much news from the workbench lately, but I hope there will be more soon!
After completing three dulcimers a few months ago, I had to take a break from working in the shop on a regular basis due to some lower back issues that missed me and decided to come for a visit. I’ve been working with excellent physical therapists, and I am improving, so I am gently and cautiously getting back to the fun and adventure of making dulcimers!
In the photo is a dulcimer that came back for some repair a few weeks ago, and it was the perfect project to get my hands back in the game, requiring light work, much of which could be done seated.
I did work as I could here and there, so I started work on a few fretboards that are now ready for slotting and carving the strum hollow, joined some backs and soundboards and bent some sides, so I have most of the wood prepared for the next three or four dulcimers. I should be making some headway with the new batch fairly soon. How much and how often I can work is still unpredictable, but I’m thankful for as much as I can do.
As I am no longer taking custom orders, I’m trying to find the best way to make various options available, so I plan to build a variety of variations on the theme, and I can always add a few extra frets on request, set them up for different tunings, etc.
I am keeping a list of people who are interested in having one of my dulcimers, and as they become available, I will contact people in the order they asked to be on the list and give them the first look to see if I have made anything they would like before posting them for sale. If you would like to be on the list, please contact me.
That’s about it. After a long, very hot and humid day, there is now thunder, rain and a cool breeze. I am thankful for the small things, which are often much larger than they appear
On the bench is what will be a 3-string cherry bass dulcimer with walnut binding. The back and sides are complete, and I’ve started work on the fingerboard and soundboard.
This cherry bass dulcimer is also last on the list of advance and customer orders I have been working through for several years.
I had attempted to stop taking advance orders a few times before, but always failed to do so, but the time has come, and it seems like the best way to move forward.
In 2007, when I started making dulcimers again after a 25-year break, I was productive enough to usually have 3 or 4 dulcimers available for sale on my website while working on a similar number of custom instruments. This worked out well, kept me busy, and it meant someone could purchase a dulcimer from me immediately, but if they wanted something different from what I currently had available, I could make it for them within the next 6 months or so.
In 2012, I developed back issues that impaired my ability to work as much or as often as I would like. People waiting for dulcimers have been wonderfully patient and understanding. Since prioritizing making dulcimers for people who were waiting for them, I have rarely had time to make dulcimers available for immediate sale. The ebb and flow of dealing with physical challenges has made it difficult to predict how much and how often I can work in the shop, and as I’ve learned to accept that, I’m going to embrace what I consider the best way for me to remain both productive and happy.
My plan is to continue making dulcimers as I am able and offering them for sale when they are complete. There are also new ideas I want to try and styles of dulcimer and dulcimer-like instruments I hope to be making soon.
Even when I was most productive, I was not a production-oriented dulcimer maker. I’m always trying new ideas and new methods of work, and though not the best way to turn out a larger number of dulcimers, I find it is how I thrive and do my best work.
So the adventure continues, and I do hope to have dulcimers available for sale during the next several months.
I post photos of dulcimers in progress on Instagram far more often than I post here, so please take a look if you find that sort of thing of interesting!
My dulcimer making process is consistently inconsistent.
Maybe a better way to say that is my methods and design are in a constant state of evolution.
There are certain measurements and features that need to be precise; fret placement, fretwork, setup, action, bridge compensation, string spacing, etc., but when it comes to exact body shape and size, bracing, thickness or thinness of the top, sides and back, and just about every other detail, they are unique to each dulcimer.
My methods of work suit my temperament. I like to work by feel and intuition, and most of the work is accomplished using traditional hand tools. I like to get intimate and personal with my work, and I let the wood dictate a lot of where the final design is heading.
Because of how I approach dulcimer making, I don’t make parts in bulk. I tried that for a short time, and I found it creatively constraining. I prefer to make each part for each dulcimer, and the proportions of each part are based on all the other parts as the dulcimer comes together. Making a dulcimer is like watching a plant grow.
That’s how I do this. My methodology would be ineffective if I was trying to produce dulcimers in a more economically viable quantity, but anytime I have tried doing production work, even on a small scale, I don’t enjoy the process, as it feels like I am manufacturing rather than crafting, and it is the process of crafting I enjoy and love.
My blog posts have become infrequent, but I regularly post photos of the thrill and adventure of being a dulcimer maker on Instagram.
Tool marks bear witness to the work that went in to making something by hand.
When making a forensic study of historic musical instruments it is possible to learn about the tools and methods of work used in construction by subtle hints left behind.
I have been fortunate to see several collections of early instruments over the years and a few times my enthusiasm led to being admitted to the “inner sanctum” of a museum collection. While working at Elderly Instruments I handled and studied some of the finest vintage fretted instruments made during the last 150 or so years.
The industrial revolution gave the world consistency of reproduction; multiple copies of the same object would look and work identically to any other that came off the assembly line. What was lost was the human touch, the soul that was given to each object by an artisan’s hands.
Many of the fine historic instruments I have studied showed telltale signs of being hand crafted. There were slight inconsistencies in shape and proportion and signs that a skilled hand had executed the work. These same instruments were not “clean” according to current manufacturing standards. By this I mean the finish did not turn wood into something looking like a laminated counter-top, sound holes and decorative features showed the skill of the maker and not the precision of a cookie cutter.
Tool marks are witnesses and signatures of the hands that made things. I am not referring to careless work or swirls left by machine sanding; I am referring to slight irregularities of cut and line, small marks left in wood by an edge tool showing where parts were hand shaped and fitted, etc.
In my own work as a dulcimer maker I prefer to leave subtle tool marks as they naturally arise.
As an example, the photograph above shows the braces and center reinforcement strip on the back of a dulcimer. I shaped the center strip with a chisel and scraper. Left behind are some slight irregularities in the bevels on the sides of the center strip. I could sand the center strip to perfection but I see no point to it. I am proud of what I accomplished using two simple hand tools and feel no need to hide that in my work by sanding it to oblivion.
Working this way causes me to increasingly develop my skill and confidence using tools. I enjoy that as well.
A dulcimer doesn’t have a neck but it has something under the fingerboard that sort of serves as a neck. Calling it a neck doesn’t really make sense but when the dulcimer has a fingerboard on top of the object that shall not be called a neck then appropriate terminology becomes even more confusing.
For no particular reason I refer to the lower portion of the assembly as the fretboard and call the fingerboard overlay the fingerboard. When describing a fretboard with a fingerboard on it I refer to the assembled unit as a fretboard.
In the photograph above I’m gluing the fretboard assembly to a dulcimer soundboard.
The soundboard is clamped to a flat workboard. Two clamps come in from the sides holding scraps of wood that rest against the sides of the fretboard at either end. This makes it easy to accurately place the fretboard in the right spot and helps prevent it from moving while I apply the clamps.
I use an old trick to clamp the full length of the fretboard down using only two clamps. A long, warped piece of wood is used as a clamping caul with the concave side facing down along the length of the fretboard. When I clamp both ends down the flattening of the warped wood exerts pressure along the entire length of the fretboard.
You can follow more of my my action-packed adventures as a dulcimer maker by following me on Instagram.
