"Silvan" wrote in message
...
Dad has one of these things, made of walnut. I've played with it, but I
never thought much about it until I heard an interview with a group called
Laliya on the radio. Wow! A mountain dulcimer can sound like that?!

Ever since then, I've been gnawing on the idea that I'd like to have one
of
those, and it would probably be a good first instrument project because
they're not terribly complicated.


That's the essence of the instrument. It makes pleasant noise no matter how
it's made. The noise is from the strings, the "voice" from the box.

Foxfire is a good source. Reader's Digest folk art book has one, FWW has
had some, but they're woodworking tours-de-force rather than a home-made
instrument.

A number of kids at school made them from Foxfire, which is what I had on
hand. Wood for the sounding board had greater volume if it was coniferous,
though the holes were a big factor. Best -sounding was made from some
resawn spruce 2x8 from a barn of indeterminate age, though even eastern
white cedar sounded better than hardwoods like red oak (tinky brittle).
Tradition had them out of hardwood, though, so I imagine it's a personal
thing. Most beautiful was a face of burled cherry, though I tried to talk
them into quartersawn wood, mostly.

We used hobby shop brass for frets, though some also used simple brazing
rod. Key is the cutting/leveling. I believe the jig in FWW is a good a
place to look at that aspect. I rigged one for a Dremel with router base
that worked well for the rod frets.

The sound holes worked well with anything from overlapping Forstner holes to
fretsaw. I never set up a router template, but that would probably work
just fine.