Mystery dulcimer, perhaps from the 70's

Ken Longfield
Ken Longfield
@ken-longfield
2 years ago
1,073 posts

Interesting dulcimer, but I have no clue as to who the builder might be.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

John C. Knopf
John C. Knopf
@john-c-knopf
2 years ago
385 posts

I haven't seen that sort of dulcimer before either.  There are nice ones offered on Shop Goodwill Online from time to time.  

I like to buy old dulcimer kits and put them together, whenever I see a good one on there.  Hope you enjoy it!

ocean-daughter
@ocean-daughter
2 years ago
45 posts

Ken, I found it on shopgoodwill.com, the auction site.  Goodwill organizations from all over the country sell on there.  The seller was actually Missouri Goodwill Industries, but you never know how it got there and from whence it came.  

There are usually a few interesting dulcimers on that site.  I check in every so often. 

Ken Hulme
Ken Hulme
@ken-hulme
2 years ago
2,111 posts

Haven't a clue as to the builder, but I love the flower-scroll tuning head.  Where on the Goodwill site did you find it?  What town/state?  It has a certain "California" feel about it.

Robin Thompson
Robin Thompson
@robin-thompson
2 years ago
1,415 posts

That's a lovely instrument, one made by a person with a lot of skill.  Enjoy!  

TheresaSC
TheresaSC
@theresasc
2 years ago
11 posts

That is really nice looking, good find!

ocean-daughter
@ocean-daughter
2 years ago
45 posts

I have this beautiful dulcimer, which I found on the Goodwill auction site.  It is diatonic, so I'm guessing it's not very recent, but the style of the bird soundholes looks somewhat modern to me.  So I'm guessing possibly 70's or early 80's, early in the big resurgence.  The dogwood flower on the peghead of course makes me think of Kentucky, but there are several other states where the dogwood is common and beloved. 

It came with ebony pegs, but they drove me crazy trying to tune it, so I had them replaced with geared pegs so I could actually enjoy playing it.  The VSL is a little longer than I'm comfortable with--it's 27.88 inches, and my comfort zone is more like 25-26 for fingerdance; I'm going to try tuning it in DAA/DAG so I can play more in the center of the fretboard, and I'm also going to try using a noter.    

The style of the soundholes makes it tricky to see inside, but I tried today with a flashlight and I don't see any label in there.  Has anyone seen a dulcimer similar to this, and do you know who might have made it?  What with all the pretty details, as well as the arched fretboard, I can't believe it's a one-off. 

I'm partly curious and I partly wanted to share this pretty dulcimer. 

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