Terry McCafferty's dulcimers all have an extended strum hollow and only 15 frets.  That extended strum hollow is wonderful.  It creates a more comfortable place for strumming and eliminates the problem of the pick hitting the fretboard, which risks both making unwanted noise and also damaging the fretboard, as @greg-gunner suggests.  The 15 frets mean you have exactly two octaves, but the truth is that after 13 or so, the frets become too small to be practical.

Those strumsticks that only give you one octave are obviously limiting, but to be honest, I rarely play above 13.

That looks like a well made and beautifully maintained dulcimer.

Yeah nobody 'has to' play higher up than the main octave... but it can add lots of fun and welcome variety. I've found when i play oldtime tunes on my banjo I can indeed 'mostly' get away with playing all below the 8th fret... but when i play civil war era banjo stuff I really need to venture up higher in certain places for many tunes if I want to play them as written.

Reminds me of a banjo builder who made the neck scoop to the seventh fret. When asked why he said nobody has to play any higher up....Robert

A couple of questions to ponder when looking at this dulcimer:

How often do you actually play above the 13th fret ?

Where does most of the strumming damage occur on the fretboard?

It was a local craigslist item, and I was able to go see it. Was made by "Peacewood Instruments" in 1991 in Lawton, MI. No maker signature. Beautifully made, and in mint condition. I didn't buy it, but was tempted,  even with the odd number of frets.

I agree with Ken about the strum hollow and the few frets. It would be somewhat limiting for players. Nicely made instrument though!

Taking into account that one of those frets is the 6.5, it only goes up to fret #12.

I agree with the previous responses. I am curious as to why the builder made such a long strum hollow and has only thirteen frets. It would be very difficult to play two octaves.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

It looks really nice!  

Looks to be very well crafted!