Dusty, we are in the same situation. We had our first 'in house' company' last night. All had their shots and we had a great time. It is good being able to re-establish person to person contact with little fear.
Being from Tennessee I, also, just had to made a Tennessee Music Box. 
It was a fun project and have been asked to demo it on a few occasions.
My wife lost one of her brothers last week due to complications caused by Covid. Please use all recommended precautions and be safe! Unfortunately we live in a state, Tn., where the govt. officials have not taken the virus seriously. :(
My wife and I had minimal reactions; some what of a sore arm for a day and a bit of fatigue for a couple of days. Other than that all went well. Hopefully the reactions will be mild for the majority.
Thank you Ken, I just wish I had thought of the other variable you brought up re the internal volume. However even if I had, I don't have the math skills to calculate the volume of either of the two shapes. Anyway, both do sound pretty good to an amateur's ears. :)
Well, my experiment on body shape affecting sound went awry do to me forgetting one important variable. However, I did end up with a couple decent dulcimers. Both made from the same poplar board. Ebony was used for the overlay on the fretboard. Other than shape, all components and dimensions are identical.
It is a vicious disease as all of you know. We are doing alright; many have suffered more than us. We just ask everyone follow the recommended procedures so we get through this asap. Our biggest frustration is all the 'deniers' out there that feel it is 'all about them and their freedom' and don't understand they have a responsibility to protect everyone; themselves included.
Last March my wife's youngest brother was the first Covid patient admitted to Vanderbilt hospital in Tn. and put on a ventilator; he survived and is doing 'ok'. Her oldest brother passed away yesterday from Covid in Alabama. And, no we can't attend the service. We just got our second round of shots.
Opps, Ken you are exactly correct! Oh well, it's been fun building them; especially since we were not able to go Florida this month. 
I'm close to finishing an 'experiment'; building two identical dulcimers with the exception of the shape of the body. They are even out of the same board. The reason is to see if I can hear a significant tone difference. I'll post results and pictures when finished. 
Just for clarification: Tennessee Tech's Appalachian Center for Crafts are not the same. Maxwell's Craft center was privately owned and preceded the Appalachian Center for Crafts. I do own one of his dulcimers, and live in Cookeville, Tn. where he had his shop and his dulcimers were built; made primarily for the tourist trade but overall not a bad instrument. The wooden pegs are a pain to keep in tune however.
I just use traditional, stylish, wall hooks and a large loop of leather lacing placed over the head and then on the hook.
I use a thin layer of Ebony, 1/8 to 3/16", when the fretboard material is a relatively soft wood such as cedar, or popular. It helps me feel comfortable the frets will stay embedded and does add a nice contrast to the parent woods (if you like that sort of thing).
My warmups are: Kumbaya, and This Land is My Land.... :) They put me in a good mood.
Well thank you. It has a great tone, and I have a request to build another; not for charity.
I'm still making a few to donate to charity auctions in our area. The cedar, with ebony overlay on the fretboard, went in an auction that closed last Friday.
My grandkids love the following, sung to the tune of Mary Had A Little Lamb: Bunny rabbits have no tails, have no tails; Bunny rabbits have no tails, they use powder puffs; Same song, Second Verse... Bunny Rabbits have no tails, etc.
No, doesn't make any sense but the kids love it. :) Like, 99 bottles of beer on the wall....etc. :)
"You will need a very thin-bladed screwdriver though, so you don't strip the heads of those teenie screws." Or you may need a very small phillips head screwdriver.
We schedule the updates on all our devices to take place automatically so it really isn't an inconvenience. And they really are not quite that often: Since the past few years, Apple has consistently released major iOS Updates every year around September. They also release incremental updates with critical bug fixes and updates based upon the feedback every quarter (usually). As far as our smart phones go, we enjoy the fact we have our calendars, grocery lists, do it lists, diet programs, weather, maps, flashlight, compass, camera, photos, music, boarding passes, scan & go (for shopping), research tool (Google), wallet, shopping cards, and hearing aid controls all on small tool (smartphone) that fits snuggly in our pocket; and yes we use them as a phone also. Overall, the smart phone is an amazing device. 
Apple and their products are always a good 'debate' topic. Yes they are pricy, and yes they upgrade too fast for my speed. However, on the flip side I appreciate their attempts at leading, or at least keeping up, with the technology. For me it's a matter of just how much speed to do I actually need? Right now, and for the foreseeable future, I don't need any more. Despite the obvious negatives, I am sticking with quality and reliability; for now at least.
Welcome Steve, there are lots of great members in these forums. Harry
Thank you!! I contribute a dulcimer every year to three live auction fund raiser events: Habitat for Humanity, Rescue Mission, and the Pink Gala. Now I can add a nice case, mine just arrived today, to each contribution. I feel it is a great value!
By slightly raising the string you have increased the tension ever so slightly which could cause it to be 'slightly' sharp down the entire fretboard. Retune that one string and see what happens.
Debbie, thank you. I do not have a website. Building dulcimers is a primarily a hobby for me. What you see is the second of my builds. About half of my builds are donated to local charities such as Habitat for Humanity and Pink Gala. The rest of my builds are commissioned pieces simply generated by word of mouth. Being this is a hobby, and I prefer not to work to deadlines, I don't promise a finish date but usually have them completed within a month or two. It is nice to be able to enjoy retirement at my own pace. Other posts of mine contain photos of some of my other builds; each one is a unique/custom build.
For what it's worth, I'm building an 18" vsl Octave dulcimer and Ron Ewing recommended, for DAD tuning, that I use 10, 14, and 20 ga. strings. I'll let you know who it works when I finish it.
Thanks Bob. :) I have some other requests involving tropicals so I need to be assured of quality finishes.
Thanks folks. I normally am asked by clients for walnut, maple, and/or cherry; sometimes cedar and others. The weight of this build was considerably heavier but it definately did not affect the sound in a negative manner what-so-ever.
This commissioned piece was built of Rosewood, Bloodwood, and Satinwood; the wood was provided by the client. I found out, after the fact, that rosewood does not like polyurethane; should have googled it first. However, was able to remove the poly and successfully replace with two coats of polish and all is well.
Steven, that is similar to the 6 strings I am asked to build at times. The only difference is a single vs. double middle string.
I totally agree with Ken. I hollow all my fretboards to approx. 1/4" thick on the sides and top. The hollow runs from the nut area and stops just short of the strum hollow. And, similar to John's suggestion, I also cut a wide slot in the soundboard under the entire fretboard.
A canjo would not be appreciably affected by the heat.... no glued wood joints, only one string (easily tuned if needed), etc. Go ahead and make a nice one out of a single piece of wood, a can, one tuner, a few frets, nut and bridge, and one string and have fun. :)
Most of my work starts with 3/4 rough sawn lumber and I work it down from there with a combination of using my surfacer, resawing, and horizontal drum sander, and then hand sanders. Thanks Ken, I'll try to find those ED discussions.
Robert, I still use three thin cross braces but am going to try going to braces that don't go across the entire bottom. Usually my bracing is only for support of the bottom and doesn't touch the top as I rely on the fret board for that support. I do hollow the fretboard to provide more 'open space' inside the instrument; minor addition but I believe every cubic inch helps.
I did a search but nada.... so, the question is: What effect does the thickness of the top and bottom of the instrument have on the length of sound sustain? Secondly, what thicknesses do most of you prefer for your tops and bottoms? Right now I am working at 1/8" to 1/10" but mostly 1/8".
"Nobody Knows the Trouble I see" and/or "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley"
Dusty Tutle: "As you found out, it can be hard to keep the loop ends on until there is enough tension on the string." I use a set of needle nose pliers to close the loop end so it is just a pressure fit over the pin; it doesn't come off while restringing, but the capo is another good idea.
