Hi Nate, It wasnt rocket science, I drew the parts out in inkscape and sent them to my laser cutter as SVGs. I paid for the butterfly motif STLs to make the sound holes. The parts for the strings, head, bridge etc. were printed on a 3d printer.
Thanks for the interest and the advice Nate. The dulcimer is made from 3mm ply, hence the painting! I was only unsure about the soundboard as it was too big and clunky, the sound was fine and the sympathetic strings really make things ring out. I have laser cut a new sound board to fit flush as I have seen pictures of other dulcimers which do this. I will post a picture of it but havent fitted it or decorated it yet. I have a gurdy and a nyckelharpa that both benefit from having sympathetic strings so I thought I would try them on a dulcimer and I am peased with the result. Having it fully fretted make it easier to find those "difficult " notes and also to change key either using a capo or fingering the chords differently. I attach some pictures to show the details, if anyone wants to try I can send the drawings and STL files of the 3d printed parts, i.e. the head, bridge, nut and mount for the sympathetic strings machine head.
Wow, that's pretty cool Chris. What material is the dulcimer made from? Also, do you mean that it has an additional sound board on the inside of the instrument?
it is underneath the dulcimer (to stop it being muffled by the knees!). I am not happy with it so I am going to change that.
Hi, Its along time since I have been on here, but I have decided to become active again. I started by building me a new dulcimer. This on has 6 strings plus 8 sympathetic strings. Also a sounding board. It sounds quite nice
Hi, Its along time since I have been on here, but I have decided to become active again. I started by building me a new dulcimer. This on has 6 strings plus 8 sympathetic strings. Also a sounding board. It sounds quite nice
thanks for the headsup. It was unpublished! Should be okay now...
This might be of interest to new players who are struggling with chords, keys, transposing etc.
Video:
3D CAD files:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4254440
