Here is the full story, as written for the UK Nonsuch News. As you say, I could certainly imagine Marc playing dulcimer.
Nick Odell Dulcimers
In July I bought yet another dulcimer on eBay. You would think I would know better by now, but no. It was hand made by one Nick Odell. When it arrived it was apparent that it had a very short scale length, just less than 23”. Had I known this I would not have bid for it. I contacted the vendor who said he was a guitarist and had received it as a birthday present a few years ago, and having never seen another dulcimer had no idea they normally had a longer scale length. I fully accepted this. It was tuned approximately to DAD but the strings were quite loose in that tuning so I retuned it to DDG which worked well. But it still felt too small for me. It was very well made, though the finish wasn’t great. I know some people like smaller dulcimers so I thought I would enquire if Geoff Black either knew anything about the maker or might be interested in finding it a home. Geoff replied that he knew nothing of the maker other than that he had been Marc Bolan’s guitar repair man in the early 1970s, a repair label signed by him in July 1972 being recently used as provenance for a Gibson Les Paul which was supposedly owned by Marc, and had come up for auction. It is well known that Marc’s house was ransacked immediately after his death and all his guitars were stolen, many of which have since re-appeared at auction. A germ of an idea began; could my dulcimer perhaps have been owned, built for, or even just been played by Bolan?
Enquiries to Bolan fan sites revealed nothing but a thread on Mudcat led to my being able to contact Nick himself. He explained the dulcimer had nothing whatsoever to do with Marc. “I was a senior repairman in Gibson's UK operation, Bolan was a Gibson endorsee, his Gibson guitars came back to the workshops for servicing as per the endorsement agreement and I was the chap who did them.” Oh well!
The dulcimers date from the mid-1980s. “I designed the instrument primarily as a kit which I manufactured and sold from my shop/workshop in Outwell, near Wisbech. Whilst I designed the dulcimer with the same attention I gave to my other instruments my primary motive was to produce a kit to put in my shop window. The village where I lived had narrowboat moorings and boaters as well as musicians used to call in. Some of the things in my shop were aimed at the boaters and the dulcimer kit was intended to be not too expensive for an impulse buy, not too much of a challenge for an amateur to build and to give finished results they could be proud of and enjoy playing. It came with a plan and instructions. I built a few of them myself and sold them as complete instruments. If yours is one of those it will have my label and the completion date was the serial number read backwards.”
My model does have a label but it is so far inside the sound-hole I haven’t been able to read the date. My model also has a brass nut and a brass bridge, plus downward-facing tuners which are obviously a mandolin four-on-a-plate set cut in half! Readers with an interest in electric guitars may remember the 80s fad for brass nuts and bridge fittings on electric and sometimes even acoustic guitars which was intended to increase sustain. I asked Nick why he chose the shorter scale length.
“Scale length was partly based on the standard-sized boxes I bought to ship them in (yes, really) and partly on preference for the tone banjo strings produced on an all-mahogany body strung at a lower tension. The original machine heads were individual one-on-a-plate with two screw holes which came from the wholesaler described as banjo tuners. If I built it you should find evidence of the original screw holes under the plate. And the original bridge and nut were - I think - plastic but could have been bone but definitely not brass.”
He kindly sent me a copy of the blueprint that came with the kit. It shows that the sides were pre-bent and also that the purchaser had to cut their own sound-holes. The suggested tuning was CC-G-C.
Nick latterly worked for the schools music service in Huddersfield, West Yorks. and built a few more of his own instruments during that period. He retired in 2017. He appears in an online video made by Fenland District Council intended to promote local industries. It is called “Small Firms in Fenland” and is found on Daily Motion. Nick is featured about nine minutes in and is shown in his workshop.
Grahame Hood
Hey, Fodderwing!
For years, we had a crippled doe in our neck of the woods-- one of her hooves was turned under and she hobbled along on that first joint. She lived a long time and I don't know what became of her.
Check your messages. [Hover over your name, upper right]
Hi Jamie. Welcome to the wonderful world of FOTMD. If you stick around a while, you will make many new friends here.
Literally just got my dulcimer yesterday and then read the decidedly lukewarm opine of Roosebeck instruments but what's done is done. Anyone want to donate a dulcimer to someone that made a mistake?
Don't let anyone tell you your first dulcimer purchase was a mistake no matter the brand. I played the first seven years on a $100 kit with friction pegs. I wrote many of my tunes on that dulcimer and I performed with it at the World's Fair in 1986 and the Seattle Folklife festival.
If you play a little bit everyday you will get better regardless of the instrument. Can you find a better instrument? Absolutely! You can spend $4000 on a dulcimer but you will not learn any faster.
You are about to discover that every dulcimer you purchase or build from here on will never be enough. 
Welcome StringHopper and TwoGunBob!
(..I'm a secret HP Lovecraft fan myself)
Well heck... Firstly I'm not a Bob but a Jamie. TGB was my internet handle from way back that came from being a Robert E. Howard fan (creator of Conan) as H.P. Lovecraft called him Two Gun Bob and I adopted the moniker and all. Literally just got my dulcimer yesterday and then read the decidedly lukewarm opine of Roosebeck instruments but what's done is done. Anyone want to donate a dulcimer to someone that made a mistake? All said I sat down learning The Water is Wide and muddled through. If anything the challenge is getting those hand positions which are different from bass AND different from the balalaika. At least the balalaika prepped me for using my thumb so there's that.
I've played electric bass guitar for around 31 years. Rolling the clock back to being young and rebellious...
And then there was this stint doing cow punk...
And at the same time STILL playing angry music...
All that folded up about ten years ago and I pretty much just tinkered on the bass and got bored so picked up the balalaika last year to try my hand at Russian folk music. After a year I decided to branch out again and ordered the dulcimer and joined here as I really miss being a part of a musical community. I appreciate the warm welcomes so far and look forward to getting stuck in with yet another new instrument.
Let's see... In the last ten years I spend a lot of my time when not working painting figures for wargaming. The gaming is mostly to justify painting as that relaxes me even more than playing music. Honestly, when I'm not in a band playing live I kind of get depressed about the music thing. right now I'm working on an American Civil War project, probably what ignited the interest in the dulcimer.
Also done a plethora of fantasy/sci fi stuff over the years.
And that's about it for the moment. Look forward to getting to know this community and learning about yet another instrument.
KenH already told you what I would tell you. Have fun putting it together. The kit makes a very nice dulcimer. Take your time. Don't hurry your work. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Thanks Lisa, for all you do for the dulcimer world! 
This is Fodderwing. She is an orphan who's mom was hit by a car. Not my pet but comes up to the back porch to visit occasionally. She actually came over to greet a deer hunter who hunts my farm!. The guy was dumbfounded to see this deer following him around. To cute to shoot.... Robert
Hi everyone! I am finally getting the time to get on to this forum, I am coming in from the old Everything Dulcimer forum (Asterhunter). My wife Sharon and I play and practice a lot together, and play in public every once in a while. We have a fairly active YouTube channel, one of our latest is here:
I'm sure I'll find some old friends here!
David Elosser
I'd like to say that Ken's two articles have stood the test of time and are regularly inquired about by beginners. Since the demise of EverythingDulcimer .com, along with its go-to collection of articles, I've noticed that folks do continue asking about where to find Ken's articles. Finding these kinds of resources on random Facebook groups is next to impossible.
Thus, it makes sense to have these be more easily located on FOTMD than they were in the past.
Thanks Ken for your efforts in writing them and in helping out dulcimer beginners over the years.
Ask and ye shall receive.
I've replaced the old pdf in that thread with the revised PDF that gives the correct octave in the tuning instructions.
Here's the link to it in FOTMD's Resources forum, and I pinned it to the top position:
And I also put one in the Beginner's Group, here:
https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group_discuss/2316/ken-hulmes-i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what-article
Additionally, I pinned Ken's "Get Noterized" article thread to the top of the Traditional Playing Style Forum, here:
AND I put another thread with the Get Noterized article in the Old Style Noter Drone GROUP, here:
https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group_discuss/2317/ken-hulmes-get-noterized-article
The original balalaika was a diatonic fretted instrument, but that changed, IIRC, in the mid- late-1800s. If you can find a diatonic one, hang on to it!
Here's the current, corrected version...
The version that Lisa mentions is stored here under Dulcimer Resources, and I can't delete it, or replace with the correct version.
@hoodoo If you are a fan of the music of Phyllis Gaskins, check out decades-old recording by Bonnie Russell and the Russell family.
I've had interest in the use of mountain dulcimer in a string band context. Two records, both released this year, have been delights:
-The Long Point String Band- Piney Woods
-Roger Netherton
The mountain dulcimer player in both recordings is Hunter Walker. Though dulcimer isn't played on every cut, when it's played, it is tasteful and in the service of getting a great overall ensemble sound. The Roger Netherton record was recorded at the home old-time musician Rachel Eddy with friends in support of Netherton, a fiddle champ at Winfield in a recent year.
Sorry. I was not aware of the mistake. I will have to save the correct one once someone posts it.
Cool! E E A, eh?
Well it's wonderful that you are exploring both the balalaika in its native state and the mtn dulcimer! If you ever can post a video of a simple tune on your balalaika I'm sure we'd all love to watch it! 
Kevin (and others), please be aware that the pdf you attached is an older version of Ken's article which contains a problematic mistake when instructing how to tune.
At the bottom of page 8 it says to tune the Bass string to D4, the D to the right of and higher than Middle C (C4) on a piano. This is incorrect and you will break all your strings if you start there and go up.
Instead, be sure to tune the Bass string to D3 ...the D LOWER than and to the left of Middle C on a piano. Thus, tuning to DAd is actually D3, A3, d4 (d4 being the high melody d string)
I believe Ken has since corrected this error in his article. But there are incorrect versions are still floating around out there in internet land.
Here's some more links to tuning assistance:
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-notes-do-i-tune-my-strings-to.html
It was very much to play traditional Russian folk music so I've kept to the E-E-A tuning with two nylon and one steel string while playing with the flesh of the index finger as opposed to a pick. Nowhere near getting to a level of pizzicato or double pizzicato but I can muddle through The Peddlers (the Tetris song) and The Moon Shines Softly. Being in north Texas there's a Russian folk society in Houston I've contacted but nothing local(ish) and not much of an English speaking online community. There's 152 of us in all of Reddit. So, I'm excited about also dipping into the dulcimer cause this seems like a lively and supportive community and not quite so alone with an instrument as I've been with the balalaika.
I heard back from the maker- there was no connection. The dulcimers date from the early 80's. He worked for Gibson in the early 70s, Bolan was a Gibson endorsee and Nick serviced his guitars as part of the contract.
Thanks a bunch!
Phil
Well I think one important question would be ...what kind of music do you want to play on your balalaika? They look to be chromatically fretted, so if you 'don't' aim to play specific Russian kinds of music, you could just tune the 3 strings however you wanted... in intervals like mandolin/fiddle 5ths, like a dulcimer, like 3 strings of a guitar, or like a 3 string Uke. The only limits are the fact of only 3 strings. The scale length would tell you what gauge strings to put on once you've decided on the tuning you want.
The other approach is if you want to tune it and play it in traditional balalaika style. Sometimes there are youtube instructional videos that you can follow for beginners of any instrument- that are in another language but are not all that hard to follow- just listen for and duplicate the tuning being used, and then do along with what the video person is doing.
Picked a tourist model up last October, or rather my son found one in a pile of 'weird instruments' and convinced me to buy it. About three months later I did figure out the instrument was REALLY meant for the mantle and not to be played. Went ahead and ordered a Roosebeck and have been desperately working on learning to play it over the last year. Unfortunately resources in English are few and far between. Part of the reason for getting a Dulcimer was simply the wealth of help available as opposed to the book and meager videos available for the balalaika. Anyone here miss with the three stringed Dorito at all?
I am in need of @ken-hulme 's article on I have a dulcimer, now what. Can't seem to find it. I just finished making a dulcimer as a Christmas present for one of my co-workers wife and I would like her to read it.
Thanks, Phil
I came across Phyllis Gaskin's music. Exactly the type of thing I was looking for! Can't wait to read/listen to more recommendations.
Lots of good albums out there, but also lots of free stuff on YouTube and SoundCloud. I learned my first dozen songs or so from watching YouTube videos. With the videos you can see people play as well as hear the music, so its a great teaching tool. Just a YouTube search for "mountain dulcimer" will lead you on a never ending but very enjoyable journey.
If you install Spotify (the free version) you can use the search box to find a fair number of albums that are mountain dulcimer recordings. I saved mine to my Spotify play list and had about 10-12 albums stored. Almost all of Jean Ritchies were on the list. I figured I could find the ones I wanted after I listened to them.
Wow @susie , those dogs are livin' the life !
Did You? by dulcimer Grandmaster Robert Force
Pacific Rim Dulcimer Project by various artists
Any CD by Jean Ritchie
Any CD by Kevin Roth
Masters of the Mountain Dulcimer Volume one features 19 selections by 19 different dulcimer players. I bought it at a festival from Susan Trump. Try www.susantrump.com.
As I begin my dulcimer journey, i'm looking for some good albums to listen to. Are there any compilation albums out there featuring a variety of styles? I'll be honest, i know little little about the dulcimer other than I like the sound and I want to play one. I looked in the archives and I couldnt find any discussions covering this topic, so my apologies if it has already been done
I Just Got A.pdf - 1MB
