Yep, a pre-made shelf from Home Despot would do the trick. Might be a bit heavy, but so what. IMHO the advantage of a "plank" with a couple riser strips is that it will fit a wide variety of instruments.
If you're going to have a dulcimer built, Sandi, I would have the builder add short little feet to it, like many of the old dulcimers had, so that any hard surface becomes a second back.
Welcome to our corner of musical Paradise. You may be interested in the article I wrote several years ago and recently updated, called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms plus answers to many of the beginner questions about tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new friend. Here's the revised edition.
Hello everyone and thanks for the warm Welcome! I recently moved from San Antonio TX to Branson MO and have been looking for a way to meet people and make new friends. Out of curiosity and because I love music I signed up for a dulcimer class. Oh my gosh--I found a new passion--the mountain dulcimer!!! I promptly bought a dulcimer kit from Cedar Creek Dulcimer Shop here in Branson and am almost finished with it. Going to the shop tomorrow to get help with stringing and tuning. Since I love to work with my hands, it has been a great experience to build the kit. I hope to meet some of you at a music festival in the not too distant future.
I too have a Cedar Creek Dulcimer kit. I love it. It was so much fun building it. I wish I could build them all the time.
Sweetwater has a nice deal on a Fishman Loudbox Mini with a microphone, cable, and stand for $329 which is what most places ask for just the amp. I use this now more often than plugging the instruments in to the amp. Here is the link: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LoudBoxMiniPK
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Basically, you got it, Dana. I can't draw so be glad that I am not trying.
Here is a pic of me playing my Ron Ewing baritone dulcimette at the faculty concert of the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering. There are two mics in use, one by my left foot for vocals and one by my right foot pointed directly at my dulcimer. (And notice that it doesn't have to get that close.) I switched between two dulcimers that day, and you can see that I wouldn't have to make any adjustments to the mics (although the sound guy did have some work to do in terms of equalization, I'm sure).
That day the mics probably went directly into the PA system, but when I plug in by myself, they go into my little Fishman Amp. I'm sure there are lots of mics out there, but the Shure SM 57 is the workhorse instrument mic that is ubiquitous in studios everywhere, and the Shure SM 58 is the same but for vocals.
Ok, Dusty, I'm going to play the ignorant person here. Are you saying get a microphone stand, like what Elvis sang into (I'm showing my age and my first crush :) ) and put a mic on it called the Sure M57 and I'm assuming you place this right up close to the dulcimer?? And the Mic attaches to the amp? If you can draw a cartoon, that would be even better. :) :)
Sandi, as you can see from this discussion, a board on the bottom of your dulcimer doesn't have to have the tight fit of a possom board. Check out Peter Tommerup who just uses a wooden shelf .
Folks, I am no technophile, and maybe that's the problem. I've spent time trying to find a good external pickup (long ago I gave up on finding great ones) and do have some ideas about how to attach them with no risk to your dulcimer's finish. I've posted that in other discussions here and will edit my comments with a link if I can find them.
However, over time I've just come to accept that (as Paul and Robin have said) a good mic such as the Shure M57 is the best way to go. It is also the simplest in the sense that you don't have to struggle with puddy or double-sided tape or anything. And you can switch instruments with no adjustments. A couple of months ago I played a short gig and was using two dulcimers. One has an internal pickup and one doesn't. But rather than work with the internal pickup and then a mic, I just used the mic for both. The sound guy had me play both instruments, noted what his settings should be, and all I had to do was play. No plugging in pickups, no transfering from one instrument to another. It couldn't have been simpler, and the sound was an accurate representation of the acoustic sound of my instruments.
For about $110 you can get a Sure M57, a mic stand, and an XLR cable. Check out Ebay or occasional sales at Guitar Center or Sweetwater or Musician's Friend or wherever.
I totally agree with Phil on the Schatten Dualie. In fact, I did a demo video on it some time ago. The Schatten folks are really nice, too. I wrote them about what kind of double sided tape to use (mine is one of the 1st imported into the USA.) They sent me the new putty at no charge. I got it use on nylon string guitars so I could sound like Willie Nelson ROFL.
Okay great! Phil, on that Shatten, do you also use the double sided tape? And it holds? (ken you pretty much know everything, don't you? :) ) Yall are such a fantastic resource!
The best external pickup I have found is a Schatten Dualie. Depending on what kind of amp you have, it may require a preamp. I stick it on the back of my dulcimer so it is not in the way. here's a link to it on Amazon:
Also, the best acoustic amp I have found is a Fishman Loudbox Mini. It weighs only 20 pounds and no preamp needed.
A small bit of double sided tape works simply and easily. You may not want to leave the pickup attached for a long time (weeks) though, it can dull the finish. I use a simple $3 Ebay pickup and a bit of tape on my Virginia Hog Fiddle for playing at Open Mics.
There are two kinds of double sided tape -- one that is foam rubber with sticky on both sides -- the other looks like ordinary Scotch tape. That's the one you want to use. The foam tape deadens the ability of the pickup to sense fine vibrations and you lose sound quality.
Sandi -- Yes! If you know what you want and are having a custom instrument built, a double back can be a wonderful thing. The advantage of a Possum board is that it will work with any dulcimer, not just that one special instrument. As long as the board holds the dulcimer up 1/4" or so, so that the back can vibrate; and, if you need it, has a way to hold the instrument in place, then you're good to go.
I recently built a wooden carry box for my Thomas replica which John Knopf built for me. I take of the top, remove the dulcimer and the noter/pick bag, flip the case over, and use the back of the box as my possum board. LOTS of extra volume, and I don't need a separate board.
I'll be building wooden boxes for my other two traditional dulcimers soon!
Okay, I'm gonna revive this thread because I want to know the best way to use my little amp with my dulcimers who aren't fortunate enough to have an internal pickup. I have a little mic I can clip onto a plastic thumb pick that is wedged into a sound hole, but that doesn't work my small blue lion holes. Any other suggestions? Yall are using a lot of terms I don't understand. :)
Dalton, just wanted to point you to a simple beginner video I made showing how to tune back and forth between the four most common modes, for noter style playing. Notice that you'll only be re-tuning one string, not all of them...it's not as hard as you'd think:
http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/02/video-re-tuning-between-four-common.html
Lowes/Home Despot
Ken, did you do that on purpose? Rascal!
Good point KenH,
Usually I have the notes I need by retuning to the right mode for the tune, but 'sometimes'....if there's an odd note I don't have on the fret board --and assuming it's not an absolutely essential melody note-- it's usually quite do-able to either skip playing that one note or just play that phrase a little differently- simplify it so that note's not really needed. Many of us do that sometimes anyway (on various instruments) if a particular note is very hard to finger or I can't get there in time or a phrase requires skilled gymnastics, etc. Similar workarounds apply in chord style playing- if a three finger chord is hard to stretch to or jump to- often one can make it a two finger chord instead...or simplify the phrase a little by leaving out a note or two and see how it sounds. Folk music tends to be very forgiving. 
Actually, Jean Ritchie had more than once described how to 'palm' the noter momentarily to fret another string if needed. Remember that Farina saw a mountain dulcimer for the very first time at a NYC party where he watched Jean Ritchie playing. He had never seen one before and was blown away by it. She wrote that he asked her all about it at that party, and went home determined to get or make one. I think he played guitar before that?
Pete with those marracas...lol
I am not an expert on noter and drone but I do what Robert first recommended. Just briefly tuck the noter under your ring and little finger and poke at the other strings with the other fingers. I use this frequently with my little dulcimers tuned Dad because Daa gets kind of sqeaky at the upper reaches.
I have three stands from Lee in Ohio, but I need two more quickly. Can anyone point me to a stand I can buy quickly, even a guitar stand off of amazon? If this isn't allowed on here, please PM me. I need something quickly. Thank you!
Just because it's a favorite topic for me, I always wanna know!
Right now I have a huge stack of books going but am also embarking on reading about poverty. I am reading Irresistible Revolution and adding Toxic Charity, Poor Economics, and A Tree Grows in Brookland.
Already going = The Association of Small Bombs, The Pearl That Lost It's Shell, Big Magic, and Romans....
Is it too much to share that we have a water stain in our living room ceiling that looks like a very artsy rendition of male anatomy? And you know how people see Jesus in a cheese cracker? Well, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? LOL! ~I do have a pic, I'm just too embarrassed to share it~
I guess you see what you want to see. Some people want Jesus, and some want . . . 
It really is amazing! Even our Pastor says we should charge people to see it! LOL!
Margaret Wright's 12-Tune Song Books. I learned on them, I love them, they are actually a crutch to me~LOL! I NEED MORE FROM HER!!! :)
I have met quite a few Daves, and they were all spectacular! It's been a very long time, so sadly I don't remember everyone.
Is it too much to share that we have a water stain in our living room ceiling that looks like a very artsy rendition of male anatomy? And you know how people see Jesus in a cheese cracker? Well, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? LOL!
~I do have a pic, I'm just too embarrassed to share it~
I Just Got A Dulcimer 2016.pdf - 1.1MB
