Nice to hear from @Doug-Jones and @Jeannie-in-Paradise. l consider both of you local friends. And Jeannie, you are the reason I am here. You found me at the original Everything Dulcimer site and encouraged me to join here. I will be forever grateful. 
It's certainly sad for the dulcimer community that David is no longer making dulcimers.
I have a MMD made entirely of lacewood that I got from Aaron O'Rourke. It has the lowest action of any dulcimer I've ever played. That's the instrument that helped me develop what passes for my flatpicking technique.
Yes, it's true. A good friend of mine, John Hawk, has been the Modern Mountain rep for many years and he confirmed that David is no longer building dulcimers.
Wow, it was fun reading through this thread again. There is much good encouragement here for all dulcimer players. Thanks for calling it to our attention Strumelia. It caused me to look up the scale length (VSL) of various instruments from mandolins at 13-14 inches to electric bass guitars at 43 inches. Most modern acoustic guitars fall in the 24.5 to 25.4 inch range. Five string and four string plectrum banjos around 26.25 inches. Like John Keane, I find a 27 inch vsl comfortable but I have dulcimers with longer and shorter scales.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
This is a terrific thread and I remember reading it a few years ago when I first started dulcimer. I thought I had small hands when I first started playing, just because I couldn't make chord shapes.
It also didnt help anything that my first dulcimer had a 29" vsl. Still, I played it and got used to big stretches and then I started making dulcimers with smaller VSLs. I was able to make much bigger stretches much more comfortably.
So is the lesson that playing on a hard instrument makes easy ones easier? Or is it that I could have had much less struggle and discomfort by only playing on a smaller dulcimer?
It brings up the question of how much I want to physically challenge myself vs how much I just want to enjoy playing.
Now, I'm convinced I have pretty big hands, but I still prefer a 23" VSL to anything longer. I have a couple years of practice stretching my hands, but there are still really long stretches that I wouldn't want to try on a 29" VSL.
At one point I really wanted to play more challenging music, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of having an easy, comfortable time playing less challenging music. Obviously both are valid. 
I think the big thing is that no one should ever convince themselves that they can't play a longer VSL instrument because of small hands, but making stretches on a shorter VSL instrument is still a lot more comfortable.
Nate
Just ran into this fine thread and I thought it was worth bumping up again - so much good advice and info in it!
I do vaguely remember reading in the past year or two that he announced he was retiring from making dulcimers.. sorry but I cannot recall eactly where I read that.
I read that David McKinney of MMD may have retired from making dulcimers? Anyone know if that is true? Thanks!
Glad you checked in Jeannie. Remember you had a couple rough times. Hope you find the inspiration to play some tunes.
I want to wish you all a very blessed day today, in which we remember the birth of the Prince of Peace so long ago.
How we need His peace today! Merry Christmas to one and all !
Jeannie who? Just kidding! Of course I remember you! As we're still (more than a year later) recovering a bit from Hurricane Ian last year, I'm all too familiar with the PTSD attached to natural disasters. Ian brought back some of mine from 'Nam...
Hope to see you here more often!!
Jeannie, welcome back to FOTMD. Yes, I remember you and have wondered what happened to you after the fire. I hope you will start playing again.Thank you for stopping by. I look forward to seeing you here from time-to-time. Best wishes.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
I decided to post a 'hello' after not logging on to the group in a few years. I lost three gorgeous, chromatic mountain dulcimers in the Paradise "Camp Fire," and in the stress and chaos and recovery afterwards, I stopped playing, even though I did purchase a beautiful koa chromatic Modern Mountain dulcimer. Life has continued to move along, and I haven't played in a long time, but I did want to say hello and see if any of my old friends here remember me!
That museum sounds very interesting. Hopefully I can visit there at some point. I have a tiny collection of instruments, flutes, ocarinas, a gorgeous tongue drum. A kora would be a good addition!
I send my warmest wishes for peace and lots of music-making in the coming year! 
Happy Holidays -- whatever End Of Year holidays you celebrate wherever you are!
Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Festivus, and Happy New Year to all! (and i hope you had a happy Hanukkah, though it's now over) 
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all!
https://youtu.be/miOxoTF4dKQ?si=Ed0MMkNJs_3BSk1
@foggers I think of this time of year.
I have a CD of Sona Jobarte playing the Kora. It's really beautiful, but looks incredibly difficult!
I have a CD of Sona Jobarte playing the Kora. It's really beautiful, but looks incredibly difficult!
Hope this the right place to post a general question.
Anyhow I emailed Gary at his web page to see if he is still making Dulcimers but I'm not getting any response. Is he still alive? And if so is he still making instruments? Have a good holiday all ;o)
Good hearing from you Robin, we have missed your post. I hope you and all have a Happy, Healthy Holiday Season.
Great to hear what you've been up to @Robin-clark . 👍🏼
@richard-streib , that is a whole lot of cookies!! 🍪
I've been learning to do a little watercolor painting lately, it's a challenge!
I've also been enjoying brushing up on my cursive handwriting while tinkering with fountain pens and bottled ink, and writing in my journal.
Another decades-long hobby of mine is knitting. I really enjoy the social camaraderie in attending various regular gatherings of knitters in my area.
Hello all,
Yes, I have been absent from the dulcimer fold for a few years! The band I played with folded a few years back due to a bereavement and then the pandemic came along. I picked up guitar again and have been working towards playing/singing as a solo act locally - plus I joined a Welsh MVC. So that has taken up all my time. The local Welsh music nights in the pub are the same night as the choir practices - so that has also put me out of the dulcimer loop.
But....I do intend to put some time into a Welsh tunes project next year on the Bocs Cân Idris and perhaps make a CD with my good friend and guitarist Johnathan (who lives 3 doors up!). All noter drone from me of course!!!!
Have a wonderful festive season everyone. I'm off to band practice now as I have a one-off gig tomorrow night with a new band doing a bluegrass/Americana set. No dulcimer for me this time but guitar, dobro and banjo, 
Robin, great to see your post! I still rely on your YT videos for 'better' noter playing! Merry Christmas!
Robin! So good to see you here again!! Have missed your posts.
I've been working on my Christmas cookies. So far 30+ dozen and I think I am finished. All for giving away to church members, neighbors, and some local businesses where I trade. Decorating is done and most of the wrapping. I'll make the coconut cake for Christmas and help cook dinner on Christmas for the family.
Merry Christmas every one.
I just realized that I haven't been on here a lot lately, although a few people on here do know me personally. I joined this site back in December of 2011 right after I got my first dulcimer for Christmas and I was surfing around for resources. I'd been playing off and on over the subsequent years and finally got serious about it in 2020 when I joined the Berkeley Dulcimer Orchestra which was forced to go online after only two rehearsals. I would say that's when my journey really began. Since then, I have acquired more dulcimers as a result of joining the Albany Dulcimer Quartet (soon to be a quintet) and wanting to be a "utility" player. As a result, I have a standard, baritone, bass, ginger, and banjammer. I truck most of these with me when I go to rehearsals and have a fun time playing with others. I have just recently discovered 1-3-5 tuning and am having a lot of fun exploring that doing solos, which I recently shared in church. I'm still a low to medium intermediate but am enjoying my journey.
Hi Robin https://fotmd.com/robin-clark
Thanks for getting in touch. I have noticed you on this forum, but wasn’t sure whether you were still active on it. I’ve been listening to your sound files of Welsh tunes, but the links to some of them in your posts don’t seem to work. Anyway, your dulcimer sounds great and I agree that the dulcimer can make a useful contribution to Welsh dance music. When I play with a group of very loud instruments, I just play chords as a rhythm instrument - much better than a guitar in my opinion. When I’m on my own, I just enjoy finding my own way of playing folk songs and hymn tunes. I’ve only been playing dulcimer for a year, but already I enjoy it more than I ever did playing a guitar! I’m really surprised that it hasn’t been taken up by more Welsh traditional musicians.
Robin, I have gotten value from your posts and am glad to see you back. Merry Christmas to you, as well.
Nate
Hi Beth,
I live up near Tywyn, Gwynedd. The dulcimer is an unusual instrument for Wales! But they are great for playing the old Welsh dance tunes. I have built a double fretboard dulcimer specifically for playing them - I have called it a "Bocs Cân Idris". I hadn't played it for a while until last Saturday when we had a village Christmas gathering. I played a lot of Christmas carols as well as the local Welsh tunes (Cader Idris, Bwlch Llanberis, Corbet of Ynysmaengwyn's Delight, Machynlleth, Bells of Aberdyfi, The Clover of Merioneth and a few more besides).
Merry Christmas to all,
Robin
I have been working on a dulcimer made from goodwill materials only. Metal cans and trays plus wooden cigar boxes for the body, toothpicks frets, and eye bolt tuners. The fingerboard is just a 1/4" thick and 1.5" across strip of poplar. I am out of town but plan on finishing it as soon as I return. The whole thing will end up costing about 5$ and wont require any actual instrument parts. I've been having a lot of fun lately learning ways to make very accessible dulcimers that can be built without many tools and hardware, and with very little knowledge or skill.
Just an update as I haven't posted here in awhile. My banjo and guitar have been languishing since I picked up dulcimer. I ordered a new one from McSpadden and got a cherry with spruce top. It sounds wonderful! I thought I would go for walnut, which to me has a wonderful, almost flute like tone to it, but every time I heard the cherry/spruce combo on youtube it reached out to me. My self-taught learning is coming along and I am enjoying both fingerstyle and drone type playing. I really like the Aeolian and bagpipe tunings. So, its a learning curve, but fingerstyle for softer songs like Scarborough Fair and the strum/drone/bagpipe sound for more celtic and scottish tunes. Something about that drone tuning I really love.
Great job on the Cigar box! Also, Buckeye67, that's a beautiful walnut dulcimer you have. I'm a Buckeye too. Go Bucks!
I've been using Perfection geared violin pegs on some of my dulcimers, and people really like the ease of use. Plus they look just like black ebony violin pegs, which doesn't detract from the appearance of the dulcimers. I just ordered a set of Wittner pegs to try out. I've heard good things about them!
Thanks Ken, I had not considered geared violin tuners - may need to look into them.
Thanks, Ken. You are right, the smallest of details can really have huge effects. There was a bow in the body that measured approximately 5/16" off level on each end of the dulcimer. All of that from a 2mm extra rise in one side panel. After I thought about it, it made perfect sense. So, now the fun begins.
Marg there are a couple of things to consider. First is whether you want friction tuners or geared tuners. Since you mention the Stewmac choices the Grovers are friction and the Five Star are geared. The second is cost. You can see the difference in price. Both of those install easily although you may need to make an adjustment in the size of the holes. Since you mention not changing the head design, have you considered replacing the wood pegs with geared violin tuners like Wittners? Here is a link to them: Wittner-finetune-violin-peg They may give a better look to the dulcimer and are priced between the two offered by Stewmac.
This is general information as I don't know the maker of your dulcimer and I am guessing it has a scroll peg head. If you have any questions, ask here or message me.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
@strumelia Yes, the dulcimer is a bit of a curiosity to most people here in Wales! It has attracted a lot of interest.
@ken-hulme Some of our group are part of another group that take the Mari round the pubs in our locality every year (see photo taken last Sunday). So we're old friends with the Llantrisant Mari!
