Coming a little late here, but...

When my wife and I play "Hewlett" (she accompanies me on MD), I play the first pass plucking with two guitar picks, and the second pass with hammers. I also have a pair of hammers with guitar picks installed at the end of the handles, and I play part of "Riu Riu Chiu" plucking with the picks. So far, that's all I've experimented with plucking with guitar picks. If your strings do not rest in groves across the bridges, you might have difficulty plucking them as they will move around on the bridges.

I didn't know that. Thanks. 

There are European and Latin American styles of HD play that use fingerpicks.  The Mexican instrument is called the Salterio.

updated by @ken-hulme: 05/24/17 04:19:39PM

Using a pick for tuning. I ... overlooked that. I was thinking of plucking it with my fingers, but a pick would certainly work.

Now if I can figure out how this thing should be set up. I can tell that a few strings are out of tune.

 

I keep a pick holder on mine to do the tuning. I pluck each string with a pick. It could have been used for her mountain dulcimer as well since many people play both. Linda

Over the weekend, I retrieved one of my late mother's hammered dulcimers (Jake's Cabin Traveler). I'm new to the instrument but can play the melody of some tunes already.

But here's a mystery. There's something on the side of the dulcimer that looks like a pick holder. So I put a pick in there and took a photo of it.

Does anyone use a pick on a hammered dulcimer? Or is it likely there in case my mother had her MD with her as well and needed a pick?