Well stated Wally and KenH. The mountain dulcimer is what it is. And in my humble opinion, one should enjoy its sweet song as it is without trying to make a bull horn out of it.

The dulcimer was devised for playing for one's own enjoyment, or for a few family members, not an "audience." This would probably have been in a room in a small home after the player's work was done in winter, or on a porch in the summer. Other family members often would have been reading, sewing, washing dishes, etc. 

"Is it really normal for a dulcimer to have a very weak, drowned out sound?"

More or less.  The dulcimer was never designed/built/intended to be an ensemble instrument. 

Until the late 20th century the dulcimer has always been a solo instrument for playing to an audience of say a dozen quiet, appreciative listeners, no farther than say 15 feet away.  If accompanied at all it would have been by a sympathetic fiddle, guitar and/or banjo player who understood how to blend their own instruments with others, not play as loud as they could because they could.

You may wish to try this english concertina However,I suggest you think really hard before getting one, for what I heard they are one of the more challenging instrument to learn.

updated by @shanonmilan: 10/26/23 05:57:35AM

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of pickups because of all the added fuss of having to bring an amp and make sure you have power supply, plus I'm not someone you can trust with cords around their feet lol.

That's why I make some of my dulcimers really thin, really large in volume, with metal cake pans, and with really heavy gauge strings. They're SUPER loud and can hold their ground against other instruments when played acoustically. In fact I have to play very gently when playing with other dulcimers or I will drown them out lol.

I have only seen one real resonator dulcimer and it was even louder than mine, so a dulcibro seems like the ticket if you want to be louder than the banjo. In general some dulcimers are much louder than others, and are better suited to playing alongside loud instruments. 

updated by @nate: 09/13/23 06:14:32PM

 

In my experience yes if you don't use a pickup. In our bluegrass session I mostly play guitar since the dulcimer won't be heard against the dobro,  fiddles and banjos :) 

However it depends: When I join on dulcimer some of the other girls and guys change their style a little bit so I'm not totally drowned out. Or i play the dulcimer just in the late hours (after most of my fellow bluegrassians already left). 

Another possibility is to place the dulcimer on a table or a wooden board on your lap. In both cases the sound gets amplified. Some information on this forum:
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/instruments-discuss-specific-features-luthiers-instrument-problems-questions/41358/why-is-it-called-a-possum-board 

If you have some skills in woodworking you might be able to build your own possum board (like seen on this page: http://www.dulcimerseite.de/tipps-zur-spielhaltung.html ). Otherwise most dulcimer builders should also be able to supply you with one. 

Personally I prefer the sound and ergonomics of playing on a table if possible.

Best regards, Jost. 

I always used to find that a mtn dulcimer gets drowned out in a recording of several musicians on different instruments, if the person who is recording does not take special steps with the microphone placements to ensure otherwise. If you have a fiddle, banjo, mando, and dulcimer and mic all of them equally or just have a mic placed in the middle of the group of musicians, the dulcimer sound will be almost lost among them. When playing in real life, it's a little easier to hear the dulcimer among the live group. That's just from my own experience though.

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Shanon, most dulcimers are relatively quiet when compared to other instruments, and are easily "drowned out" by banjos, mandolins, fiddles, resonator guitars, etc. I don't like to think of it as 'drowned out' though, I like to think of it as fitting in nicely. It's not always that easy to discern a dulcimer when played with louder instruments, but the music does still sound fuller for having one. With modern tech you could make a dulcimer way louder than everything else if you wanted to, but if youre sitting between a banjo and a fiddle and it's all acoustic, your dulcimer isnt going to be very pronounced.

I wish I had the opportunity to play dulcimer with concertina, but I don't know anybody with one. Id love to get myself a concertina and learn to play but i already own a handful of instruments that I haven't learned yet so I think the concertina might have to wait a while

updated by @nate: 09/13/23 06:40:55AM

Is it really normal for a dulcimer to have a very weak, drowned out sound?

I don't. In our local monthly bluegrass jam however one of our regular participants (let's call him Adam) always bring his German concertina (english and german concertina are different, I'm just not sure at the moment which difference exactly). 

Although it's quite unusual for bluegrass it's enrich the sound a lot. And in the later hours Adam often sings German folk songs  while accompanying himself with the concertina. 

The combination of the squeeze box and his strong, emotional vocal performance surely are a treat. Alas as far I know he don't record anything and I would never record without permission from him.

The only time I've played with a concertina was in a jam, but I was playing guitar, not dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Can't remember that I've ever had the opportunity. Maybe once, years ago, in a multi-instrument jam.   Not exactly a common folk instrument around these parts.  I've been to a number of statewide folk meet-ups here in Florida and can't remember seeing or hearing any sort of squeeze-box.  

updated by @ken-hulme: 09/12/23 07:13:23AM

Do you guys like to play along with a concertina?