Hmm ok thanks Strumelia. Guess it's just me, I also wonder about why lots of banjo's have stars on them. They sure are nice no matter what the holes are. LOL

Mandy, if you look through books with photos of pre-1940 dulcimers, you'll see all kinds of shaped sound holes- circles, half moons, S shaped, F clefs, diamonds, tiny holes drilled in various patterns, hearts, and various other interesting designs. The Kentucky hourglass dulcimers do seem to have more hearts than old dulcimers of other body shapes from other regions, but overall in pre-revival dulcimers there are more round sound holes by far than any other shape.

Mandy said:

Great thread here! Can someone tell my why traditional dulcimers seem to all have the heart sound holes? Mine does and most I've seen do as well. Someone enlighten me please. Thanks in advance.

...because hearts are traditional???

Great thread here! Can someone tell my why traditional dulcimers seem to all have the heart sound holes? Mine does and most I've seen do as well. Someone enlighten me please. Thanks in advance.

birds of prey

That's a poplar top. Some poplars develop the most amazing colors. Something about the soil that they grow in, I believe. Had a top once that went from cream yellow green blue purple red to brown. Called that instrument, "Joseph's coat".

carol anderson said:

Nice looking dulcimer!

Beth Hansen-Buth said:

My Folkcraft Northern Cherry has heart & vine tone holes. They have a wide variety to choose from on their website. I made my choice for 2 main reasons: 1 - I wanted something that reflected the tradition of heart shaped holes in the Mountain Dulcimer. and 2 - I wanted tone holes too small to lose a pick in! I used to lose my picks all the time in my guitar when I had one. I did not want that annoying problem to happen with my dulcimer too!

Great idea to show sound-holes. Here are some I've made at www.appflutes.com

The trillium is Ontario's provincial flower. This 1974 Oskar Graf is the only dulcimer I've ever owned. It has an extremely thin cedar top, which has been smashed in and repairedtwice. I replaced the handmade friction tuners and the ebony dowel that held the string loops(until itsnapped in two).It still sounds great. Oskar hasn't made dulcimers in many years. He's in demand as a guitar maker now. A few years ago I brought the dulcimer to Oskar's presentation at the guitar symposium at Queen's University here in Kingston. It was a surprise not only to him, but to a number of attendees who didn't know what it was.

My favorite Dulcimers have round polycarbonate lined sound holes. I have three.

Gila Mountain Dulcimers

Her website still has supplies and things to go with the dulcimers, but she's no longer building them. It's an absolutely beautiful instrument, too.

I have two other dulcimers, but this is the one I play, made by Kerry Anderson, who sadly is not making instruments anymore as far as I know. This was one she had already made that I really liked, and the savings from having a custom design were nice, too!

Some creative ideas andcool looking pieces!

Now I need another dulcimer like a hole in the head, but should I run across one of those natural knot hole examples that strikes my fancy, I'm in !

Back to work on the pine box. With excellent advice from Tish, I replaced the bridge. The dulcimer now tunes true. Couple more coats of tung oil and it'll be finished. Didn't stain it, can't hide plain old pine. Burning could have been a lot neater. I don't have a wood burner. Used a home made veiner that I used to use to put borders around checkering and straighten lines on gunstocks. Heated it with a torch.

Morning Ken;

I'd like to do a scroll head, but I don't have any tools that would be much good for that. I'm working these down with a Stanley round sureform, some coarse files and one or two round rasps. Wish I had some kind of table saw, scroll saw, sander, planer or something with a flat edge to keep things square and get nicer fitted joints easier. I've looked at some of yours ... I have a ways to go yet. Thanks for lookin'.

Sam

Another nice job, Sam. Now when are you gonna try scroll heads for even more class??

A very good friend in CT thought she might like to try playing a mountain dulcimer. Finished this one in cherry up and packaged for shipping Saturday. She requested 'teardrops' as soundholes.

Sam, I must give a tip of the hat to the luthiers-- MD made by Paul Conrad of Timbre Hill Dulcimers and BD is by Ken Bloom. Paul knew my taste was for a simple sound hole design (this design can be seen in the beautiful, fancier intarsia back on the instrument) and the sound holes on the bowed dulcimer is Ken's standard sound hole.

It's pretty cool that the poplar top on the MD was once exterior siding (that had gotten covered over at some point) on Paul's house that was built in the 1840's.

Sam said:

Barbara, That's a piece of poplar. Sometimes the chemistry of the soil will produce the unusual color combinations that you see on my top. Dave did one for me years ago that I called "Joseph" because of the amazing coloration that the wood had. It was cream, and brown, and green, and blue, and red and purple and pink!! Just like a Joseph's coat.

Barbara Maas said:

Striking;

The Mountain Dulcimer is exquisitely understated. Both instruments are just beautiful.

Thanks Ken and Joe;

Ken, the bouts are exactly the same width. The narrow, slightly elongated waist toward the bottom bout makes it appear narrower. Should I name this one 'Dolly'?

Nice job Sam!

Is it an optical delusion, or is the top bout (nearest the tuners) wider than the bottom bout?

Finished this little dude this morning. 25" VSL, bobbed pretty short to fit in my locker at work. All wood is poplar from a local Lowe's. Fretboard has NOT been stained. It ranges from almost snow white to purple, to golden brown to almost black. Went with traditional heart soundholes. I think this is my favorite build so far.

Bone with sliced butternut shell soundhole covers

This is certainly the geekiest thread LOL!!!I have Celtic pattern holes on my Galax - I thought they would be pretty apt for someone who lives in a Celtic nation and goes to Celtic sessions.

I do like those basic Melton style holes too. And if I get around to having another Galax dulcimer built (or have a go at building one myself sometime) then that's the pattern I'd copy.

Flint Hill said:

I think this may be the geekiest discussion ever posted to FOTMD.

That's why I'm clicking the "Follow" button.

I like the sound holes on my Kudzu Patch Galax because they look like a lot like the ones on Jacob Ray Melton's dulcimer in Ralph Lee Smith's Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions .