Looks great!

That's really nice work Mandy. You made a beautiful instrument which I am sure you will enjoy forever. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I just saw this. It's a beauty for sure

Here's the vid!

Full of wonderful mistakes

I already broke a string, LOL. Too much messing around tuning. I decided to go with DAA on this one. I found some DAD tab for this and didn't like the way it sounded so I winged it.

Great Mandy, we will be watching for it. Enjoy strumming your sweet dulci.

Mandy said:

Next few days or so hopefully. I'm working on a song I want to play on it now and once I feel it's pretty good I'll post it.

Mandy, looks like you've done really well. Can't wait to hear it.

You did good Gal !

JohnH

I'm going to be playing this forever and I'm so thankful that I was able to build it.

Great when that happens and such a beauty too.

I've got a beat up old mongrel that I've had for 40 years, wouldn't swap it for the world.

Terrific!

Mandy what a beautiful dulcimer you built. What a great experience to be able to do it in the class.

Really amazing process and will love to hear your dulci sing

Thanks y'all. I love it. Now I just have to figure out what I want to play on the vid. Hmmmm.

Wow, that's great, Mandy. The dulcimer looks great, and I really like seeing all the pictures of the process. Good job! I look forward to hearing it, too!

I did blush a little, seeing a naked dulcimer.

That is such an awesome looking instrument! And to make it yourself in that class must have given you a complete sense of satisfaction. I can not wait for you to make a video playing it so I can hear this beauty.

WOW that's amazing Well done - what a great experience leading to such a wonderful outcome

OK, I'll take it. I love the almost elliptical shape. Very sexy indeed!

Hey Everyone, been awhile. I just finished a class at the John C. Campbell Folk School and made this beauty.

Here are the woods I got to choose from. - I chose sassafras for the top, butternut for the sides and back, and walnut for the headstock backstrip and fretboard and tailpiece. Here they are with a few cuts - and you can also see the sassafras piece i used under the headstock here also

Here's the walnut fretboard piece I chose, I chose the sapwood on purpose because of it's uniqueness and beauty (in my eyes anyway)

Here are some assembling pics - don't mind the center strip, it's just a spacer and will come out later. notice my banjo case sitting there too, LOL, had to jam some!

Here's the lining strips being glued in to give more gluing surface - you can also see the back piece there with the center strip of walnut.

My beautiful back - as I was looking at the butternut we had I noticed the grain and purposely cut it so that the grain would match the curve of the instrument. With walnut strip.

Here's the front closeup of head and fretboard, I cut the little curve at the top of the head to just give it a little uniqueness also. The fretboard and head are from the same piece of wood. I loved all the color in the fretboard.

Closeup of body - dogwood flower cutout with wood-burning. I would not recommend trying to wood-burn on a wood as soft and grainy as sassafras (lesson learned, but I think it still looks good) more of the fretboard color - there is sawdust everywhere still (LOL).

Finished front -

Overall it turned out beautifully I think. The fretboard is nice and flat and I love it. The instructor for the class was Mark Edelman. He has a shop in Gatlinburg, TN. and is a fine player also. Great instructor and fun week. Hard work too.

Got it home and yanked out my Folkcraft hourglass dulcimer. Side by side I like mine much better (no favoritism or anything, LOL). Seriously though my fretboard is a touch wider and that allowed me to still have plenty of room for the string spacing without ever worrying about pulling a string off the side of the fretboard while playing (which does happen on my Folkcraft). A big surprise to me was that this one is louder than my Folkcraft also. Quite a bit louder. Not sure if shape has anything to do with that. Mine is also a much warmer (less tin-ny) sound.

I'm going to be playing this forever and I'm so thankful that I was able to build it. Thanks to a mentor of mine whom I must give a huge thank you to here - Aubrey Atwater - without your kindness I never would have been able to take this class. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I would recommend Mark's class to anyone and everyone who has the desire to build their own dulcimer (there are a LOT of tools involved). Mark has been building dulcimers and playing for 40 years. He's not much of an internet guy, but if you are ever in Gatlinburg, TN be sure to visit Smoky Mountain Dulcimers and tell him I sent ya.

I'll get a video of me playing this beauty up soon.

Mandy