Very nice collection, Peter. At least while the McSpadden's owned the company no dulcimer was made by an individual. According to Lynn McSpadden the person who was responsible for gluing on the backs on a particular day was the one who signed the dulcimer. By that time someone made the fretboard, another worked on bending the sides, another gluing the sides to peg head and tail piece, etc. The last glue up was adding the back to the already completed top, sides, fret board, tail piece, and peg head glue up. After that someone else did the final sanding. Then there was the next step of applying the lacquer finish by someone else. There were at least four or five people who signed dulcimers initially. I think Richard Stolze and Larry McSpadden continued to work for the Dulcimer Shoppe after it was sold, so they continued to sign instruments. If people want to believe that one person made their dulcimer, they can do so, but that simply wasn't the case with McSpadden dulcimers.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
