action height

I have been having problems with a new dulcimer (dulciborn) since it came about a month ago, trying to set it up where I could play it. You all helped with my pick up problem and that is taken care of now.

When the dulciborn came, the action was so high I could not press the strings up around 9 or 10 or higher. I had someone help me to lower the action, I was told it would be an easy thing to do to just sand the bone some. Well the action has been lowered now we are raising it. I think maybe some of the frets are not straight since when I would press a note I would get more of a twang than a buzz. We put a shim under the pick up, than pick up back under the bone. That seemed to work fine until I realized, if I tried to strum up the fret board just a bit from the strum hollow the tang was back.

If I strum slow close to the strum hollow or right in front of it, there is no problem. But if I was to strum faster & up the fretboard, I start getting lots of tangs. I took the string out of the slot cut into the bone at saddle & it didn't seem to make any difference. With my other dulcimer I can play up the fret board with no problem. Is this a problem with maybe high frets that only cause an issue when I play close to them?

Is there something that can be done for this or just don't strum anywhere but close to the strum hollow & slowly?

Would putting a slim under the nut help out with any of this, opposite end, maybe not raising the higher frets any higher since I was trying to lower them?

I had someone helping me that works on the dulcimers in the dulcimer group but is by no way a realluthier. I also had the guitar repair center help put in the pick up, since the dulciborn style is close to a guitar. They sanded down the bone a bit & not sure if that's what caused this. There are noluthier anywhere near me, I am in TX.

Any ideas?

I am gettingfrustratedtrying to set up this new instrument that should have come ready to play. And, I don't know if it made a twang when I first got it since I was just trying to get the action lowered, so I could play. I hadn't played it to know.

marg.