Build a Dulcimer - In an hour from scratch

Robin Clark
11/19/17 06:33:20PM
@robin-clark

We are building a shed at the back of our village hall and today lots of folks turned up to lift the main beams into place.

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About an hour before lunch I cut up some scrap wood and started making a dulcimer.  A couple of other folk  thought the project looked fun and gave me a hand.  First we nailed a box together using a couple of scrap sheets of 3/4"ply and some old baton off cuts.

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Then we screwed a piece of timer to the top to make a fretboard and drilled soundholes in our box.

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Next I mounted a couple of old bolts to each end to act as a nut and bridge; put in 3 screws to hold the string ends by the nut and 3 eye screws to be tuners.  I made 3 strings from No 8 wire and some staples for frets from 18 gauge broom wire.  I put on two of the strings wound them up to 'a good note' and then positioned the staple frets by ear.

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So when the shed party finished for lunch we had a little concert!

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Here are a couple of photos of the finished instrument.

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Here is a sound clip.

http://k003.kiwi6.com/hotlink/3udck43rmt/Scrap_wood_TMB_-_19_nov_17.mp3