Just Starting OutIf you're like me, you can't wait to rush into a project headfirst, gathering materials and trying all sorts of experiments. One quick and easy way to start out is to buy a kit. There are a range of kits to chose from. Some of them consist of little more than raw materials and instructions, whereas others are almost finished, parts pre-cut and shaped, ready to glue. Whichever one you chose depends on how many tools you have, your previous woodworking experience, as well as your determination of how quickly you'd like to start playing your dulcimer. In any case, buying and perhaps customizing a kit will give you the experience to step through the dulcimer construction process in a reasonable amount of time and effort. Make sure you understand exactly what you're getting and reasonably understand the instructions as well as tools needed to complete the kit.
After looking over several potential kits, I decided to buy one from MusicMakers (harpkit.com). Their kit requires some work, such as cutting out the top, back and soundholes, as well as installing the frets and bending the sides. However the blocks and peghead are already done for you, and the fretboard is pre-slotted and grooved underneath, as well as having scallops and strum hollow shaped. The woods are all solid, no plywood and everything is included, bridge, nut, strings, pearl dots, frets, Gotoh sealed tuners.
I consulted various makers on Everythingdulcimer.com, and decided to further customize my kit by making it a double-back dulcimer. I bought a Western Red Cedar piece, as well as extra 1/2" cherry. I installed the WRC as the inner back, put in a spine strengthener, and the braces, and then cut 1/2" x 1/2" by 1" cherry spacers. I traced the shape of the inner back onto the mahogany that would become the outer back, and then glued the spacers onto the mahogany, making sure to include two longer spacers at either end, as well as two shallower braces. After glueing on the spacers, I put a single coat of shellac on the inside of the outer back and the outside of the inner back, making sure to mask off areas that would be glueing surfaces.
After the shellac dried, I glued the outer-back to the side/inner-back assembly, and then trimmed the spacers almost flush with a small plane before filing and sanding. The fretboard from the kit was already preshaped and pre-fretted. I was very fortunate in that one of my friends on ED sent me a fret press that he had fashioned out of tool stock. This made pressing the frets in extremely easy. I glued in the dots, sanded everything down and pressed the frets in. After some filing and shaping to make the fret edges feel smooth, I'm ready for the final assembly.
Here I changed the order of construction from the instructions. As my mentors on EverythingDulcimer.com suggested, I glued the fretboard onto the top first. I also attached the peghead assembly while the top was off, so that I could more easily clamp it to the head block and insert the screw. Then, using home-made spool clamps (square, cut from a 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" redwood piece), I attached the top to the side/back assembly. I counted over 40 spool clamps. This is one large dulcimer!
I could hardly wait to take off the clamps, so the next morning, I removed the clamps, the glue job was perfect! I then planed the sides even and spent many hours sanding everything to remove all of the scratches and tool marks over the surface.
For the finish, I did a lot of research and settled on shellac and Waterlox. I brushed and padded on 3 thin washcoats of shellac, letting each coat dry and lightly sanding off any unevenness. Then I brushed and padded 4 coats of Waterlox Original. I masked off the fretboard during the first phase, not letting any shellac get on the fretboard. Then I padded on two light coats of Waterlox on the fretboard, and it is smooth and clean. What I noticed is that if the Waterlox is over the shellac, it glosses up easily, and I don't need to put the 6-8 coats that the manufacturer recommends to get that gloss. The Waterlox also dries fairly quickly for varnish and I did not get much dust. Therefore I did not have to sand between coats. The technique of brushing and then lightly padding off any drips or excess areas gave me thin coats that are smooth and even. I think the Waterlox must be foolproof, because my finish looks great.
On May 18, 2009, the big day arrived. The finish had dried sufficiently and I installed the tuners, cut the nut out of 1/8" rosewood, and slotted the bridge. I quickly installed the strings, tuned her to CGG, not even bothering to wire-clip the ends, and in a few moments was playing my new dulcimer! I christened her "Joyful", and as her label attests, she is to make a joyful noise unto the LORD. Psalm 100. See her page here.
While making "Joyful", I also parallely made my 2nd mountain dulcimer from scratch. Okay, almost from scratch, as I bought a pre-slotted fretboard from a luthier. This one is a Kentuckian hourglass shaped dulcimer with walnut back, sides, scroll and a western red cedar top. Here is her home page.
Kit Vendors· Harpkit.com or MusicMakers, teardrop and hourglass kit available. Fretboard is pre-slotted but frets are not installed. Nut slot is not cut on the fretboard; instead the nut slot is carved into the headstock end. VSL is 27”. Groove underneath the fretboard extends from head to strum hollow. Fretboard is 30.5” long, making a very long dulcimer. There is a string slot cut into the fretboard for anchoring the strings. The sides, back and headstock is cherry, the top is thin-grained mahogany, all solid-wood. The teardrop shape has a flat peghead and the hourglass shape has a scroll. · Folkcraft. The top comes in two pieces of wood. It is attached to the bottom of the fretboard, which has a groove cut down the entire length. There is small detail requiring a shim to close the gaps on both ends of the fretboard and the two piece top. It is probably easier to glue in this shim at the same time the top piece top is attached to the fretboard, rather than later when the top is attached to the side/back assembly. The fretboard has the frets installed. All solid wood. · Cripple Creek. Bud and Donna Ford will work with you to order the woods you specify, as well as soundholes precut (you can pick from several available designs). They will install the frets for you if you ask. There are various levels of kits available based on your needs. · McSpadden. Everything is precut, tops and backs, sides are prebent, fretboard is slotted but not fretted. The material is walnut veneer. The kit is their Sweetsong model, which is small and shallow and has a quiet sound. · Cedar Creek. They have a variety of kits for each of the instruments they offer. The kits have prebent sides, but the tops and back need to be cut. The fretboard is preslotted but not fretted. Material varies with class of kit. For a small extra fee they will cut soundholes for you. · Black Mountain. The tops and backs are precut and sides are prebent. Frets are installed. · Jenny Wiley, 85% almost complete dulcimer (ACK) kit. Kits are solid wood, no veneer. The entire body of the dulcimer has already been constructed. There are two large round soundholes precut, which you can improve on if you choose. All you have to do is to glue the peghead onto the body, then sand and apply finishing materials to the dulcimer. After that, you put in the strings, nails, and tuners (bushings already preinstalled), set the nut and bridge and string it up. · Jenny Wiley, traditional scratch kit. This kit is the unfinished version of the Almost Complete Kit. All the wood is in the raw uncut parts, and the fretboard is slotted but not fretted. Online instructions show you the steps. A zero fret is used, and there is no side bending needed as the completed dulcimer is elliptical, but with a generously wide tailblock. Information SourcesOnline
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