Considering a hammered dulcimer

[Larry Dubia]

I have asked to build a hammered dulcimer for a customer. Now I know there are kits and things I can get. However, the dulcimer she currently has is a $3500 professional muted sustain model. SO I need to ask if anyone has ever built a hammered dulcimer from scratch? How does one setup a muted sustain?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I would love to do this as it would be a totally new experience for me. I am a turner at this point and always looking to expand my knowledge.

Larry Dubia
Mystic Woods Creations

[Jamie Buxton]

There's a big hammered dulcimer in eastern Europe. It seems to have many different names, although it looks like the same instrument: cimbalom, tsymbaly, tambal, cembalo. Youtube is full of 'em. Here's one -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM6jhIP-fqo

[roger wiegand]

I started in woodworking many decades ago because I wanted a hammered dulcimer. I built several, but I can't say that I would recommend what I did to anyone working now. The ones I made were overly heavy and had way too much sustain. I found that to get good sound you needed to be right on the edge -- enough structure to keep it from collapsing instantly as string pressure was applied but not a bit more. My design was based on what Bill Spence was building in the 70's, but more structure than his. I talked with him a few years ago and he confirmed that his instruments are in a perpetual state of coming apart at the seams, he just plans on a new one every few years. Reducing the number of strings (double rather than triple strings for each note, smaller note range) makes your problem much easier, and can make the instrument easier to play as well. The string tension on a large, fully chromatic instrument is huge. Making one today I would go out and look at the work of current builders. I have the impression that Dusty Strings, for example, makes a good quality commercial instrument that lasts pretty well and stays in tune quite well. I have not kept up with the state of the art but would think that general principles of acoustic instrument design still apply--keep it light, maximize energy transmission to the soundboard, support the soundboard at the vibrational nodes and not where it needs to move, etc. I think it could be quite fun to try to incorporate very stiff, light composite materials into the structure to provide the structural strength to resist the string tension while keeping the overall mass down.

Sorry, I don't know anything about "muted sustain"-- though perhaps I could have used it-- my first instrument rang like a bell!

Good luck, It will be a fun project!

[Glenn Howland]

If you're interested in hammered dulcimers, take a little time and check out the wonderful website / resource / forum that Deb Suran built - the Musical Instrument Makers Forum. mimf.com. Deb has built many hammered dulcimers and the forum has become a resource and gathering place for people of all backgrounds sharing a common interest in luthiery.