Mountain Dulcimer Building

Mountain Dulcimer Building
Scratchbuilt means scratching your head a lot!
A Pictorial Essay!
(35 step-by-step pics!)
By Jim Bracegirdle
Where do I begin? Well I had a dulcimer with a VSL of 27" and it was proving to be a little painful for
some of the chord formations for my small hands. I didn't have any knowledge about scale length
whenever I bought it. Also I wanted to play four equidistant strings and the fingerboard was only 1 1/4"
wide, so because I had this piece of walnut 7/8" x 36" x 4 3/4"sitting around (for 30 years at the least) I
decided to make one to fit my hands and method of playing.
After reading all the archives and FAQ's on "EverythingDulcimer" I decided on making it with a 1 1/2"
wide fingerboard and a VSL of 25 1/2". This would be better for the string spacing and my
fingerpicking. Also the shorter VSL would be kinder for the chord formations with less stretching for
my small left hand.
After I cut the 1 1/2" wide fingerboard plus 1/8" for the saw blade I was not going to have a very wide
dulcimer with what I had left. It gave me enough for a 6" wide dulcimer. I dodged around the old
screwnail holes and got very lucky with the bookmatched back. I had enough for the peghead and heel
and swapped a buddy a nice piece of Cherry for some quartersawn Spruce to make the top (soundboard).
The dimensions of the dulcimer are.........35" overall length, 29 1/2" sides and back. The sides are 2 5/8"
deep for better bass response. (I again did homework here on the Dulcimer Building forum FAQ's
regarding tone, timbre and accompaniment for trying to sing Irish ballads. The 3 1/8" bookmatched back
is all I could squeeze out of my material and the final width after trimming was a wee bit over 6".
Now let's get building!!
Mold and Peghead
First I had to decide on a shape. Teardrop, hourglass or ellipsoid. After reading the archive articles
regarding shape and how it affected the tone I decided on a simple ellipse, similar to the very early
designs from our forefathers. This also helped greatly in the bending of the sides department.
This shows the mold I made out of 3/4" fir plywood. It is only 1 1/2" deep but that was OK. for my
method of building. The little pegs are very handy for the quick alignment of the back and top whenever
time is important during the gluing operations.
This shows the making of the peghead. I used some birdseye maple 1/16" x 3/4" in between the three
fingers of walnut to give me a little contrast and also to hide or cover up the five screws which I put
laterlly across the fingers because I wasn't confident that the glue would be enough to hold them and the
tension of the strings. I also had to be careful where I put them because the holes for the tuners didn't
leave me much room for error.
Trim, Sides and Back
Here I am bookmatching the 3 1/16" x 1/16" x 29 1/2" pieces for the back. The Donegal luck was with
me on the bookmatch pattern.
Here the sides (which ended up at 5/64") are clamped to the mold to dry. I put the sides in the bathtub
for a day and made a wee bracket to hold a hair dryer to the toilet bowl seat.
I had to slip the pins out of the hinges and take the door off the bathroom as I was down to my
underwear after the first side because of the heat in there.
This is gluing the sides to the heel. The tapered pieces I cut off the heel, to match the curve of the sides,
I used under the toes of the clamp to keep everything square.
Lining, Gluing, Trimming, and the Fretboard
Now we are gluing the sides to the peghead. Notice the 1" hole I drilled in the peghead. I thought it was
a good idea (HiFi speaker rear port tuning and all that acoustic thinking) but it probably only came in
handy as an access hole for my transducer pickup gadget.
I am now gluing the back to the sides, the benefit of the mold with the little pegs is apparent. It helped
me to speed up the clamping, before the glue got a skin on it. Then I added the weights to really fix it
down.
This is a shot of the dulcimer so far with the back and sides trimmed.
Here is a look at the inside before the top is put on. Notice the patches on the bookmatch joint. These are
at 90 degrees to the grain of the back. Also there is only one brace which is 1/4" x 1/4" x 6" made out of
old model airplane stuff. (5 ply)
This shows the lining glued to the sides. I used mahogany lining from a luthier friend to give me more
gluing surface for the back and sides because I made them extra thin, especially the back which finished
up at 1/16" to 5/64".
Cutting the slots for the frets. I had to cover up some nasty screwnail holes with a harp inlay and there
was some tricky measuring to be done to get it all to fit the scale length just right.
Again I got help from the "EverythingDulcimer" archives and FAQ's and used the W fret computer
program.
There is something very satisfying to finish the fingerboard and to finally glue on the two pieces of
Spruce for the top. Not seen unfortunately in any pictures is the groove I cut underneath the fingerboard.
It is 1/2' x 3/4" and runs the length of the fingerboard, stopping about 1" from the strum hollow. Again
more info. I gleaned in my research in the Making Dulcimer archives.
Here we are gluing the top to the sides, again the old ball of twine, keep moving with speed and add lots
of weight.
Inlays and Strum Hollow
Trimming the top to the sides. Watch the grain and how it changes. Brain turned on at all times now.
I didn't like the way the grain was running on the heel block, although for strength the 90 degree
difference is the stronger type of joint, so I made a little inlay (Donegal heritage again) to keep the grain
flowing from side to side around the heel. This is strictly for show. It does nothing to the strength or tone
of the shell I think.
A close up of the harp inlay used to cover up the unsightly screwnail holes.
The strum hollow is 1/2" deep, I also had to eliminate a hole here. That is the reason I only have sixteen
frets on the fingerboard.
Showing Off!
Here we have a close up of the peghead, the birdseye maple on the sides covered over the screw heads
going laterlly through to hold it all, in case the glue let me down, as I said before.
This is an overall shot of the side and back.
Again an overall shot of the side and front.
Here is the back and the heel, I am glad I took the time to put the mitered birdeye edges on the heel
inlay. Although at the time you say to yourself, this isn't doing a thing for the tone.
This is a shot of the dulcimer having a wee rest from the stress of it all.
After playing it for a year a friend told me the dulcimer needed sound holes in the top as it couldn't
breathe. Well here are some doodles of my sound hole designing. This is where I would advise
PUTTING IN THE SOUND HOLES BEFORE GLUING ON THE TOP to the sides. It wasn't a lot of
fun making holes with an Exacto blade and rat tail files.
I put one near the center for those nice mellow tones and the other one is 10" from the heel, so people
someday at a flea market can see the label I put in before gluing on the top saying " Dulcimer # 1 June
2004 "
Here it is all ready for me to start playing, I need mucho practice (dictionary says ACTION as opposed
to THEORY).
This is just a mug shot of me, I see all of you on your sites and the photo gallery so I just thought you
better see my skin and bones.