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The so called “Mountain Dulcimer” evolved in the Appalachian Mountains. It is typically played by sitting it flat on a table or on the lap.  The fret scales on a mountain dulcimer are diatonic scales, as opposed to the chromatic scales on other fretted instrument.  This is like having only the white keys on a piano keyboard, and not the black keys also.

I have three dulcimer plans currently available. They are the traditional hourglass and teardrop dulcimers, as well as the more modern “stick” dulcimer, popularized by the so called strum stick.  These are some of the easiest instruments to play.

Hourglass Dulcimer

Comes on two plates - both of which are shown above. This is my interpretation of the classic mountain dulcimer. My version uses viola pegs as tuners, although a competent luthier can easily replace them with individual style guitar tuning machines (this is not shown on these drawings). As you can see, the body of this instrument has been split to fill both pages of the drawing, due to its longer size.

Hourglass Dulcimer - 2 plates ............... $5.00

Teardrop Dulcimer

Very similar to the drawings of the hourglass dulcimer shown above, this drawings differs only in the outside contour of the instrument, and it does include sketchy details of using individual style guitar tuning machines instead of the standard viola pegs.

Teardrop Dulcimer - 2 plates ............... $5.00

Stick Dulcimer

Another donsplans exclusive. There are a whole variety of this type of instrument available.  It is essentially a mountain dulcimer made to look like a more traditional fretted instrument. This is one of my newest and most popular plans. It is also one of my most complete plans.  Tuning machines are standard guitar tuners.  The whole structure is built from one piece of wood that runs the whole length of the instrument, so that it is very sturdy.  I would recommend that a person not try this plan without a scroll saw.

Stick Dulcimer - 2 plates ............... $5.00

Viola Pegs

I can now provide limited quantities of this hard to find item.  These can be fit to the instrument with the same reamer and peg shaver used for violin pegs. Please note that these orders can take a long time to fill, depending on my stock level.  It is probably better to ask if they are in stock before you order.

NOT IN STOCK

Solid Ebony Viola Pegs - 4 ............... $8.00