2018
AL#133 p.22
R.M. Mottola Mark French
▪ Mark French was a kid who took guitar lessons and paid the guy at the music store to change his strings. He went on to be an aerospace engineer, but with all that book learning he still did not know how guitars worked. Now he teaches college courses on guitar making and hangs out with captains of industry at Fender and Taylor.
2014
AL#118 p.6
Bill Arnold
▪ Arnold shares thoughts on the dignity of the mountain dulcimer, and shares photos of recent instruments.
2011
AL#105 p.5
Richard Troughear
▪ Information on the acoustics and vibrational behavior of the Appalachian mountain dulcimer.
2010
AL#101 p.48 read this article
Roger Alan Skipper
▪ Building a high-end, aesthetically pleasing two storey dulcimer inspired by Calkin’s Dulcimer 101 article in AL#98.
2009
AL#98 p.48
John Calkin
▪ Calkin was inspired to write this by pleas from readers for more entry level stories. Dulcimers are needlessly maligned and in need of advocates, and the author is a strong one. Tools and jiggery are kept to a minimum to make construction as accessible as possible without hurting the integrity of the finished instrument. Beginning luthiers should stop complaining and get to work! With 31 photos.
2007
AL#92 p.35 read this article
Javad Naini
▪ The santur is the Persian version of the hammered dulcimer, often tuned to scales that would make it unplayable by Western musicians. With 9 photos and a 2-page version of GAL Plan #56.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2007
AL#92 p.36
Javad Naini
▪ A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
2005
AL#81 p.63 BRB7 p.415
John Calkin
▪ The thick soundboard requirement in hammered dulcimer construction.
2004
AL#77 p.8 BRB7 p.142
Jonathon Peterson Sue Mooers Ray Mooers
▪ This is a wonderful story of how a couple began a basement lutherie business and ended up employing 36 people in the creation of fine harps and hammered dulcimers. Everybody in the lutherie trades should be this nice and interesting (and the wonder of it is that so many are!). With 37 photos, including a bunch of the harp assembly shop.
2000
AL#63 p.7 read this article
Chris Foss
▪
1999
AL#59 p.36 BRB5 p.390
Merv Rowley
▪ Rowley may have been the first to use metal rod for frets rather than fret wire, a technique often attributed to Richard Schneider. He has built dulcimers for many years and has been something of an innovator. Here he examines the chromatic, rather than the diatonic dulcimer, and decides that perhaps it’s time has come and how to make it most acceptable to those who already play the conventionally fretted instrument. With a photo and two charts.
1999
AL#58 p.16 BRB5 p.358
John Calkin Bonnie Carol
▪ Bonnie Carol has been a mainstay on the dulcimer scene for three decades. She is alive and well in Colorado, still building and performing. With 9 photos of her shop, instruments, and construction process. Mentions Max Krimmel.
1997
AL#51 p.52 BRB5 p.491
John Calkin
▪ A portable fret to solve the installation problem of the infamous 6 and a half fret of a dulcimer.
1997
AL#49 p.57 BRB5 p.193
John Calkin
▪ An abbreviated chart from Howie Mitchell’s ‘The Hammered Dulcimer’ for spring brass and phosphor bronze wire.
1995
AL#44 p.26 BRB4 p.238
Chris Foss
▪ This is one of the most invigorating articles on the hammered dulcimer ever. Foss has made over 1000 instruments, has developed some hard opinions, and has tried a truckload of interesting experiments. Ever carpet the inside of a dulcimer? Foss has. Find out why.
1995
AL#44 p.48 BRB4 p.472
John Calkin
▪ As always, not all books are created equal. Calkin compares all the dulcimer books he could round up.
1995
AL#44 p.59 BRB4 p.499
Merv Rowley
▪ The dilemma of how to increase dulcimer fretboard width without reducing sound output level on an Appalachian mountain (or fretted) dulcimer.
1995
AL#42 p.44 BRB4 p.190
Chris Foss
▪ Foss describes his permanent setup for drilling tuning pin and hitch pin holes in dulcimer pin blocks.
1995
AL#41 p.18 BRB4 p.154
John Calkin
▪ The goal is to make the lightest possible instrument that will stay in tune. Calkin examines bracing, bridge design, scale lengths, wood, and hammer design. With 9 photos and several drawings.
1995
AL#41 p.26 BRB4 p.134
Nicholas Von Robison Debbie Suran
▪ Suran is a performer/builder of hammered dulcimers.
1995
AL#41 p.29 BRB4 p.137
Debbie Suran Nicholas Von Robison
▪ Suran’s design allows for the least amount of tension over the side bridges, which contributes to instrument stability. A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
1994
AL#40 p.38 BRB4 p.114
Jonathon Peterson Jim Roden
▪ Roden is a dulcimer maker and a forester, so he understands that we need to preserve forests and we need to cut them, too. He freely addresses both sides of the coin.
1994
AL#39 p.60 read this article
Owen Couch
▪ Where to get dulcimer plans.
1994
AL#38 p.54
Harold Turner
▪ Making a wild looking dulcimer using wood scraps.
1993
AL#36 p.50 BRB3 p.420 read this article
Nicholas Von Robison Debbie Suran
▪ Two luthiers examine an alternative wood and find that their samples do not match each other, and that their research texts don’t match descriptions, either. Two chunks of wood point to a common problem for those who are driven to be different.
1993
AL#34 p.50
John Calkin
▪ Calkin takes a humorous (and highly fictionalized) whack at folk history.
1992
AL#31 p.55 BRB3 p.237 read this article
John Bromka
▪ Bromka examines a French member of the lap dulcimer family. With 2 photos.
1991
AL#26 p.47 BRB3 p.477
Keith Davis
▪ Here’s the premise: build a boatload of one-string noisemakers and give them away. Inspire kids to make music. Take a tax break.
1991
AL#26 p.54
Topher Gayle
▪ The Pakistani dulcimer has 7 strings, 2 level plastic nut, and numbers over hurdygurdy type keys.
1991
AL#26 p.59 BRB3 p.464 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ The reviewer admires the beauty of the book’s photography, but seems hesitant to recommend it since so little of it is dedicated to musical instruments.
1990
AL#24 p.5 read this article
John Calkin
▪ Calkin warns about being too precious about making a first guitar from fine wood. He says grab any old wood and build a mountain dulcimer.
1989
AL#17 p.55
Cyndy Burton
▪ Where to get HD plans? GAL, Elderly, Dulcimer Players News, and Robinson’s Harp Shop.
1988
AL#16 p.35
Cliff Dennis
▪ Jeez, someone finally took the mountain dulcimer seriously enough to try and compensate it’s intonation. Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. and Mrs. Dulcimer.
1987
AL#10 p.55 BRB1 p.409 read this article
Russ Carlisle
▪ These hammers sport a shaft of bamboo. They can be quickly flipped to offer hard or padded hammer surfaces. Make a set. Throw a dance.
1987
AL#10 p.20 BRB1 p.374 read this article
Sam Rizzetta
▪ Rizzetta is often called the father of the modern hammered dulcimer. This lengthy lecture transcription from the 1984 GAL convention covers the 19th century dulcimer as made in America as well as Rizzetta’s entry into field in the 1960s. He carefully explains his own innovations, material choices, and construction techniques. With 18 photos.
1986
AL#7 p.60 BRB1 p.497 read this article
James Flynn
▪ The reviewer doubts the book’s conclusions and finds it of no value to the serious luthier. He states, however, that dulcimer enthusiasts may find it interesting.
1986
AL#5 p.38 BRB1 p.186 read this article
Alexander I. Eppler
▪ Eppler describes the most sophisticated member of the hammered dulcimer family, but offers no construction information.
1985
AL#4 p.46 BRB1 p.146
Peg Willis
▪ Willis explains the construction of her unique hollow dulcimer fretboard, which has coved sides that blend into the soundboard.
1985
AL#1 p.54 BRB1 p.486 read this article
Peter Estes
▪ The reviewer praises the book in general, and especially the quality of the diagrams.
1985
AL#1 p.40 BRB1 p.42
Merv Rowley
▪ Rowley describes a method of setting nails into half-round slots in a dulcimer fretboard. The slots are made by passing the fretboard over a veining bit in a router table with a miter fence.
1984
DS#275 BRB2 p.418
Nicholas Von Robison
▪ This is a physics of sound primer for the hammered dulcimer.
1983
DS#263 LT p.48
Joyce Westphal
▪ Cuts 2-liter anesthesia bags into big rubber bands.
1983
DS#241 BRB2 p.361
C.F. Casey
▪ The laminated, hollow fretboard is one of the standard designs of the dulcimer industry. Casey’s is a bit nicer than most. With 6 drawings.
1983
DS#233 BRB2 p.242
Alan Carruth
▪ A drawing, a photo, and a one-page blueprint help explain the unique way Carruth constructs his hammered dulcimers.
1983
DS#233 BRB2 p.243
Alan Carruth
▪ A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
1983
DS#234 BRB2 p.335
Edward Damm
▪ Some of these tricks need to be built into the instrument. The others are useful after it’s complete. With hammered dulcimers you need all the tuning help you can get. With 5 drawings.
1982
DS#205 BRB2 p.315
Jeff Feltman
▪ Feltman offers a dulcimer bridge design that hardly changes the traditional look of the instrument but is said to dramatically improve the volume of the instrument. It’s a sad commentary on our noisy society that the only way to improve volume is by making it louder. Oh, well. With drawings enough to make things clear.
1981
DS#197
Michael Mann
▪ Illustrated procedure for building up hammered dulcimer pin blocks butcher-block style.
1981
DS#199
T.E. Owen
▪ Several glue tricks, sanding board technique, horsetails, and gluing dulcimer blocks.
1980
DS#159 BRB2 p.290
Hardy B. Menagh
▪ Menagh’s dulcimer utilizes a shortened fretboard, a banjo-ish bridge, and a tailpiece to help make the instrument louder. He also employs an X brace under the top.With 2 photos and a drawing of his dulcimer innards.
1980
DS#140 BRB2 p.209
Bud Ingraham
▪ Ingraham uses guitar bridge pins to fasten the ends of his dulcimer strings. With a pair of drawings.
1979
GALQ Vol.7#2 p.8 BRB2 p.96
Bonnie Carol
▪ Despite its simplicity, the lap dulcimer can be ruined by poor design as easily as any other stringed instrument. The author describes ways to deal with different varieties of wood and fingerboard design to achieve maximum tone and volume from a given shape and size dulcimer. With 3 photos and 2 drawings.
1979
DS#114 BRB2 p.236
Edward Damm
▪ By using a collection of drawings the author demonstrates many ways to string the hammered dulcimer.
1978
DS#70 LT p.42
Tony Pizzo
▪ Adjustable-shape mold for dulcimer assembly.
1977
GALQ Vol.5#3 p.28 read this article
Vicki Runnion
▪ The first of many annual dulcimer conventions held at the Folklife Center of the Smokies in Cosby, Tennessee.
1976
DS#38 read this article
Tony Pizzo
▪ Plans for a small, simple bow with a shape adapted from an illustration in Lynn Elder’s, ‘How to Play the Bowed Psaltery’.
1975
GALNL Vol.3#4
J.R. Beall
▪ From his convention lecture, May 29, 1975.