Building a Hammered Dulcimer

Information you might find helpful if you would like to try to build one yourself.

Building an Octave Mandolin

After Garret, our youngest son, graduated from college, he worked for me for awhile.  I was making a group of Octave Mandolins at the time so he documented the process.  If you'd like to view this selection of photos of how I make my Octave Mandolins, click on the image.

Yangqin

An article I wrote on the Yangqin (Chinese Hammered Dulcimer) for Dulcimer Player's News. Includes a rare tuning chart.

Cimbalom

This page has some information I pulled together in response to a recent gift of a Schunda system cimbalom built in Budapest sometime before 1874. There are loads of photos, a tuning scheme and measurements available as a pdf.

Indian Santoor

Photos of traditional Indian Santoors plus photos of a finished Santoor I built with a tuning scheme, string gauges, photos of the building process, dimensions, and drawings of Santoor elements.

Zither Study Guide

I've put together a two page PDF geared to teachers who would like to use the zither as a short lesson in the anatomy of a musical instrument, woods, and acoustics. You are welcome to download this and modify it for your needs and reproduce it as long as you give me credit. Download it here