Mountain Dulcimer Choice of Woods

Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 02:35:19 -0700

Hi Folks,

I've been cruising about your fine website looking into mountain dulcimers. Perhaps you could advise me.

I'm an experienced acoustic guitar and banjo (5-string bluegrass) picker and I'm considering expanding my acoustic instrument background with a mountain dulcimer. You have many beautiful and apparently high-quality dulcimers shown on-line. It's tough to sort it all out.

Could you give me some leading as to what would be most satisfying? Cost is not a major consideration. I'd like solid, harmonically rich tones and as much volume as possible without compromising richness.

Thanks so much ... Dean Metzgar (dnmetzgar@cs.com)

Greetings Dean,

Glad to assist if I can:

I also play both guitar and 5-string...

I've had quite a bit fun playing mountain dulcimer...one of the things you'll find very intriguing is trying banjo rolls on a dulcimer...they fit very well...

For volume, and brightness, you might consider the Folkcraft Solid Cherry model...the FSH models are the best value I've found...finely crafted with all solid woods. The Walnut model would have the darker tone, with less brightness...Hope this helps...Let me know if I can assist further...Mickey