Making A Mountain Dulcimer

     Every year my old junior high had the students complete a learning project. The students pick a topic that interests them and then give a presentation to the class about it. For mine I decided to make an instrument called a mountain dulcimer. The dulcimer is the only folk instrument other than the banjo to have originated in North America. It is believed that Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 19th century were trying to recreate instruments from their homeland. However, they did not understand how these instruments worked and thus ended up with something completely different. I got the instructions from the book Making Folk Instruments In Wood by Dennis Waring, but made some alterations. I shrunk the scale length (distance between the nut and the bridge) to 19.5". Instead of hollowing out the entire neck, (you do this to lighten the weight on the soundboard) I drilled rows of holes half the depth of the neck. The luthier David Beede does this. I also replaced the plywood with maple and mahogany.