My hammered build

I built this hammered dulcimer from scratch a few years ago. The soundboard is solid western cedar, the frame is walnut, and the rails are hard maple. Each course (note) has three strings, with the middle string being a slightly smaller diameter than the outside strings. I'm estimating there are about 2.5 tons of string tension in this instrument. It sounds awesome. Wish I could play it better, but I'm getting there. This build was more like cabinetry than luthiery.

Hi Cfiimei,
I'm not sure there are many HD enthusiasts here. Nice instrument. I've built several dulcimers both hammered and Appalachian. I also finished my first (and only) uke build a short while back. We are practically neighbors, I'm in Davenport. If you're also a nuke enthusiast, join us for the Quad Cities Ukulele Club, which meets at West Music in Moline on the 1st & 3rd Saturday's at 1:00pm!

Thanks Phil, I will come in to a meeting. I wasn't aware of that group. I dropped the Hammered on the "other instruments" area just to see if there were any hits, and I'm glad to hear from you. I also do have several mountain dulcimer builds under my belt. Love those things. These days I play the uke more than anything... They are just too darn convenient to put down, and I love the options the high g tuning gives. I mainly play for myself, but I would sure love to meet some uke minded people. Let me know if you want to see any of my builds and I will bring them. Uke wise I'll probably just bring my Fluke; it fits in anywhere.

In addition to myself, we have other dulcimer folks in our uke group. There is little or no interaction though between the dulcimer group and the uke bunch. One of our uke club members is the leader of the local HD group though...

The uke bunch is a tight knit group and are all about having fun. We have also been having once a month "jam" nights generally hosted by one of our group members. We play for local events like Bix and other running races, retirement homes, Festival of Trees, at the RME and so on. Feel free to join us at the times I mentioned above, we're always happy to have new folks join us. You can find listing of our coming events on my web site too. www.philnominalukulele.com

The uke I built is my primary axe now so If you drop by I can show it to you. I had a build thread on here while I was working on it but I believe database issues have disabled all the photo links...

Here's the last HD I built...

Wow, that is SWEET! Looks much more complex than mine. I like the bridge setup and the inlay work. Great stuff!