{"id":1096,"date":"2016-04-13T07:28:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T12:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/?p=1096"},"modified":"2016-04-13T07:28:47","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T12:28:47","slug":"back-to-basics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/archives\/1096","title":{"rendered":"Back to Basics"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Building a Mountain Dulcimer<\/a><\/div>

In the first post<\/a> of this series, the kids and I built “canjos” following our visit to the Great Smoky Mountains. Besides being a fun “shop time” activity with the kids, this was a prelude to – and preparation for – building our own mountain dulcimer.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0admit I was\u00a0tempted to purchase a finished dulcimer from Wood-n-Strings dulcimers. They also sold kits including all\u00a0of the pre-cut pieces and\u00a0pre-bent sides. However, I also knew I’d\u00a0rather build one myself and, frankly, I don’t see the point of woodworking kits in general. IMHO\u00a0kits remove most of the artistry and\u00a0craftsmanship from the process. If everything’s already perfectly machine-cut, the headstock scroll carved, I’d be little more than the last step on the assembly line.\u00a0Too much “paint-by-numbers” means very little risk of utter failure – which also means no true pride of real accomplishment, at least for me personally.<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/a>

Back to Basics<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The 2-page spread on how to build a mountain dulcimer<\/p><\/div>\n

Reading Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, I had no clue how to actually build<\/em> a proper mountain dulcimer.<\/p>\n

Having read several books on acoustic guitar building, I understood the basic construction techniques and concepts\u00a0such as\u00a0scale length – or vibrating string length (VSL) as I see it called on the dulcimer forums. But I wanted to find a plan showing how the tuning head and body are typically attached, internal structure of the body, etc.<\/p>\n

Thankfully I found\u00a0the book – “Constructing the Mountain Dulcimer<\/a>” by Dean Kimball.<\/p>\n

This is a very old book (you can tell by the printed\u00a0BASIC code for calculating fret placement designed to run on a Commodore 64<\/a><\/em>). Many Internet sites sell used or hardcover copies, but Luthier Merchantile International<\/a>\u00a0sells\u00a0’em\u00a0new in paperback for only $15.<\/p>\n

I also read a blog post<\/a> describing\u00a0another\u00a0old book – the 1981 Reader’s Digest “Back to Basics<\/a>” that includes plans for a mountain dulcimer. This book is out of print\u00a0but\u00a0there are dozens of used\u00a0copies available online. I grabbed a copy from Amazon and sure enough, there on page\u00a0390\u00a0is a plan for building your own mountain dulcimer.<\/p>\n

Though a traditional hour-glass shaped dulcimer is pictured on the cover, the plans inside the\u00a0book are for a relatively simple triangular shaped dulcimer. This suited me just fine – I decided\u00a0I’d build two<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Cutting<\/a>

Cutting the fret slots with a template and custom blade. The blue tape is blocking off the “skipped” frets not in the dulcimer’s diatonic scale.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Gluing<\/a>

Gluing up the body<\/p><\/div>\n

Reader’s Digest\u00a0Dulcimer<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first one\u00a0is the simple Reader’s Digest “Back to Basics” dulcimer. The purpose of this build is to gain\u00a0additional experience\u00a0fretting an instrument\u00a0– something I’d yet to tackle on my two prior electrics or my as-yet-unfinished acoustic 6-string.<\/p>\n

Following the (hopefully successful) basic build, I’d tackle a more traditional body style per the Kimball book. Through the second I’d\u00a0gain experience bending wood. Both of these will hopefully lead up to finally finishing my acoustic guitar build<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fret Not<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fretboards scare me. Not playing them, but building them. The precision required is a bit intimidating to say the least.\u00a0Measurements are often specified in hundredths of an inch<\/em>.\u00a0And if you’re off just a bit, your gorgeous handmade masterpiece will forever play out of tune. Yikes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To help ensure success and\u00a0take some of the anxiety out of the process I decided I’d\u00a0purchase a template.<\/p>\n

Stewmac.com sells a very\u00a0nice metal fret template and table saw blade that I’d picked up a few months back. After getting a somewhat imprecise and inconsistent result using the guide to mark frets with a pencil and hand saw them for the canjos, I figured I’d use the template as intended for the dulcimer – paired with the table saw and a simple jig.<\/p>\n

The book specifies a 28″ VSL. Because this will be played primarily by the kids, and because I really wanted to try out my 25.5″ scale template, I adjusted this to Fender-style 25.5″.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Gluing<\/a>

Gluing on the top<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Wipe-on<\/a>

Wipe-on Tung oil finish<\/p><\/div>\n

Daddy’s Little Girl<\/strong><\/p>\n

My very “crafty” 10-year-old daughter was eager to help out with this project. So I put her to work doing nearly everything that didn’t require the use of power tools. She performed most of the gluing up, fret installation and beveling, and final finish work. We started on Saturday morning, and by Sunday afternoon the first coats of finish were drying.<\/p>\n

Next weekend after a few more coats of finish and a few days’ curing time, we should be ready to buff it out, install the bridge, tail, nut, tuners and string it up!<\/p>\n

Next up: how does it sound?<\/p>\n

\"Applying<\/a>

Applying finish to the body<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beveling<\/a>

Beveling the frets<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Wiping<\/a>

Wiping on the Tung oil finish<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Fret<\/a>

Fret board hollowed out on the underside<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Gluing<\/a>

Gluing the fret board<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Building a Mountain Dulcimer<\/a><\/div>

In the first post of this series, the kids and I built “canjos” following our visit to the Great Smoky Mountains. Besides being a fun “shop time” activity with the kids, this was a prelude to – and preparation for – building our own mountain dulcimer. I\u00a0admit I was\u00a0tempted to purchase a finished dulcimer from … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,3],"tags":[166,165,157,133,158,161,25],"series":[164],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1141,"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenonandspline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}