Anna Thea

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top, back, & sides: Recycled cherry
• Head & tailpiece: Cherry
• Fingerboard: Redwood with black walnut laminate
• Tuning pegs: Hand-carved maple

My latest (June, 2005) mountain dulcimer is partly made from cherry wood that I recycled from another artist's carving exercise. He gave his piece to me to resaw for instruments. Anna Thea is the first from that cherry wood.

Anna Thea is the name of the tragic heroine in an old English or Celtic folk song who tried to save her brother from hanging by giving herself to a black-hearted judge.

Sold! In the collection of Anita Webb, Santa Cruz, CA

La Bête

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top: Redwood
• Sides & back: Spanish Cedar
• Head& tailpiece: Cherry
• Fingerboard: Pine with Eastern black walnut laminate
• Tuning pegs: Hand-carved maple

I completed this just before exhibiting at the Marin Art Festival in June. Not only is this the first animal head I've done in almost 20 years, but I based it on a viola da gamba head that's in the St. Petersburg Musical Instrument Museum. I also added recycled ivory "fangs" and carved "king and queen" tuning pegs. This dulcimer has a warm tone that's a result of the warm, red woods.

Sold to Dorothy Mayeda, Aptos, CA

My Creole Belle

• Design based on J.E. Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top, sides & back: Cocobolo
• Head& tailpiece: Cocobolo
• Fingerboard: Pine with cocobolo laminate
• Tuning pegs: Hand-carved maple

Cocobolo is very similar in color and grain as Brazilian rosewood. It is an oily wood that finishes sands down very smooth. I coated it with six coats of glossy tung oil, and, after it cured, polished it with pumice, rottenstone, then paste wax. This is an exceptionally nice playing instrument with a good full sound.

Collection of Elizabeth Ann Kaupa, Norwalk, CA

The Monk

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top: Douglas fir (recycled from demolished Portland warehouse)
• Sides & back: Pecan
• Head& tailpiece: Maple
• Fingerboard: Pine with Eastern black walnut laminate
• Tuning pegs: Hand-carved maple

I'm doing a lot of carving again, and working on two or three heads at a time. I built this one April, 2003, using pecan wood left over from a salon guitar I made last year.

Besides carving the head, I am also now carving the tuning pegs. This set is in the shape of maple leaves. The Monk chants beautifully. He has a mellow tone that's not too soft or too loud.

Collection of Kevin Roth, Hollywood, Florida

The Bald Man

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top: Spruce
• Sides & back: Oak (recycled oak table & flooring)
• Fingerboard: Spruce with Easter black walnut laminate
• Tuning pegs: Hand-carved Gaboon ebony

The Bald Man is nearly 90% recycled wood. The sides came from old oak flooring, and the back was ripped from an old oak table top. The head and tailpiece are from oak scraps left over from other projects. The top is yellow (sugar) pine left over from a furniture building project nearly 15 years earlier. The only new wood is the fingerboard and the ebony tuning pins. The Eastern black walnut fingerboard is laminated over more pine.

Collection of Rin Eric, Santa Cruz, California

The Singing Maiden #2

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top, sides, back, head, & tailpiece: Eastern black walnut
• Fingerboard: Pine with Eastern black walnut laminate
• Tuning pegs: Hand-carved beech

I completed this instrument in 2002 just before packing up and moving home and shop to a new location. I'm in the same general Westside Santa Cruz location, but in a smaller, more efficient work space.

This dulcimer is nearly all walnut with recycled beech tuning pegs. The pegs used to be tenons on a junked early-American style pine trestle table. I carved the Singing Lady from my imagination. I used no photos or drawings to copy from this time. She has a small antique ivory bow in the back of her hair.

Collection of James Browning, Laguna Niguel, California

Mountain Man

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top, sides, back, and fingerboard surface: Brazilian Rosewood
  Fingerboard: Spruce
  Tuning pegs: Macassar Ebony

I remember seeing a picture of an old timer in one of the many magazines I subscribed to. I drew a pencil sketch of him, then carved a rosewood chunk into the peghead from that sketch. I call this my Mountain Man dulcimer. This hourglass-shaped dulcimer I styled after the 1885-90 Thomas dulcimer that resides in the Smithsonian. I'm attracted to this design because of its slender, graceful shape. The only differences from the original are in the peghead carving (nearly all dulcimers have scroll-style pegheads), and in the soundholes, which are a variation of the classic heart shape. The sound is quiet but sweetly pleasant. These are perfect parlor instruments to accompany ballads, spirituals, and old-timey folk and bluegrass tunes.

I gave this dulcimer to a very good friend with whom I used to sing folk music in the '60s.

Collection of Charles Wingo, Roseville, California

Man in the Moon

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top and fingerboard: Spruce
  Sides, back, and fingerboard surface: Recycled oak flooring
  Head and tailpiece: Zebrawood
  Tuning pegs: Macassar Ebony

This was my third dulcimer and a fun little experiment that turned out to be one of the best sounding dulcimers I've ever made. In the mid 1970's, Union Grove Music had a store in Los Gatos (now only in Santa Cruz). They offered to sell it, on commission of course, and it sold within a week. I've no idea where it is now.

Location unknown.

The Unicorn

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top, sides, back, and fingerboard surface: Brazilian Rosewood
  Head and tailpiece: Brazilian Rosewood (antique ivory for horn)
  Fingerboard: Spruce
  Tuning pegs: Vintage ebony violin pegs with decorative ivory buttons

When I lived in the Willow Glen District of San José I was only a few miles from one of the South Bay's largest hardwood dealers, Southern Lumber, where I picked up a lot of good material for not too much money (in those days). Back in the mid to late 1970's, Brazilian Rosewood was still being imported and no one thought the supply would end--or were aware that the rainforests would be endangered from greedy loggers, slash-and-burn farmers, and, worse, the gold miners who ruthlessly destroyed (and are still destroying) thousands of square miles of land. I purchased several Rosewood 2 x 4 chunks of various lengths for my instruments as well as for head and tailpiece carvings.

One of the first Brazilian Rosewood dulcimers I built was the one I call The Unicorn. Of all the dulcimers I've built, I love this one the best. I used to raise horses in my youth, and as I carved this I kept thinking about those days. (Sigh.) As I mentioned above, I used Brazilian rosewood on the top, sides, back, head, and fingerboard (laminated over spruce). The violin tuning pegs have an ivory button. (These are vintage pegs I found at a flea market in Alameda, California.) The curly unicorn horn is very old ivory given to me by the friend I gave this instrument to.

Collection of Victoria Lynn Devereaux, Kyle, Texas

The Ram

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top, sides, back, and fingerboard surface: Eastern black walnut
  Fingerboard: Spruce
  Tuning pegs: Hand-carved Gaboon ebony

Not long after I built The Unicorn I decided to try my hand at another animal head. This time I thought a ram would be fun since I could carve the curled ram's horns with some more of the old ivory I was given. This instrument is all Eastern Black Walnut. The fingerboard is walnut laminated over spruce. The tuning pegs I turned and carved myself from small ebony pieces.
I gave this dulcimer to my late brother.

Collection of Nancy Cook, Placentia, California

Mountain Woman

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top, sides, back, and fingerboard surface: Eastern black walnut
  Fingerboard: Spruce
  Tuning pegs: Hand-carved Macassar ebony

One of my books showed a classic photograph of a depression-era woman from an Eastern or South-Eastern U.S. coal region. She appeared very dignified even though she lived in very poor conditions. I sketched her then transferred the sketch to a block of Eastern black walnut. I feel I captured her sad dignity in my carving. The Thomas-style hourglass design, the carving, and the bittersweet sound of the instrument combined to create one of the most haunting dulcimers I've built.

Location unknown.

The Coog Moon

• Design based on Thomas Dulcimer in the Smithsonian collection, Washington, D.C.
• Top: Douglas fir (recycled from demolished Portland warehouse)
• Sides, back, head, & Tailpiece: Maple
• Fingerboard: Pine with Eastern black walnut laminate
• Tuning pegs: Hand-carved Gaboon Ebony

It was ten years between this dulcimer and the last one I built. I've spent most of that time building guitars, banjos, harps, and various other North American and European folk and early instruments--most from scratch, but some from kits (to learn how they're made). This new dulcimer one has back, sides, head, and tailpiece of maple. The top is recycled old-growth Douglas Fir just like what I'm using on my guitar tops. The fingerboard is Eastern black walnut. I turned and carved the tuning pegs out of ebony.

This is the first dulcimer I used banding and back inlays, similar to my guitar work. All my other dulcimers have overlapping tops and backs like those on violin family instruments and with their beautiful bookmatched walnut and Brazilian Rosewood backs, they didn't need any inlay to detract from the grain design. The lovely cream-colored maple I used, however, didn't have any distinguishing grain, so I decided to add the inlay for visual interest.

Collection of Richard Pasetto, Santa Cruz, California

The Blond Lady

Traditional teardrop design
Recycled maple, ebony, recycled pine

The Blond Lady is approximately 80% recycled-wood. The top, sides, and back are remnants of maple butcher block counter tops I installed in my kitchen. The head is maple, the fingerboard is ebony over recycled pine, and the tuning pins I carved out of ebony.

Personal collection: NFS

The Singing Maiden #1

Traditional teardrop design
Eastern black walnut, Philippine mahogany

This teardrop shaped dulcimer was the first I built with a carved head. It is black walnut, except for the fingerboard (Philippine mahogany) and tuning pegs (recycled maple violin pegs). I patterned the Singing Maiden's head after Renaissance and Baroque period Viola de Gamba pegheads.

In the 1970's I became more and more interested in the history of Western musical instruments and spent a lot of time at the San José public library reading books on ancient instruments and also checking out early music records that demonstrated the sounds of these instruments. Around that same time I subscribed to Oxford University's Early Music Journal and learned even more about early stringed instruments with carved heads. Since most dulcimers have plain or violin-type scrolls on the pegheads, I decided to start carving early instrument-style heads for my dulcimers. It's a time-consuming process, but I believe it gives my instruments character and brings them to life.

The soundholes on this instrument are based on a Celtic design.

Personal collection: NFS

The Singing Lady

Traditional teardrop design
Eastern black walnut, Douglas fir, recycled pine

I donated this graceful instrument to the Santa Cruz Cultural Council's Hearts for the Arts auction. Bidding was spirited, and I'm happy to say its sale will help fund the teaching of art to today's youth.

Collection of Jennifer Crawford, Oakland, California

The Coffin

Non-traditional design
Philippine mahogany, spruce, maple

Other than the reed whistle I made when I was a Cub Scout, this is my first instrument. The top is very thin spruce (actually a thick 1/16" veneer), and the sides and back are very inexpensive Philippine mahogany. When I built this I didn't know how to bend wood by steaming yet, so I opted for the clumsy but extremely functional Folk style. The tuning gears came from a broken electric guitar I picked up at a flea market for 25 cents or so (very cheap, very early Japanese). Surprisingly, this instrument turned out sounding quite nice, and it gave me the incentive to learn all I could about folk instrument histories and construction.

Personal collection: NFS