Building a Hammer Dulcimer - Start to Finish

No plans were used, but I took inspiration from Rick Fogel's design. You should check him out: whamdiddle.com/
This is my first solo woodworking project. It was an effort to gain new skills during quarantine by learning how to build the dulcimer, and to improve my 3D modelling skills for the animations, which are done using Blender. The audio and the final video edit were done in Reaper, which I'm also learning.
It took about one month to build the dulcimer, and another month to tweak little things on it and edit the video.
The three tunes in the video are composed by me. They are, in order they're heard:
No More Vibe (played on this dulcimer)
Life Is Simple Right Now (with Simon Chrisman)
Darkwood
Thanks to Owen Wardlaw for helping me out with parts of the build, and being the cameraman sometimes.
00:00 Pinblocks and Rails
01:48 Braces and Back
06:47 Soundboard
09:43 Bridges
12:27 Pins and Trim
14:54 Strings
15:45 Tuned up Demo

[@pnorton30]

Very nice job. I was around your age when I built my first Hammered Dulcimer back in the early 1970s. There was really no info out there about how to do one. I had wanted to try my hand at one after seeing Shivkumar Sharma the renowned Indain Santoor player a few years earlier.Eventually I found a Ukranian man who was a retired farmer not far from where lived in upstate NY- He had built them for members of a Eastern Orthodox Church he belonged to - he let me take measurements of his and gave me a lot of tips and I was off to the races- was able scavenge a sound board out of a eighty year old piano- my first attempt came out nice, sounded great but I used plywood on the back and after five or six years started to buckle-during this time I had started building other instruments ,eventually guitars-I did end up rebuilding the Dulcimer with the same sound board and much heavier materials. In the mid 80s I stopped working on instruments all togeather-had too many things going on. Im retired now and have been going over some my old pieces that are still around-the hammered Dulcimer needed a fair amount rehab - got it all stripped down, going to reconfigure the bridges to make it a Piano Dulcimer. This Dulcimer weighs close to 30 pounds maybe more-the case was made of heavy tropical wood-nothing I can do about that now. I was struck by your methods to keep the weight down but still very strong- so if I crank out another one I will try that method.

[@aaronwolff4]

Thanks for your comment, and sorry for the late response. I'd love to see what some of your older pieces look like, you should post some demo videos! Also I'd be happy to get in touch to help with measurements and building tips if you go forward in making another dulcimer! Cheers!

[@KrumbieTorvish]

I didn’t expect to get emotional over watching an instrument being built. Very inspiring as a musician. Thanks for your hard work!

[@briefwechsel]

The tune at the end was fabulous.

[@aaronwolff4]

Thanks!!

[@craftedworkshop]

Excellent work man! A hammered dulcimer build is on my bucket list, would love to have one to mess around with.

[@yossarian00]

love the dedication you put into not just into the piece itself but the video. You even did 3D animations to show how things fit together. Really impressive work :)

[@thedevilinthecircuit1414]

Nice work! Building on the floor is murder on the back. A large build table is cheap and easy! Also, a router plane makes short work of shallow rabbets and dados, and is more accurate than doing multiple cuts with a table saw and following with a chisel.

[@williamfuller7831]

Thank you for the work and the vid

[@JCTrickster-iw6kp]

Really great wortk 😍

[@Engelhafen]

Love your barn

[@petersvan7880]

So happy to have found this video, big fan of the Hammered Dulcimer. Excellent workmanship, thank you for showing!

[@reallyoldtom9352]

Beautiful! I'll have to buy my next one. Confined to apartment living now but ain't dead yet.

[@dawnbryner5909]

I’m stunned! And, you play wonderfully!

[@jayrobichaux5158]

I built a few of these with my step father when I was about 16. 48 now. I still have the Hammer Dulcimer and lap dulcimers we build for my mother back then. Decided to build a Hammer for each eldest daughter and a Harp for my youngest. Been building guitars for over as decade so Nicely done! Sounds phenomenal.

[@yossarian00]

Wish I had been lucky enough to have a parent like you. Sounds like a great thing to do with your children

[@M_m.aang.uxz.1902]

Nice 🎉

[@charliehaffke2051]

I love the sound of the hammered dulcimer. It’s like a honky took piano but better in every way. Great background music too! Wish I could afford one

[@mhdfrb9971]

Really enjoy watching you build the ancestor of Piano!

[@vinayaksharma8932]

This is really something else, props ✊🏽

[@tantemitzi5915]

Happy to have found that. I play the hammered dulcimer Salzburger Hackbrett, which is a different shape and I got into "what makes this thing sound really good except of the strings". There are no videos in German which show the construction of this great instrument. So I am very happy to have found this great video. Very timeconsuming construction, but the sound seems to have been worth all of it! Thanks a lot!

[@SoupyD]

Very good video- seeing overall construction and especially the bracing under each bridge, was helpful for me to understand an instrument I’m refurbishing. You have great talent as an instrument maker, a videographer and a musician!

[@SoupyD]

Aaron, I am refurbishing a big heavy chromatic dulcimer (early Sam Rizetta design). When I removed the floating soundboard I found 3 stainless steel vertical braces under it. A friend suggested the tone of the instrument would likely be improved by replacing the steel braces with wooden dowels- maple I’m thinking. I see in your video you have one metal vertical brace along with the felted wooden ones. Why might my builder have chosen 3 metal braces? It is a big, heavily strung instrument but it seems like there would be a lot of cost in loss of a warm tone.

[@aaronwolff4]

@@SoupyD hmm. My guess would be that if the dulcimer is really big, it would take longer enough to get all that wood vibrating that the metal was used as a way to quicken the attack. The tone might be warmer with the wood, but it might lose more power than it's worth, or have a slow attack. I don't know. This is all conjecture, and the only way to find out is to try it, since every instrument is different. I'd love to see a picture of it!

[@Chittebengo]

This was an excellent watch.

[@cleistocactus]

Amazing stuff man! Great job!

[@eichoevers4199]

This was an amazing watch. Way to go. Inspired me.

[@rober4596]

Ooooh man, this is amazing!!!! Congratulations!! The result is unbelievable!!!

[@ZozzyCube]

Sweet build man. Rendering and animations looked nice as well

[@springcreekfarmer]

I really enjoyed this. You are very talented in many ways. Thanks, I want to build one now.

[@thefarmlifeinhd]

This is awesome man!

[@klubhaus4711]

Amazing Video!

[@songbirdhd]

Wow, very impressive!! great job, and great video

[@pathfollower]

Very impressive

[@eunicetobar2581]

Que hermoso trabajo😍😍😍😍

[@cerebral3591]

You are an excellent craftsman and obviously possess a wealth of talents.

[@solitudewoodworking8431]

love it so much! great job, looks and sounds fantastic 👍🏻

[@aaronwolff4]

Thanks so much! This means a lot, your video series was really inspiring!

[@dcallan812]

speed holes. great video. 👍👍

[@jonasdrema]

beautiful vid my guy

[@aaronjonesgospel]

Props to you, fellow musician wood worker. I also use reaper too haha. I have been thinking about building one of these myself. I've done a couple of guitars and I've always liked the way the hammer dulcimer sounds. Your vid provides inspiration!

[@grahambuildsstuff87]

Very very nicely done, and the sound is excellent!

[@aaronwolff4]

Thanks!

[@petercollin5670]

Great work. You can make the cutting of the bridge much easier by attaching a beveled piece of wood to the fence with double sided tape. That will give the piece horizontal support while you’re cutting it, lessen the pucker factor.

[@aaronwolff4]

very true. I'll likely do that in the future, or try it out. I think I was in a bit of a hurry and felt pretty confident about the cut at the time of the video, but if I were to do that cut regularly, I wouldn't want to roll the dice of injury too many more times.

[@LAGNAETTI]

Aaron! What a wonderful video. You did an amazing job building the dulcimer, I am SO impressed. Also, I really, really like the last song that you play on the HD at the end of the video - I saw in the description that it is one of your compositions? Incredible.

[@aaronwolff4]

Thanks so much!! I found your channel a few weeks ago with that great witcher cover. I look forward to more quality HD content :)

[@kobevo8527]

Yes dude

[@davidmcleod1760]

Can I build this with a hammer and some sandpaper? Also... I don't have sandpaper. Seriously cool though, you're really good at woodworking :)

[@johnhenry176]

Interesting !¬

[@Manufalket]

Like 4 nice video amigo 😀👍

[@aaronwolff4]

Grazie!

[@hudsonriverlee]

Two things for the table saw , a cross cut sled, (Kreg sells them pre made), the Second, flat tipped saw blades... eliminating the Channeled or grooved look on the cut.

[@bangmon1000]

Enjoyed watching this. What song were you playing in the end? I can't find the the video where you build a stand.

[@aaronwolff4]

Glad you enjoyed. It's a tune I wrote called Darkwood, there's a video on my channel of it played on octave mandolins with a full arrangement. I've been putting it off, but I'm almost done editing part 2, where i build the stand. Stay tuned

[@Halleluyah83]

Спасибо) Очень интересно было. Смотрел от начала до конца. Как настраивали инструмент?

[@pattycrowe837]

I would love to get plans or further instructions for this build. I want to try making one.

[@marcospaulodasilva8991]

Show

[@phill765]

Love the video! how many inner braces should I use for an 11/12 dulcimer? Thanks

[@aaronwolff4]

Thanks! Hmm. If you're going for the same design (moveable braces), I would say 4 or 5 crossbraces, and 2 moveable verticals, but for that 11/12 size, it might be less worth it, or just be easier to put the two vertical braces and have them extend all the way down, and be glued to the back, but then it's more important to put them in the right places..

[@creeryk]

Great video! Hey, where did you get that hat? I was on the Saratoga in the early '80s.

[@aaronwolff4]

Thanks! Wow very nice! I got it from my grandpa, who served as a Lt. and dentist on it in the '50s.

[@1Igster1]

Very nice! One thing - joining the soundboard and back pieces end to end like you did creates a very weak bond. A better joint would have been a half lap or ship lap joint. Also, never glue thesoundboard to the rails - it's supposed to "float".

[@Momma_Tomma]

Some manufacturers do glue their soundboard to the rails. It a preference really, and gives a bit off a different sound. However, that being said, glued soundboards don't do well in places where temp and humidity changes can be extreme. They don't expand and contract freely.

[@prashantsalil153]

I believe it is a matter of preference. A glued soundboard provides extra strength and stability to the entire structure as it becomes a part of the structure itself and contributes in holding the structure firmly. The advantage of having floating board is that it gives more vibration and thus sounds louder too. Also it doesn’t get bent due to expansion and contraction since there is flexibility due to extra space. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

[@joeeckardt132]

Looks and sounds great. I've watched this video three times so far. I look forward to part 2. I also am embarking on building an instrument based on Rick Fogel's 19/18/6 5-octave design. Did you start with his 4-octave plans and extend them? Or did you come up with your dimensions some other way? Any findings that you might care to pass on to a fellow builder?

[@aaronwolff4]

I came up with the dimensions from finding as many details as I could from his website (48"x23"x2" box with 50° and 60° trapezoid, 1.125" string spacing, etc.), and then guessing the rest, and asking my friend who has some of his instruments. There were a lot of things I didn't get right. I could've had a way better position for moveable braces (I'll move them at some point I guess) I also spaced the tuning pins out too far horizontally, and it caused buzzing issues. The hold up for part 2 is that the dampers I filmed myself building were pretty bad. I figured out how to make better dampers almost exactly like Rick's and they work great, so I'm hoping to film that part again and post it when I get some time. Feel free to message me or send me an email, I'd be willing to help any way I can. :)

[@joeeckardt132]

It seems KZbin no longer supports PMs. Can you be contacted through Facebook?

[@aaronwolff4]

@@joeeckardt132 yes

[@aaronwolff4]

@@joeeckardt132 On FB, it should be a picture of me climbing a tree. Also I put my email on my KZbin Profile.

[@tdmorin1]

@@aaronwolff4 hey I couldn’t find your email, did you remove it? I have some questions for you about the build.

[@owen261]

1st comment, amazing build

[@aaronwolff4]

Thank you for the help bro

[@steveibershof5458]

If it is at all possible, could I please get the measurements? Thank you

[@MarDLR]

Hey Aaron enjoy your videos. Can you please make a video on your song No More Vibe please? Really enjoy that song

[@ryanandrus144]

Do you think you'll build another one?

[@aaronwolff4]

Yes! I've started a prototype bass dulcimer, and I plan to make some smaller ones too

[@xtra4u210]

Can anyone help me, to find the tunings for a Ukrainian Chernihiv Cymbali please ?

[@GiftsonJebin]

Nicely done Aaron! Did you learn dulcimer from an instructor or are you self taught? I'm looking to explore hammered dulcimer, and would like to know the learning options. Thank you!

[@aaronwolff4]

Hey Giftson, thanks for your comment. Do you mean to learn playing or building? For building, I tried to vaguely copy Rick Fogel's design, but I didn't use plans. For playing, I'm mostly self taught but I have a friend who is very proficient and has been giving me some pointers. Observing his style, posture, hammer grip and trying to emulate his fluency has helped me so much. His name is Simon Chrisman, and there's a lot of videos of him and his band here on KZbin. Hope that helps

[@SherriP]

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