Catalpa Dulcimer

Another beautiful example @dulcimerman, what dose Catalpa mean? Thanks so much for sharing!

the wood used in the top is from a Catalpa tree that was cut about 30 years ago`.  I was so surprised when I saw the tiger stripe in it.  It is considered a trash tree by most people, however it is very lightweight, responds well to string vibrations and is normally not found at saw mills. Carvers like to use it as it holds detail well and is easy to work   The dowqn side is it has an open grain and takes several coats of varnish to fill the grain.

Well I love that wood, beautiful warm color, I'll have to look it up and see where it's native.

How long have you been building these instruments?

About 9 years John, I am getting ready to start 3 more which will put me at #138.  I play at most of the local festivals throughout the year as well as playing at nursing homes.  

    I use 3 hand rubbed coats of amber SHELLAC not varnish then top it with varnish or poly seal. Sorry, before I said I filled the grain with varnish. Before covid hit , I played at least 100 days a year somewhere. I belong to two large groups that meets twice a month and started a group in Terre Haute Indiana about three years ago.  My big play time is the Park County IN Covered Bridge festival in October, 10 straight days then 6 days at Bridgeton, IN right after Thanks giving for the Christmas Craft show.  We also have a Rendezvous, Civil War days and a Chautauqua

 at Merom, IN on the Wabash River

Wow wow wow, how cool is that! Well I hope you stay around here with and keep sharing your work, I would love some images of your work in progress. Have you thought of creating an album in our gallery to upload your images?

We have some folks here that live near you, we have woodworkers all over the place, perhaps ya'll can meet up some day. But I gotta say, building a Dulcimer has intrigued me to no end, something I have wanted to do for a looong time.

Hey, do you have a video somewhere of you playing?

That is a most beautiful instrument @dulcimerman!

hey John, good morning

here is short from the  Park County Covered Bridge Festival year before last. The festival draws 2 to 3 million people in the 10 days,  it runs



Covered Bridge Festival Bridgeton, IN day 2 w/ Mom & Dad #coveredbridge - YouTube

Bill R

7 minutes ago, dulcimerman said:

hey John, good morning

here is short from the  Park County Covered Bridge Festival year before last. The festival draws 2 to 3 million people in the 10 days,  it runs



Covered Bridge Festival Bridgeton, IN day 2 w/ Mom & Dad #coveredbridge - YouTube

Bill R

No link on my end Bill...

If you just copy the line and paste it into a search it should work

Bill's spot starts at the 13 minute mark.  Great!!!

I'll watch the whole video later...

@dulcimerman, just watched the video, how wonderful to see who is behind the online profile here, and to hear you play, I loved every moment of it. And what a neat venue, I'd lose myself there.

Thanks for following up with the video Cal, I'll have to high-lite feature this video with Bill in an upcoming topic.

Bill, if I wanted to start to learn Dulcimer, how to play, do you have any suggestions on books or types of classes? Our daughter purchased a Dulcimer a few years ago and I have plinked away at it ignorantly just having fun is all, not making any sensible music from it, so I do have a dulcimer in my possession. It's just a standard student model mass produced made in Canada nothing fancy, but it holds strings and makes noise.