Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Harrison's Building a Dulcimer Blog

I am starting a thread to talk about the upcoming construction of a dulcimer, which will be built by myself and my friend Gideon (he plays guitar on some of my videos).
We are going to follow these general instructions:

Top, sides, and bottom will be maple, and I have yet to decide what to use for the neck.
Estimated costs:
2x4 sheet maple plywood 1/4" $15
2x2" hardwood lumber $5-15
Fret wire: $10
Tuners: Free (we already have tuners)
Other random things:$0-10

Total cost: approx. $40.

9 Likes

I’ll be following this thread with enthusiasm. Good luck. Can’t wait to see the process and how it turns out.

4 Likes

What he said

3 Likes

What they said.

3 Likes

I’m excited to see how it turns out! Id recommend using mahogany or maple for the neck. If you need any help, I would be happy to assist

4 Likes

Thanks for the encouragement everyone! I was looking for a board for the neck, and I’m having a hard time finding a 3 ft length of 2x2". Any suggestions?

3 Likes

Don’t you have a local lumber yard close to you Harrison?

You might be able to pick up a piece of well seasoned scrap lumber that would suffice.

4 Likes

We have Curtis Lumber.
https://www.curtislumber.com/
I will probably stop in there and ask about it.

2 Likes

You could try bellforestproducts.com, the neck for my guitar came from rctonewoods.com

3 Likes

Thanks, I’ll look into that.

3 Likes

Ok, it’s been a while since I started planning this project, but with all this extra time I actually started building the dulcimer. I got the wood from a local wood shop. Here’s the end piece being glued to the bottom.

3 Likes

A day later, a side piece being glued.

3 Likes

Marking the top piece for cutting the sound holes.

4 Likes