1970s Korean-made Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer



This is a "yard sale" instrument -- something for sale here at the shop but a little too inexpensive to make sense shipping unless really desired.

Ah, curious old mountain dulcimers. They come in pretty regularly for "quick setups" but are never really just quick jobs. This one bears a "Made in Korea" sticker on the back of the headstock and an E-105 label which, I suppose, is the model number?

Either way, it's an all-ply-body instrument and it simply-made and simply-finished. The original tuners were missing and its owner supplied replacements, but said replacements needed a deeper minimum depth to the headstock sidewalls. So... I retrofitted some Grover Champion banjo friction pegs to it instead and these work just fine.

It plays well after a setup, but I will have to jack-up the saddle just a hair because it gets slightly buzzy on the highest frets when playing vigorously. It has good sustain and an even, woody sound but isn't as warm as some wider-bodied dulcimers can be.

There's a small separation of the fretboard/blocking on the top near the string pins, though it's stable and hasn't moved since string-up.






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lfrancis said…
Thanks for posting this, helped me learn about a thrift shop dulcimer I rescued. The labels have fallen off mine, but the design of the headstock, sound holes, and tailpiece string anchors match. Mine has guitar-like binding and what looks like rosewood sides and a matched back with a center strip, no doubt laminated. Cut a Martin-style bone saddle down to replace the broken nut and bridge since I couldn't find correctly sized replacements, slapped on some strings and to this untrained ear and hand plays well and sounds nice. Wish I knew who made it and how much it cost originally, though I'm sure it was an inexpensive instrument. Cheers.
October 7, 2020 at 2:57 PM
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