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I began to get interested in building an instrument. I thought about building an Apalachian dulcimer but the curved sides defeated me. So I decided to build a Hammered Dulcimer because it is all straight edges. I made a trial instrument and became a player before building the instrument I use today. It was not a kit, I did start with bits of wood and few plans. The seminal Howard Mitchell book helped, as did trips to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Penny Harris allowed me to wield a tape measure around her dulcimer too. The rest was guesswork. The pictures show the top and bottom of the instrument.

Press the speaker button for a page with dulcimer sounds. Press the images to see larger JPEGs.

It was the last instrument I made, my workshop eventually became Glyn's room. The box has done well. It's 20 years old.

I've played in a few local bands but mostly get to play in pubs. I was very pleased to be asked to play in the Cathedral at the Carol Service for Glyn's school last Christmas.

I am a member of the Nonsuch Dulcimer Club which I discovered by looking at the US Dulcimer Home Page. The page was advertised by Paddy Ashdown on the BBC's ``The Net'' programme.

For dulcimer people, my instrument is D/G/C with the bottom treble string is G#/C#. The bass strings are basically a C scale, the bottom note is G. I tune the top two oddly: the top one is C# and the next one down Bb. The Bb gives me an F scale starting in the bass strings. The C# was put there to help with some Early Music tune when I was in the band for Cathy LeSurf's Early Dance workshops at Sidmouth many years ago now. It's just stuck and is occasionally useful.

The pickup on my box is a DiMarzio Acoustic model which I have had for years. It's usually fed into my tuning machine rather than an amplifier.

I play with the instrument on my knees and hold the hammers between first and second fingers, that's why they perhaps look an odd shape to you. The hammers are very light.