Mountain Dulcimer Building

Lining, Gluing, Trimming, and the Fretboard

Now we are gluing the sides to the peghead. Notice the 1" hole I drilled in the peghead. I thought it was a good idea (HiFi speaker rear port tuning and all that acoustic thinking) but it probably only came in handy as an access hole for my transducer pickup gadget.

I am now gluing the back to the sides, the benefit of the mold with the little pegs is apparent. It helped me to speed up the clamping, before the glue got a skin on it. Then I added the weights to really fix it down.

This is a shot of the dulcimer so far with the back and sides trimmed.

Here is a look at the inside before the top is put on. Notice the patches on the bookmatch joint. These are at 90 degrees to the grain of the back. Also there is only one brace which is 1/4" x 1/4" x 6" made out of old model airplane stuff. (5 ply)

This shows the lining glued to the sides. I used mahogany lining from a luthier friend to give me more gluing surface for the back and sides because I made them extra thin, especially the back which finished up at 1/16" to 5/64".

Cutting the slots for the frets. I had to cover up some nasty screwnail holes with a harp inlay and there was some tricky measuring to be done to get it all to fit the scale length just right.

Again I got help from the "EverythingDulcimer" archives and FAQ's and used the W fret computer program.

There is something very satisfying to finish the fingerboard and to finally glue on the two pieces of Spruce for the top. Not seen unfortunately in any pictures is the groove I cut underneath the fingerboard. It is 1/2' x 3/4" and runs the length of the fingerboard, stopping about 1" from the strum hollow. Again more info. I gleaned in my research in the Making Dulcimer archives.

Here we are gluing the top to the sides, again the old ball of twine, keep moving with speed and add lots of weight.

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