Westwood Instruments and Ray Roberts?

[MarkH]

A person on my local Craigslist is selling a hammered dulcimer + accessories, which of course is always interesting since practically no hammered dulcimers show up around here. The hammered dulcimer, a 15/14 looks a bit like a Dusty Strings D25, even down to the empty soundholes, spacing between bridges and uncoupled bridgecaps, except that the wood colors are somewhat different. The seller says the label inside of the dulcimer says "Westwood Instruments" and is signed in ink by Ray Roberts.

Does anyone know anything about either of these names (a Google search didn't tell me much)? And can someone tell me how to post a picture so I can put up the picture the seller sent me?

Thanks!

[kwl]

The easiest way to put a picture in a post is to insert a link to the picture at some host server where the picture is stored. There are many free sites where you can store your pictures. I used Photobucket. Once you have uploaded your photo, copy the image URL and paste it in your post. Highlight the URL and then click on IMG in the box above your post window. Click on submit and that should do it. That is how I added the picture below of myself with the PA German zitter I built.

[thwills]

A little late, but I just joined. I have a Ray Roberts Westwood that was delivered in March of 1994. As far as I know, it is the only chromatic instrument he built. We met Ray at the Shaker Woods craft show south of Youngstown, OH in September of 1993 at which point I commissioned the instrument. 1993 was the only year that Ray was allowed to display dulcimers at the show. Another vendor was friends with the show's organizer and had an unwritten agreement that did not allow other vendors to display dulcimers. Since Ray had not been told of this agreement before the show, he was allowed to display them for only the one year. If I remember correctly, Ray was originally a furniture builder and dulcimer player. Ray was from the south side of Pittsburgh, PA. He started building bowed psaltries, thumb pianos, and hammered dulcimers. Later, he was building instruments, teaching lessons, and opened a music store in Harmony, PA. Eventually he decided that between building, teaching, and operating the store that he no longer had time for what he enjoyed most, which was playing music. At that point, he closed the store and stopped building and took a job servicing the equipment used in automatic parking lots (ticket dispensers, gates, etc.). His dulcimers were NOT similar to the Dusty Strings in that the Dusty strings are a sealed-head design while the Westwood dulcimers are a floating head design. Ray offered a choice of western red cedar or mahogany sound boards with a choice of natural finish or with the soundboards dyed black, burgundy, or green. He also offered maple accent pieces glued to the corners of the soundboards, something that I have never seen on other builders' instruments. I still have my 17/16 chromatic. It's got a loud, rich tone though I do find that it has quite a bit of sustain. The instrument receives compliments where-ever I take it and even after 18 years I have felt no need to upgrade to a newer instrument.