Really clean luthiers? Not exactly. Everything Dulcimer member Pristine2 has been maintaining a great list of dulcimer makers and their contact info. The list is found in the Eveything Dulcimer Discussion Forum.

Check it out and use the forum to contribute any new builder information you may have. This link will take you directly there. 

Thanks Pristine2 for compiling this great resource.

Featured Member Article

Notes on traditional styles of playing the mountain dulcimer and its European antecedents before the Folk Revival, and what 21st-century players can learn from old techniques and new media technology

Sooner or later, anybody who plays the Appalachian dulcimer has the dulcimer conversation. [1] I usually have it at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site in Illinois, when visitors see me sitting on the porch of a country store going plinkety-twang on a musical instrument like nothing they've never seen before.

“What's that,” they ask.

“A dulcimer,” I tell ’em, even though I know what's probably coming next.

“Oh,” they say. “A dulcimer. What's that?”

Canadian dulcimer player Sylvain LaCroix, along with his band, were recently featured on the NBC Today show.  Click Here to watch the video.   It is about life in a colorful, French-Canadian community named Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!.  Check it out. It is a lot of fun and includes a banjo dulcimer.

You can now quickly find teachers, events, builders and more with just one click. You find it all under the Resource Lists menu. Our menus are the same on every page, making sweet music out of finding your way around the site. Give 'em a strum, and be sure to click Get Connected to get started uploading pictures, showing off your YouTube videos, and writing your own dulcimer blog.

Peaks at your blog entries are now featured here on the front page in the right hand column.  Click the box at the end of each line to see a new blog entry.

Before I'd ever heard of a mountain dulcimer, I was trying to figure out what a hammered dulcimer was. I had heard one on a Manheim Steamroller Christmas album. My grandmother knew about my search and called one day to tell me she was saving an article for me from the Cincinnati Enquirer. A few days later, during our regular Sunday visit, my grandma brought out the article. It wasn't about hammered dulcimers at all. Instead, it was all about an instrument I knew nothing about, the mountain dulcimer. I was disappointed and intrigued at the same time.

In the mosaic of faces that make up our memories, there are some selfless giants in all of our lives, I suspect. In my personal experience, I have been very fortunate to have benefited from many guides and mentors who have whispered sage advice at just the right time.

I would like to tell you about one such man…the man who is responsible for me playing the mountain dulcimer.