Quote:
Originally Posted by Taylorplayer
“A dulcimer's soundboard is its bottom not its top, which is braced by the fretboard.”
I never knew that. That is very interesting point. I am building a “Tennessee Music Box”, and I am hoping to get as much sound out of it as possible.
Thanks for the good information. Much appreciated!
Will
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Hi Will,
A Tennessee Music Box is a great project! As an experiment, I built one in a morning out of scrap wood. The story behind the project is here:
Box Dulcimer
Little feet on a TMB make a big difference to the sound, and ideally they should be played on a table rather than your lap. You certainly want a good tension in the strings - I would go for something like 8 gauge piano wire (0.020 plain steel) for the strings tuned all to the same note. Use 18 gauge wire for the staple frets (0.041) and I would set them in just intonation, pure diatonic, with the root note at the 3rd fret. I have a fret placement calculator for this if you send me a PM. You don't need thin fancy planking at all - thick pine will do the job. The 'trick' is to get the strings to generate enough energy to get the box humming along - so heavy strings wound up nice and tight do the trick.
Robin