Hammer Dulcimer ID and Repair(?)

[Dan Miller]

Hi all,

I'm a long-time lurker on the MIMForums - time to try out the new forums...

I have this hammer dulcimer that needs a bit of repair. My guess is that it is something that came from a Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Wards catalog in the late 1800s or early 1900s. If anyone could tell me more about its origins, I'd appreciate it.

Repairs that it needs, on first triage, include:

* soundboard has several splits and a critter chewed a hole in it in one place.
* Tuning pin block was originally screwed and glued - came undone, and someone bolted it back on with carriage bolts and square nuts. It's coming undone again...
* hitch pins have been replaced with flat head wood screws.
* tuning pins are larger than the 3/16" ones available now, and variable in size (requires different size tuning wrenches)
* one bridge is gone walkabout

Other than that, its in great shape!

I recognize it is probably not the best instrument, but it does have a great folk art look with the inlays and chip carving, and it would be great to put it back into playable condition... any advice and suggestions welcome.

Thanks!
Dan

[Nicholas Blanton]

First; the market for old HD's is nil. Even in good shape, they are harder to tune and keep in tune, have a smaller range, and weigh a lot more than the modern ones, so people don't use them. It's good not to discard them- just as examples of folk art they are worth preserving.
But just so you know- it would be a lot of work, and you won't get paid for it anytime soon.

Couldn't tell you the date. Those heart shaped sound holes are typical of P Wight instruments, c.1848- but Wight's aren't sideways, and didn't make his trapezoidal.

These were often put together with casein glue; they must have thought it would make them last forever. You can make casein let go with ammonia- but it has to be stronger than household ammonia- something like they use for making blueprints is good- if you can find anyone selling supplies anymore for making blueprints. But with a little luck the top has been put on with hide glue and you can get it off. Use wallpaper paste- methyl cellulose- to hold water against the glue joints and with luck and time and a pallet knife or two you can get it off. You will likely split the treble brace, glued under the treble bridge and to the back as well, so you'll have to make a new one. Then it's a matter of splicing in new wood and painting it black. The top will likely not want to lie flat, so you just have to do the best you can. If you can get the pinblock off the back, or the whole back off the instrument, you can clean off the old glue. Glue it all back together with hide glue ( throw away the carriage bolts).

Somebody replaced the hitchpins with screws because the pins were being pulled out of the pinblock by the strings. See if larger pins will fit- take the heads off some nails and throw them into some Naval Jelly/ phosphoric acid to blacken them and make them look older ( the acid will take of zinc galvanizing, too). For tuning pins- it's a tough choice, because old-style pins like that aren't often found ( though you can get tuning levers for them) . They are likely to be close to the size of what's called a dulcimer pin, the smallest piano pin. If it was me, I would replace the tuning pins that aren't original, so there were only two sizes of pins, but it would not be bad to replace all the tuning pins. You should look at the pinblock to se if it is cracked, however- if it is, it will not hold the pins, and you will have to give up or resort to epoxy to stabilize it.

You can copy the treble bridge to make a bass bridge. The holes have to be angled and , also, further apart. You can always restring part of the treble bridge, and then make the bass bridge holes to fit where the treble strings run

Use shellac for polishing up the bare spots in the finish.

When you string it, string it light. Likely it had 4 strings of #9 per course- use #7. Likely you would use .025 brass for the lowest note or two in the bass . It was also likely originally in G, you could tune it up to F or F#. But the scale is also likely to be rather short, so tuning it low may just make for more tuning hassles because the strings will be too slack.

[Dan Miller]

Hi Nicholas,

Thank you very much for all of this information - very helpful and just what I was looking for. On removing the carriage bolts, the tuning pin block was easily separated from the rest of the instrument. I can now easily determine what kind of glue was used and proceed with further dismantling.

As a I said, I recognize it is not what modern players would likely use, but it without some sort of restoration, it was just sad looking sitting on the countertop. Not looking to get paid - lutherie is just a budding hobby for me (I am a canoe builder and timberframer in my real life).

Thanks again,
Dan

[Patrick Hanna]

Hi, Dan. I think this is a pretty interesting project. Sounds to me like you've got the right combination of curiosity, patience and skill to do the job. I hope you'll document your work with photos and show us the outcome. If you run into specific problems along the way, I'm sure the forum members will be glad to offer advice. Please do let us know how it comes out. And good luck with it.
Patrick
PS: I really dig wood boats AND timberframe buildings.

[Jim Ritter]

Hi Dan, I don't think I can help you much with this project, but it seems we share more interests than guide boats. I too have lurked here for years and just recently signed on. One newcomer to another, welcome. I built a hammer dulcimer for my wife. But that doesn't help you.

[Nicholas Blanton]

Yeah, it's kind of nice when the instruments disassemble themselves for repair.
The guy who would best be able to identify the origin of the instrument is Paul Gifford. He wrote the standard book on the history of the HD, and has a website- giffordmusic.net He's also posted a lot of photos of old players an some music clips, so it's also a fun place to wander about. I mean, if you can stand to read more than one paragraph of text online, it's fun.