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Hammered Dulcimer: How many Hitch Pins?

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2023 6:22 pm
by David Knutson
I'm working on a 12/11 Hammered Dulcimer using plans from Folkcraft. The plans show a hitch pin for each wire. All of the dulcimers I've looked at have a single hitch pin for each 2 wire pairs. I'm thinking this was because the plans call for 3 wires per course. I'm only going to use 2 wires per course. Is there any benefit to keeping it as drawn with one pin for wire, or would I be better off to have one pin where the wire goes from the tuner, around the pin and back to the next tuner?

Re: Hammered Dulcimer: How many Hitch Pins?

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2023 3:57 pm
by Barry Daniels
I built some HDs back in the day and used one brass nail hitch pin for two strings but had a couple of pins bend and look like they would pull out. The cause was the extra tension of the double strings. I had to add an extra nail to fix the issue.

I recommend one hitch pin per string.

Re: Hammered Dulcimer: How many Hitch Pins?

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 1:01 pm
by David Knutson
Thanks!