Keith Young believes that good craftsmanship starts with a well thought out design, good wood measured and machined skillfully, joined with integrity, and finished with a durability and beauty. Extra effort is put into understanding the physics of strings, wood , and joinery to create a musical instrument of exceptional sound, serviceability, and beauty. Lifetime Guarantee - yours or mine, whichever comes first.

Why An Appalachian Dulcimer?

The Appalachian dulcimer is a simple instrument to play and has a soft gentle tone. Children understand it, love it, and can play it immediately. So can people who claim to be entirely unmusical. There Is no Instrument that can give so much enjoyment so quickly to the beginner as the Appalachian dulcimer. However, more modem chording and picking techniques can be pursued by the ambitious player, challenging the skill and inventiveness of an advanced musician. The uniqueness of the dulcimer lies in the beautiful music that can be produced at any level of skill.

The Fine Points That Matter

The shapes of Keith Young dulcimers are inspired by traditional dulcimers but improved for better sound and easier tuning. Each one is built to be a family heirloom yet with the quality needed by the professional performer. 

• Accurate pitch-probably the most important single criteria for evaluating a dulcimer, for without it much of the beauty of the sound is lost. It is determined by an accurate fret pattern, proper placement of the bridge to compensate for string inflection, height of string off the frets, and matching string size to key and mode.
•  Suspended bridge-The bridge end of the fretboard is undercut so the bridge does not rest on the solid wood tailpiece. Instead, it is suspended above the tailpiece. This construction technique allows the vibrating string to transmit the vibration to the more flexible part of the sound board, thus producing more volume and more powerful bass.
• Handcarved tuning pegs-Wooden tuning pegs are simple wedges-a tapered peg in a tapered hole. They are held in place by friction that is adjustable by the inward pressure applied to the peg as it is turned. The finest violins use this principle. Well made and fit, they are quick and positive. Poorly made or poorly fit they are likely to slip or stick. We make our pegs from the same material as the peg box to assure equal hardness of both peg and box so that the pegs conform to the hole and stay round without maintenance. The pegs are shaved to precisely fit the taper of the hole for smooth sure tuning. We guarantee our wooden pegs for a lifetime. For easier tuning, we carry quality geared tuning machines, a right angle tuner with a 17:1 gear ratio and a planitary tuner with a 4:1 ratio, in chrome or gold.

• Fine tuners-Fine tuners allow you to make fine adjustments in pitch easily. They are hardwood buttons placed on each string behind the bridge. Slide these buttons away from the bridge to stretch the string and raise the pitch, towards the bridge to loosen the string and lower the pitch. 
• Easy action-Easy action is accomplished by combining the following characteristics: a level fretboard, low nut and bridge (but not so low that the strings buzz on the frets), size of frets (neither too high or too low) and the gauge of strings.

Selecting Your Dulcimer

Three or four strings are available in all models except the 3-string "youngster". Four strings are more versatile. The nut and bridge of the 4-string is notched so the strings can be placed as 4 equal-distant strings or in a 3-string configuration with a double melody string. The 3-string has the advantage of having one less string to time and is a little cheaper. It also has a more uniform sound if you are playing melody on each of the three strings.

Six shape and size combinations are available:

Teardrop, Hourglass, Backpack, Youngster, Early Virginia, and Concert model. Each will produce a slightly different quality of sound.

And then there's the Banjimer, which has a very different quality of sound.

Teardrop-Our most popular model has 18 frets with a 28 1/2-inch vibrating string length. The F hole, modified from traditional design, creates flexible top for loud full tone. The teardrop shape has a slightly stronger bass than the hourglass shape, everything else being equal. 3" x 7 1/2" x 37"

Hourg1ass-The hourglass has 18 frets and a 28 1/2-inch vibrating string length, a full loud tone, less bass and more treble than the teardrop. 3" x 7 1/2" x 37"

Backpack-This is a smaller hourglass with 18 frets, 24-inch vibrating string length, a higher voice than its big cousin but with plenty of punch remarkable instrument especially when tuned in F, G, or A. 2 1/2" x 6" x 30 1/2"

Youngster-A super portable dulcimer for all ages. Small and durable with 16 frets and an 15-inch vibrating string length. A soprano dulcimer with a quiet voice, tuned an octave higher than the standard dulcimers. 2 1/2" x 4" x 22"

Early Virginia model- This is a recreation of an early Virginia style Appalachian dulcimer as they were built in the mid 1700’s. 26” vibrating string length, loud bright sound, suitable for playing dance tunes. Comes with turkey quill and special noter. In addition, it is strung up Galax style using all the same gauge strings tuned to the same note. 3” x 7 ½” x 34”

Concert model-designed for the concert artist or those who demand the very best in creative design, enhanced sound, playing ease and craftsmanship Enlarged, deeper soundbox, "planitary" mechanical tuners in a classic carved fiddlehead scroll, also available with guitar style head and right angle gold tuning machines 1.5" wide fretboard inlaid with rosewood or ebony for ease of chording and durability, L R Baggs transducer bridge (the ultimate for natural acoustic amplification) Vibrating string length 26.75 inches (tunes to G without breaking strings). 3" x 8" x 36".

Banjimer-a true dulcimer but with the bridge set on a banjo head to give a bright banjo sound. The back is open under the banjo head so you can stuff a towel (or a beannie baby) to soak up some of the sound if it is too loud. Move the mouse over the picture once or twice to see who's hiding inside!. Vibrating string length is 26.75 inches (tunes to G). 3" x 8" x 36".

Next to the shape, the wood determines the quality of sound, Long seasoned American hardwoods are used: walnut, cherry, wormy chestnut, butternut and maple, native to the Appalachian region. Close grained quarter sawn Canadian or Alaska spruce is used for tops on some dulcimers.

Black walnut-known for its beauty, rich brown color and good acoustic properties.

Wild cherry-a smooth tight-grained light reddish brown wood, noted for its "brilliant" sound.

Curly maple-maple selected for its wavy figure, often called fiddelback figure because of its use in high quality fiddles The natural color is very light tan but we can stain it light golden brown if you wish Curly maple has superior tonal qualities, bringing out both treble and bass.

Wormy chestnut-used as a top on walnut body, it has outstanding volume and beauty A rare wood because of the extermination of the chestnut forests by blight in the early l900's.

Butternut-also called white walnut, it is in the same family as black walnut but is not as dense It is a tan wood with striking grain It is used as tops on walnut dulcimers and gives a mellow bassy tone.

Spruce-used for tops on guitars, fiddles, and mandolins for centuries, it gives a loud mellow quality to the sound of a dulcimer Spruce is especially beautiful as tops on walnut or cherry dulcimers.

Tuners

We can build your dulcimer with the finely crafted, authentic handcarved tuning pegs and fine tuners described above, or we can supply it with quality geared tuning machines, either a right angle tuner with a 17:1 gear ratio or a planitary tuner with a 4:1 ratio, in chrome or gold.

Most early dulcimers had a strictly diatonic scale; that is, the frets were placed so as to produce a major scale (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do) with no extra half steps. More recently, dulcimer players have found that the placement of an extra fret between the 6th and 7th fret allows two things; (1) a major scale can be produced starting at another point (on the open string), and (2) most songs containing "accidental" notes can he played. The 6 1/2 fret adds versatility. The disadvantage is that it takes a while to get used to the extra fret if you have been playing a dulcimer without it. We will put it in unless you tell us to leave it out. If you want the 13 1/2 fret, you must request it.

Today placing a fret between the first and second fret (the 1 1/2 fret) may be like the 6 1/2 fret was 20 years ago. a curiosity that some people thought was useful. This extra fret allows the musician to play jazz and blues more easily. We will leave it out unless you request it.

The hourglass, teardrop, backpack and courting models come with a standard uncarved scroll or 3 different choices of hand carved scrolls: Lancastrian rose, dogwood blossom, and fiddle scroll. A guitar head is also available with right angle mini-tuning machines with a 17:1 tuning ratio (17 turns of the knob turns of the string shaft once). This allows for precise fine tuning.

Lancastrian Rose, Guitar type head. Dogwood blossom, Fiddlehead scroll

Shell Inlay

Most dulcimers will look and feel better with shell position markers on the fretboard. The markers are placed at locations where important notes are played and give the musician a visual clue of where these notes are. The position markers are commonly placed at the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 10th frets but they could be placed anywhere. The most common position markers are 1/4 inch mother of pearl or abalone dots. Mother of pearl is white or yellow, abalone is multicolored (red, green, blue, pink, purple, etc). Squares, diamonds, stars, hearts, tulips or custom designed markers are also used. Shell inlay stands out beautifully on a dark background such as an ebony inlayed fretboard or guitar type head.

Fancy shell inlay along the fretboard or on a guitar type head can also increase the beauty of an instrument. The instrument pictured has a "dogwood tree-of-life" in pearl and abalone with birds perched in the tree and a dove flying from the top of the tree, inspired by the song "I'll Fly Away".

A price sheet is available for shell inlay work.

If you have questions or comments, give me a call at 703-941-1071, or e-mail me at keith@AppalachianDulcimers.com

 Appalachian Dulcimers by Keith Young, 3815 Kendale Road, Annandale, VA 22003

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