My Mountain Dulcimers - Part 1

Hi Friends,


I’ve had a great deal of people ask me about the instruments I play, so I thought I would break it down for you and give you a little information about each instrument.


My Mountain Dulcimers - Part 1

The first mountain dulcimer I would like to talk about is the “Red Road Runner” dulcimer. The maker is McSpadden. It is cherry/spruce (painted with red paint) with ebony over-lay on the fret board. I added the 1 ½ fret and the 8 ½ fret to the Schnaufer fret board. By adding these frets it really opened up a lot of different playing options for me. Sharon Van Dusen did the custom in-lay for the dulcimer. I use both the standard “Schnaufer String Set” and the “Squeak less” string sets.

When I first contacted Jim Woods at the Dulcimer Shoppe in Mt. View, AR about painting this dulcimer red he said oooooooooooookay. But I could hear that little sound in his voice that said he wasn’t quite sure about it and didn’t really understand why I wanted a red dulcimer. Let’s see if I can clear this up a bit…………………red is my favorite color and my Dad has a 1968 red Plymouth Road Runner that my parents dated in way back when. The Road Runner cartoon charter is one of my favorites too. So that is where the idea came from for the Red Road Runner dulcimer that you see me play.

It has a great sound and a lot more volume that I expected since it is painted. I was really worried that the paint would not allow the wood to vibrate enough to allow good volume. I was surprised. I am also surprised at the amount of interest from other dulcimer players that the dulcimer has attracted from both old and young alike.