In an earlier post I discussed how I’d travelled to Texas a couple of years ago in search of my perfect acoustic guitar, but became intrigued by ‘strummable dulcimers’ in the process after meeting Kevin Jones of the Olympia Dulcimer Company (ODC) at Hill Country Guitars.  I was so impressed by Kevin’s beautiful handmade instruments that I hoped that someday I may be able to add one of his walkabout dulcimers to my collection.

Back in April I treated myself to a Seagull Merlin dulcimer and was immediately enchanted by its wonderful folksy/bluegrass tone.  I can imagine I will get years of enjoyment out of it and look forward to taking it camping and letting the kids hammer away on it.  It is a perfect introduction to the seductive tone of the strummable dulcimer, but it also made me want to get a ‘proper instrument’ like the ones from ODC.  As luck would have it I found a few dollars tucked down the back of the sofa and decided it was time to reconnect with Kevin.

After scoping his website and Facebook page; watching dozens of videos; as well as researching similar/competitive products, I decided that Kevin’s instruments are indeed quite unique and beautifully handcrafted.  The challenge was going to be figuring out which style to choose – standard or bass; diatonic or chromatic; 3 double courses of strings or 4 (i.e., 6 strings or 8); and which design, woods and more?  It’s a lot to consider and they all have their benefits and all sound beautiful.  Clearly a conversation with the man himself was in order…

Kevin and I chatted briefly on April 10th and he agreed to ring me up on the weekend from his shop, so we could have a proper conversation.  True to his word we connected that Sunday afternoon, which also happened to be my birthday. After discussing the relative merits of standard versus bass walkabout dulcimers and diatonic versus chromatic and all of the other esoteric details I decided that a standard sized 6 string diatonic instrument would be the one for me.  My thinking being that the standard diatonic instrument has the true voice of an original mountain dulcimer.  While I love the sound of the 8 string bass dulcimer I find it is getting much closer in sound to an acoustic guitar in an open tuning or an Irish Bouzouki than the unique tone of a dulcimer.  The choice between diatonic and chromatic was much harder.  While the chromatic instrument will give you the flexibility to play in any key with all the minor notes as opposed to the open D tuning of the diatonic instrument (i.e., D-A-D); you can only achieve that pure dulcimer sound with just the whole notes of the diatonic style.  In particular, this makes a big difference when sliding up and down the fretboard and it really contributes to the traditional tone and feel of the instrument.  Thus, after much hemming and hawing the diatonic choice was clenched for me when my 6-year-old daughter told me I just had to get the one tuned DAD!   🙂

Now with the style and layout decided it was time to discuss tonewoods…

The choice of wood for an acoustic instrument is a highly subjective one and often highly contentious too.  My Collings SJ acoustic is the classic Rosewood/Spruce combo which has been one of the go to combos of discerning players and luthiers for decades.   I am definitely amongst the throngs of players who love the deep warmth and loud tone of a true rosewood instrument and I feel it works particularly well on an instrument with a big box like the SJ.  In many ways, body tonewood is split into a few camps of rosewood, maple, and mahogany with most, if not all, types of woods falling into being described as ‘somewhere in-between’ any two of these woods.  To my ears, I find many maple guitars too bright, but there are exceptions and the type of maple (e.g., big leaf vs. curly vs. hard rock, etc.) and the construction and age of the instrument can impart a unique flavour and help balance the tone.  Inversely, mahogany sounds dull, subdued, and uninteresting to me, although I’ve heard it said it ages well and that its tone evolves.  It is certainly true that as the wood in a guitar ages and is opened up by the resonance of being played that they can take years to find their true voice.

As my ODC dulcimer was being made to order having the opportunity to discuss this sort of detail with the maker directly was fascinating.  Kevin is a one-man show making his instruments by hand and as a result there isn’t really an abundance of his instruments available for me to try locally and flying to Texas to test drive one wasn’t feasible.  I had to rely on Kevin’s expert knowledge of his instruments and what worked best for them along with lots and lots of YouTube demos.

While visions of Brazilian Rosewood or Cocobolo flashed through my mind, sourcing exotic woods like these can be extremely challenging due to limited supplies and/or protective measures in place due to scarcity and environmental concerns*; which also equates to more cost. Kevin was extremely accommodating and offered to try to get me any wood I desired; however, after discussing the woods he had on-hand the one that stood out to me was Myrtlewood.  Native to Northern California and the Pacific Northwest; Myrtlewood intrigued me and seemed a fitting choice for an instrument being crafted by a company with strong ties to that part of the continent having started near Seatle over 20 years ago.

Myrtlewood is a fairly unique and unusual tonewood despite it being a North American native species.  It was also a wood I had considered before.  When I started looking in earnest for a new acoustic guitar a few years ago there was a beautiful looking (and sounding!) Breedlove instrument in myrtlewood, called the Northwest Classic, that was very much on my short list.  However, I’m not really a fan of the Breedlove bridge design and may have struggled with the look of the instrument.  As much as I liked the Haida inlays on the fingerboard it was perhaps a bit more ‘bling’ than I generally like on an acoustic.  I know these things shouldn’t really be a factor and it’s only the sound and playability that matters in the end, but vain though it may be they still put me off a bit.  That said, all the positive reviews for the myrtlewood on that Breedlove guitar and others plus Kevin’s recommendation sold me on going with Myrtlewood back and sides on my walkabout dulcimer.

ODC primarily use sitka spruce tops since it is noted for its exceptional strength and tone.  This is a choice I fully support, while other soundboard woods such as cedar have their place on classical guitars or other more exotic woods like Koa or Redwood can impart a unique sound, the classic spruce soundboard is just that for a reason.  There is a ton of information online dedicated to the often hotly debated and admittedly nerdy topic of tonewood and soundboard wood.  However, if it’s of interest it is worth seeking out.

Next came the decision for the neck and fingerboard.  Again there is a lot of discussion out there about various neck woods and fingerboards and it does come down to personal preference and availability.

For my ODC dulcimer it really boiled down to two – Spanish cedar or Honduran Mahogany.  In many ways these two woods are quite similar; however, in discussing with Kevin I felt the cedar might be the better way to go as it is quite a bit lighter than the mahogany and should hopefully make the instrument feel more balanced and light while providing a good strong neck.

The fingerboard was an easy choice for me – I definitely prefer rosewood fingerboards in almost all situations and most of my instruments are similarly equipped.  The bridge will also be made of rosewood with a bone saddle and nut.  The ODC diatonic dulcimers feature a cool looking ‘evolving’ triangle inlay in mother of pearl; which, to my delight, I learned was influenced by the classic BC Rich shredder guitars that seemingly every hair band in the ’80s had.  This is Kevin’s way of paying homage to where he started working building these very guitars at BC Rich back in the day.

In the photo to the right you can see the piece of rosewood that will be used to laminate the headstock. Typically the ODC Signature series instruments have O-D-C in mother of pearl inlay on the headstock.  I decided I want to do something different and asked Kevin if I could get a custom inlay of my design put on the headstock instead.  Ever accommodating he agreed and I set to the task of finding and designing the right symbol.

I decided I wanted to do a stylised version of a trillium – the beautiful, wild, 3-pointed provincial flower of Ontario – to represent where I live and the 3 courses of strings on a dulcimer.  After trying various different designs I finally decided that a celtic knot representation of a trillium would be fitting given my British/Gaelic roots.  The final twist was to do a mirror image of the trillium knot to echo the double course of 3 strings on a strummable dulcimer and that I felt it looked awesome too.  I have already, not surprisingly, dubbed my dulcimer “The Trillium” in anticipation of its arrival!  A name that will stick with it for as long as it is in my possession and hopefully beyond.  More to come as the build progresses and The Trillium arrives in 6 weeks or so…

* note: there are ~3 million acoustic and electric guitars manufactured in the US each year.  It takes approximately 120-150 spruce logs to fill this demand.  To put that into perspective, a single sawmill can turn 120 logs into 2 x 4s in a single shift.  Thus, the impact of instrument manufacturing is negligible compared to the thousands of trees being clearcut for home building domestically and in Asia.  You can read more about the use of wood in instruments in this enlightening article: “The Troubling Truth About Sitka Spruce” (Guitar Player Magazine – June 2007)