1.134 Late 1990s/early 2000s Folkcraft FSH-style Kit £Sold
No label inside buy typical of a good quality modern Folkcraft kit, made from solid woods. Solid walnut body with single-piece back, sides and top. Heart soundholes, pointing to tail. Hollow walnut fingerboard with factory-fitted frets – 6+ fret but not 13+. Typical hook scroll and open pegbox with small, open-geard tuners and pearl buttons. Composite bridge and nut. Copper string anchors, suitable for loop- or ball-end strings, placed at the end of the fingerboard in typical Folkcraft fashion. Overall length 37¾”, upper bout 6”, lower bout 7”, depth 2”, FBW 1½”, VSL 27″ (short/medium scale), weight 2lb 6oz (1073g). Complete with 6+ fret. Currently fitted with 10/10, 14, 24w strings.
Not the most professionally-executed build – finish and soundhole execution mainly – but the basics are solid, the action easy and the quality of sound excellent. A really good beginner/intermediate dulcimer, little used, which just looks slightly untidy.
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1.106 1990/2000s Folkcraft FSH-style Kit Dulcimer – 4 string, 3 course hourglass £Sold
No label inside but clearly a Folkcraft kit from the key design features and dimensions. Solid black walnut body and top – single piece back and bookmatched top. Neatly constructed with full lining inside, top and bottom. Hollow walnut fingerboard, factory-installed frets, with white composite bridge and nut, 6+ but not 13+ frets. The string anchors are copper pins, for ball or loop end strings. Standard Folkcraft hooked ‘scroll’ and pegbox, latter with open-geared tuners, twin-hole capstans and pearl-coloured buttons. Overall length 37¾”, upper bout 5¼”, lower bout 6¾”, depth 2”, FBW 1½”, VSL 27″ (short/medium scale), weight 2lb 7oz (1117g). Complete with 6½ fret. Currently fitted with 10/10, 13, 23w strings.
An excellent build, tight and precise with a hard gloss finish. Only some slight irregularities in the heart soundholes and a few small blemishes in the finish betray the fact that it’s a home-built kit. An excellent beginner/intermediate instrument with a good sound.
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1.83 “Dusty Strings” 4 String 3 or 4 Course Teardrop £Sold
Unlabelled all-solid, cherry dulcimer bought from Dusty Strings in the late 80s. Dusty Strings are more famous for high quality hammered dulcimers but probably retailed these mountain dulcimers from another maker. The design and hardware looks very much like a Folkcraft teardrop which has a similar Scott Antes-type broad tail.
Simple construction, with a single piece, continuous fingerboard and pegbox; and a body formed from a tailblock and neckblock into which the sides slot. Neat s- or f-shaped soundholes and a fluted, hand-carved scroll. Simple open-geared machine heads with “pearl” buttons; high, narrow brass frets; composite, Folkcraft-type nut and bridge (cut for either 3 or 4 courses); and 4 copper pins for string anchors, mounted on the end of the fingerboard/top of the tail. 6+ but not 13+ frets.
Overall length 36¾”, lower bout 6⅞”, depth 1¾”, FBW 1½”, VSL 27″ (medium scale), weight 2lb 3oz (992g). 6+ not 13+ fret. Strings now 0.010/[0.010], 0.014, 0.022w.
Straightforward design but seemingly professionally built. Decent sound and playability with some drive from the all-cherry body. Good in the upper register. An excellent starter instrument.
1.49 – 1980s? Folkcraft 4 String Hourglass – £Sold
Budget model with no label, hence probably a kit. Nicely proportioned body has solid walnut sides and (single-piece) back, with western red cedar top. Old style heart soundsholes, pointing to tail. Walnut single piece fingerboard continuous with shallow pegbox, added simple scroll. Hardwood (maple?) nut and bridge, copper pin strings anchors for loop or ball end strings. Small Kluson deluxe tuners with single string hole on capstan. Small soundports under tail and pegbox at each end of the good-sized body. New 6+ fret. Overall length 36”, upper bout 5¾”, lower bout 6⅜”, depth 1¾“, FBW 1⅜“, VSL 26⅞” (medium scale). Complete with new 6½ fret. Currently fitted with light gauge 10/10, 14, 22w strings.
Sides have not been perfectly aligned with back in construction, but body is perfectly solid. Fingerboard also needed re-gluing each end. Action has been improved. Now sounding good and playing well.
Click on images to enlarge.
1.36 – 2000s? Folkcraft Solid Cherry Kit – 4 String Hourglass – £Sold
No label inside, but clearly a Folkcraft kit from all the design features. This particular dulcimer has been very well put together but was literally unfinished – i.e. it had no finish on the bare wood. It has now been fine-sanded and hand-rubbed with 2 coats of finishing oil which has brought out the beautiful rich colours of this largely cherry instrument.
Solid cherry sides and solid single piece cherry back with cherry elephant scroll headstock and fingerboard. Pearl marker on fret 3 only, but has 6+ and 13+ frets. A nice, evenly grained, probably redwood or possibly cedar top, with standard Folkcraft hearts pointing to the tail. Open-geared tuners, standard Folkcraft plastic nut and bridge; copper pins as anchors for both ball- and loop-ended strings (NB fitted a little closer to the bridge than ideal). Very similar in shape to the Folkcraft FSH models, slightly narrower in the bouts and waist, but with deeper sides.
Overall length 37”, upper bout 5”, lower bout 6⅜”, depth 1¾”, FBW 1½”, VSL 26⅝” (short/medium scale), weight 2lb 0oz (919g). Complete with 6½ fret. Currently fitted with 10/10, 14, 23w strings.
Very neat gluing and construction, and now finished in a way which does the wood justice. Factory fretwork results in excellent intonation and playability. Use of solid wood in the classic combination of cherry and redwood means that it sounds very much like the factory-constructed FSH dulcimer, which retails for considerably more. A very good value entry or intermediate level instrument.
