Westminster Dulcimers
Not a great deal is known about this small craft dulcimer making concern. It appears to centre around Marnie Barberi from Connecticut, who moved to Westminster, SE Vermont, in the early 70s when she was in her early 20s. She married and became Marnie Barberi Maclean in the late 70s and started a family in 1981. The family moved to NY State in 1982. It is probably reasonable to conjecture that dulcimer making stopped around this time. Thus the concern was probably active between 1972 and 1981/2, with small quantities of good quality instruments made for craft fairs.
2.254 1978 Westminster 4 String, 3 Course £325 inc. plush-lined, fitted ply case
Brown-flecked oblong label, handwritten: “Made in the Fall of 1978/ Marnie Barberi/ Westminster Dulcimers/ Putney Vt.”
Cherry body, bookmatched on the back, with a central dark purfling strip. Cherry, two-part/laminated closed pegbox with replacement 5 Star geared banjo-style planetary tuners. Cedar or redwood top with walnut slices as soundholes. Arched/vaulted cherry fingerboard with rosewood overlay; 6+ and 13+ frets (added later perhaps?). Slot in strum hollow to provide additional sound port – for increased volume? Rosewood nut and bridge. Overall length 39”, upper bout 6¼”, lower bout 6¾”, depth 2¼”, FBW 1⅜”, VSL 30” (very long scale), weight 2lb 0oz (920g), strings 10/10, 14, 20w. 6+ and 13+ frets.
A few superficial marks, frets seem to have been dressed – perhaps at the same time as the extra frets added? As with all Westminster dulcimers, a strong, forward sound with good depth of tone. Good intonation – plays well in tune. moderately high action and very long scale length, though feels straightforward to play. Comes with lovely fitted ply case, plush interior.
Click on images below to enlarge.
2.152 1974 Westminster Dulcimers 4 String 3 Course Hourglass: £Sold
Printed label, “Westminster/ Dulcimers/ R.F.D.3/ Putney, Vt./ Westminster West/ Vermont/ November/ 1974” [all handwritten except name]. Background design appears to be line drawing of children or fairies and bull rushes (?) in the pre-Raphaelite style.
A long and quite deep hourglass form, with almost equal width bouts. Pretty maple body with pronounced birdseye figure (not bookmatched on the back), spruce top and soundholes formed from simple round holes, set off by pyrographed dot in the centre of the cluster. Thin strutting across each bout inside. Slightly unevenly carved maple scroll, with nice proportions and a closed, angled-down pegbox. The latter was originally fitted with standard ebony viola (?) friction tuning pegs, now replaced with very effective gold ukulele geared planetary tuners with black buttons. Maple or beech fingerboard without overlay; originally no 6+ or 13+ frets. Hardwood nut and bridge, the former salvaged from a later Westminster and the latter effectively but rather crudely notched for the strings. The string anchor is an ebony peg, set in the narrow tail, and possibly a standard violin/viola item.
Overall length 39” , upper bout 6¼” , lower bout 6¾”, depth 2¼” , FBW 1¼” , VSL 30” (very long scale), weight 2lb 03oz (987g). Now fitted with 6½ and 13½ fret. Strings now 11/[11], 14, 22w.
Arrived set up as a bass dulcimer with 0.023, 0.030, 0.047 strings – which worked surprisingly well with its large volume body! Has therefore required a great deal of setting up, with new tuners, salvaged nut, lowered bridge (and action generally), added 6+ and 13+ frets. As previous Westminsters (of which this is the earliest), it has emerged as a sweet, clear and transparent sounding instrument, with good balance and particularly effective fingerpicked. It works perfectly well in DAD with decent intonation, but really sings sweetly in DAA – for which it was presumably designed.
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2.172 Spring 1977 Hourglass £Sold
Irregular off-white flecked label (birch bark?) with turnip/heart logo: “Made on Putney, Mt/ Putney, Vt/ in the spring of ‘77/ Westminster Dulcimers”.
Solid cherry body with two-part back and central purfling strip (black/white/black). Top looks like redwood and has wide hearts with rounded tails, pointing to the tail. Hollow cherry fingerboard with short strum hollow which has a narrow slot running the length of it, right into the body cavity – like another soundhole. No internal strutting visible, but central spruce (?) strip runs end to end, reinforcing the jointed back and central purfling. Early use of both 6+ AND 13+ frets. Traditional cherry elephant-trunk scroll and pegbox, formed from two separate halves, with original violin/viola pegs replaced (quite recently? – and neatly) with good quality chrome, open-geared Grover tuners. Overall length 38¾”, upper bout 6¼”, lower bout 6¾”, depth 2¼”, FBW 1¼”, VSL 30” (very long scale), weight 1lb 15oz (882g). Both 6+ and 13+ frets. Strings now 10/[10], 14, 22w.
Loud and bright dulcimer, resulting from its big body and light, stiff construction, but the redwood top just takes the edge off the treble and makes it warm as well. Good, clean, full sound, good balance of treble and bass, pretty good intonation for such an early dulcimer…an excellent example.
Click on images below to enlarge.
2.65 1977 Westminster – 4 String Hourglass – £Sold
Handcrafted by Marnie Barberi MacLean, Westminster Dulcimers, Westminster West, Vermont. Rare high end instrument from a small, craft maker.
On hand-designed, pasted-in label, “Westminster Dulcimer/ Made in Westminster West, Vt/ R.F.D.3, Putney, Vt [?]/ July 1977 [?]”.
Attractive solid birdseye maple single piece back and sides with spruce top. The narrow scroll (with central hole) and pegbox is curly maple and the hollow fingerboard looks like beech – but could also be maple. The four soundholes are made up of a simple four-hole pattern – rather like a Blue Lion. The strum hollow has a large slot in it, acting as another soundhole for the body. Original bone bridge and nut. The original plastic friction pegs (shown in two of the photos below) were no longer holding and have been replaced with gold open-geared tuners with black buttons.
Overall length 39”, upper bout 6¼”, lower bout 6¾”, depth 2⅛”, FBW 1¼”, VSL 30” (very long scale), weight 1lb 15oz (887g). New 6½ fret. Fitted with a set of light (10/10, 14, 20w) strings , but action could take much heavier strings if you wanted more volume.
I have a later Westminster dulcimer for my personal use, which is very similar in shape and sound. I can confirm that this is a good quality dulcimer which has obviously served its owner well because it has been intensively used. The original blond wood has aged to a honey colour and the spruce top shows signs of pick wear on the nearside (now re-finished and sealed but still clearly visible). It has a full, rounded sound, an easy, low action and good responsiveness, but should really be considered only by those with medium or large hands because of its scale length.
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