Tom Yocky Mountain Dulcimers template

A: I have read plenty on the subject and all the articles or books or whatever have different conclusions, so I choose to ignore them and base my answer on my own personal experience and ideas. From what I can tell, there is no detectable difference (with my dulcimers at least) in the sound with 2 soundholes, 3 or 4. That's not exactly accurate, there is certainly a difference because every little thing creates a difference, but what that difference is, I don't know because I have not been able to establish a pattern or a correlation between soundholes and the sound of the instrument. The purpose of the soundholes is simple. It is an opening that allows air to move freely into and out of the dulcimer as it vibrates while being played. When the string is plucked, it vibrates in waves, and the waves transfer through the frets, bridge, nut to the fingerboard, and then to the soundboard and then the entire dulcimer. This vibrating actually makes the dulcimer expand and contract. If it were a sealed box, then the dulcimer would have trouble expanding and contracting because of the difference in air pressure inside and outside the box. So the only reason for soundholes is to allow enough air to move in and out so that the entire dulcimer can vibrate as freely as possible. I find that a single soundhole in the upper section, and a single soundhole in the lower section is sufficient to allow free air flow. Additional soundholes certainly help with airflow, but with each soundhole, more of the soundboard is removed. At one end of design possibilities is a single small soundhole, at the other end is hundreds of soundholes all in the same top. Both of these would be bad but somewhere in the middle is the perfect balance. The only problem is that each piece of wood is unique not only in looks but also in sound properties. The variables are endless. Moral of the story...I find 2 soundholes are sufficient, 3 and 4 (considering that they are not too big) is fine also, but I would not go any higher than that. Therefore choose the number of soundholes based on what you think will look best with your overall design. That's the best answer I have to offer at this point in my understanding.

Q: How do the woods used in the dulcimer affect its sound? Which woods sound the best?

In my experience, the wood used for the top controls about 75% of the sound. Don't get me wrong, the size and shape of the dulcimer, plays a huge role in shaping a dulcimer sound (much more than which wood types are used), as do so many other issues such as string types and guages, methods of construction, and much more. So when I say 75% is controlled by the wood used for the top, I am assuming all other factors are identical. So if the top wood controls about 75% of the sound, the next biggest factor is the wood used for the back which controls about 20%, and the remaining 5% is controlled by all the other hundreds of variables present in a dulcimer (wood used for fingerboard, soundhole designs and placement, natural grain and wood structures , etc....) there are way too many things making up that 5% for the buyer to be concerned about, what you should think about is what woods to use for the top, and what wood to use for the back. For each, you have 2 categories to choose from, a softwood (such as redwood, cedar, or spruce) and a hardwood (such as Walnut or Maple).
A dulcimer can be configured in 3 ways:
1) softwood top and softwood back 2) softwood top, hardwood back 3 )hardwood top and hardwood back
In general, those combinations will create the following results:
1=more volume than the others, but more likely to have the mids stand out more than the highs and lows.
2=Slightly less volume than #1 but much better at keeping the highs, mids and lows all equally strong
3=a little less volume than the rest, slightly brighter tone. By far the most beautiful looking (but not as full sounding) instruments.
My recommendation is for a softwood top, and a hardwood back. This is, in my opinion, universally the best sounding and looking combination. Sometimes a buyer is a very experienced player and is looking for a very specific sound, but in general, the softwood top, hardwood back is great for all styles of play. After deciding which of the 3 configurations is best for you, you must decide specifically which woods for the top and which for the back Again, remember that 75% of the sound is from the top. For the purpose of answering this question, I will assume you are choosing a softwood top and a hardwood back.: I currently have Redwood and Spruce as my tested choices for softwood tops... and I am currently working with Cedar, but it is not quite as well tested yet..
Redwood sounds great. Lots of volume and projection. Great for strumming or fingering, but Spruce sounds and projects even better. However, spruce is not much to look at and redwood can be quite beautiful. The choice here is trading some of the sound for looks. I would say that redwood is about 80% as good as Spruce, so ask yourself, is your focus the sound?, or is a 20% sacrifice OK because redwood looks so much nicer? My opinion of Cedar so far is that is has a sound a bit better than redwood, and occasionally rivaling that of Spruce. I would say that Cedar sounds about 90% as good as Spruce. For the back, choose a wood that you like the looks of and falls into the hardwood category. I personally like the feel and look of walnut, but there are many other choices. Jatoba is nice, Bubinga is beautiful, Mahogany and Makore are nice and less expensive. I have many woods to choose from, and part of the fun of playing one of my custom ordered dulcimers is getting to help design it. I suggest you look at the photo archive section to get some ideas of how the different woods look together, and take a look at the custom order page (the one with fill in forms) where you can see what woods I have in stock to choose from (I update it pretty often).

Q: Do you offer any other models, shapes, or sizes of dulcimers? Do you offer a scroll head? Why not?

Currently, No. I do plan to someday develop a new model, but no time soon. My dulcimer design is unique in many ways, and this is done on purpose. I set out to develop a new and different mountain dulcimer design that I felt improved upon more traditional designs. If the traditional design and look is what you are shopping for, then there are many other builders out there to choose from. If you are looking for a truly unique looking dulcimer that has fantasic sound and playability, then I'm your guy. As for the scroll head, my dulcimers lack the scroll head because I have extended the soundbox to fall under the peg head area, thus providing more volume, and fuller deeper sound yet the overall dimensions of my dulcimer are the same as a traditional design. Plus, I simply like the lines of my dulcimer shape and the scroll head on the couple that I have built felt like a weird appendage sticking off the end of the dulcimer body.

Q: Do you offer any hard or soft cases for your dulcimers? If not, do you know of a source?

Currently I do not offer any type of hard case for my dulcimers. I do offer the padded soft cases which are quite nice.

I know there are more questions out there, and I will add them as they come up. Please email me with any other questions you may have. tom@tomyocky.com