Folkcraft Instruments

08/07/2024

Oak leaf dulcimer, delivered yesterday...

08/03/2024

Manatee sound hole dulcimer, finished.

07/24/2024

Matching (almost) DulxiVoxes, going to a husband/wife team of dulcimer players. She's a fingerpicker, so has a 3-string instrument on the way, he's a more traditional strummer, so his is set up with four strings!

07/11/2024

Another new sound hole. Oak leaves. This dulcimer is heading to a customer with lots of pine trees on his property (ha, NOT pine, oak!). Thanks to Jon for the amazing graphic design work he did for this sound hole. I especially like the detail of the branches behind the leaves!

07/09/2024

DulciVox fretboard detail. The cutaway/relief under frets 12, 13, 13 1/2, and 14 gives just a little bit more freedom for the top to vibrate (since it isn't held down by a solid piece of mahogany fretboard wood). This little bit of freedom, plus a slew (that's a fancy luthier term for "lots") of other small design elements allows the DulciVox to have a huge sound.

06/26/2024

Closeup of a new sound hole. Blueberries, on a long and winding branch. There's a tiny hole (or two) in each of the berries. And there are a LOT of blueberries on this dulcimer!

06/21/2024

This is Wendy Songe's DulciVox (foreground, on my lap). We shipped this to her on Wednesday, but it was actually finished on Tuesday afternoon, so I had the chance to play it for a couple of hours during our weekly dulcimer jam. I played pretty well on Tuesday night, but compared to Wendy, I'm a rank amateur, so she'll have to show the instrument how to REALLY play the tunes! I hope I didn't teach the dulcimer any bad habits...

06/21/2024

Here's a DulciVox with four strings. Our DulciVox bridges have three string pins/holes, and we took a queue from Taylor guitars, and will double-up with two strings in one hole as necessary. (Evidently, they do this with their 12-string guitars, with just 6 holes for strings!)

06/08/2024

Here's the world premiere of a Folkcraft DulciVox in a concert. Folkcraft Artist Mandy Tyner (with Jon Tyner accompanying on guitar) at an informal Second Saturday Clinic concert. (Bing Futch has had a prototype DulciVox for a few months, but this performance is the first show using a non prototype DulciVox. (The DulciVox had a similar volume to the (non-dreadnought size) Martin guitar.)

05/30/2024

Schedule update! Folkcraft will not be attending this year's Kentucky Music Week. This is mentioned in our weekly newsletter (which goes out every Friday morning) but Y'all are hearing it here a day early.

The venue change (vendors moving from the school gym to a conference room, shared with classes and jams) meant that our display was reduced in size, and also that I wouldn't be able to vend or do instrument repairs during classes. (Having me pounding in frets wouldn't be appreciated during a mountain dulcimer class, for sure...)

It is expensive for us to attend festivals, but with the ever-increasing cost of travel, food, and lodging, I didn't see a way to make it work this year, so we've had to withdraw from the event. I know a lot of you have repair work already scheduled, and I'll be contacting you individually to make alternate arrangements.

I considered doing vending/repairs in my room (we made reservations at the Hampton almost a year ago) but I've tried that before - vending from a hotel room hasn't been successful for us.

I just canceled our two hotel rooms, which will make someone on the waiting list happy!

Thank you, everyone, for your understanding - hope to see you at a future festival!

Richard Ash

03/22/2024

This is going to be fun!

Join in the fun with Don Pedi on this special Second Saturday Clinic hosted by Folkcraft Instruments. We'll have a jam at 10:00, followed by a clinic starting at noon. We'll take a lunch break around 1:00, and resume the clinic after eating. The clinic is "hands-on" - bring your mountain dulcimer! A...

02/16/2024

Here's our latest prototype of the new dulcimer/guitar hybrid. I got the last coats of lacquer on this early (EARLY!) this morning, and it is dry enough to handle now. I'm planning on doing the rub out step (steel wool and rubbing compound) at about 2PM, and then strings and hardware right after that.

If everything goes smoothly, this'll be ready to go to a festival tomorrow (Dayton Dulcimer Doins) so some of y'all can try it out.

Holding the dulcimer? Casey, our newest shop genius. I'll do a feature on him in our newsletter at some point.