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Comment by Rand Moore on January 5, 2013 at 5:13am

Hi Randy,

Wow! You've been building for a long time! Guess that's why your builds are usually so much better than mine. I've been building for just 3 years, starting with canjos. My photo collection kind of gives a good idea what I've built. All mine are built with hand tools, plus an electric hand drill. My building techniques are different primarily because of what materials I have to work with here in China. All the wood available here is "trim wood" as all the buildings are constructed in concrete and some times trimmed in wood. So, I build up necks by laminating together 6 or 7 lengths of trim wood. And I've found that the easiest sound box to construct is what I call the "paddle box", similar to what Bob McNally does on his strum sticks, but he cuts his from a single piece of wood.

One of these days I hope to build using machine tools in a wood working shop. Last summer while in the States I purchased a condo in a community that has a wood working club that has a nice woodworking shop with lots of motor driven tools. When I go back this summer, I'll have a chance to use the shop. But, I'll have to learn how to use these "advanced" tools. The folks there don't build musical instruments, so I'm pretty sure I'll shake things up there a bit when I show them what I've done, and what I want to do. Looking forward to summer! Till, then I'll be building more 3-string dulcimers my old fashioned way.

-Rand.

Comment by Randy S. Bretz on January 5, 2013 at 3:00am

hey Rand i made that one about 7 years ago...carved mahony bolt on neck, 2"deep box, ebony fretboard and tailpiece. Carved bone bridge with an ebony nut. All acoustic...for now...lol, but i might change it with a rod bridge.

Comment by Rand Moore on January 5, 2013 at 2:28am

That looks real nice, Randy. I guess the head and neck assembly is a bolt-on? The angle on your "V"-shaped tail-block looks to be maybe 120 degrees? Was it cut from a single block of wood, or joined in the middle like my tail-block? I like the sound hole "grill". Makes it look fancy. The sound box looks fairly deep. Mine will be just 1" deep. Yours look maybe twice that. I'm also going to put a piezo pickup on mine.

Comment by Randy S. Bretz on January 5, 2013 at 2:07am