Obviously not a mandolin but I thought where else could I turn to for this question?
Any guesses on what kind of wood this is? I think I have deduced what it is but thought I’d see what the experts think....
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Obviously not a mandolin but I thought where else could I turn to for this question?
Any guesses on what kind of wood this is? I think I have deduced what it is but thought I’d see what the experts think....
First thought is Cocobolo.
Looks like a walnut species to me. I’m no expert.
Cocobolo would be my guess as well.
I agree it is most likely cocobolo.
Although it resembles some Brazilian rosewood in figure, it looks a bit too orange for me to call it Brazilian.
My first thought was Brazilian but after looking at the images below it could be Cocobolo.
http://www.sprucetreemusic.com/wp-co...rgeoiswood.jpg
Who is the maker of the dulcimer? Looks nice.
It's a hard call. Brazilian can range in color from medium tan to red, and through many shades of brown to nearly black. I have seen some on older Ramirez guitars that were somewhat similar to the dulcimer, but redder, and without so much of an orange base.
The orange hue on the dulcimer does closely match several sets of wood that I have seen that were clearly designated as cocobolo.
It's certainly a lovely piece of wood.
Mystery is solved and Bob wins. It's Brazilian. Heard from another owner of this make of dulcimer. Apparently the builder liked to write on the inside in sharpie marker what the woods were. I've attached a pic of the front to show you why seeing this was almost impossible. I had to hold it into direct sunlight and angle the light through one sound hole so I could try and read through another. I'd tried a flashlight several times to no avail. But in the right light you can make out the words Brazilian Rosewood written in black marker....never would have found that! And yes, those are slices of black walnut shells as sound holes....
The maker is Bill Taylor. He was from East Tennessee and a bluegrass musician as well a dulcimer builder. There was recently an estate sale in Florida where the person had a collection of 50 mountain dulcimers. All but a handful were by Taylor and Tom Fellenbaum. Tom made mandolins and bouzoukis as well but just his dulcimers were in the collection. They did an online auction and I figured I'd snag one. My mother recently got interested in dulcimer so I figured I'd buy one and learn with her. There was only one or two pics of each dulcimer and only the tops. No back pics. So it was a bit of a leap of faith but it worked out on this one!!
I love the walnut sound holes. Nice looking instrument.
A project I made about 4 years ago. Book matched walnut back and sides all from the same slab. The grain and color is much different than the gorgeous instrument shown above. The top is spruce (only piece I purchased) the fret board is flame maple, the end blocks are walnut and the peg head is walnut with cathedral grain. Fret markers walnut dots. Basic idea came from an article in one of my woodworking magazines. If any one is interested PM and I'll try to find it in my highly organized files. Be patient.?Attachment 191903Attachment 191904Attachment 191905Attachment 191906
By the way basic tuning is open D and it's real easy to get started. To see a master YT Dave Hass (among others.
As long as we're doing the Dulcimer Cafe thing, here is how the 6 1/2 fret became a thing. Shout out to Rick Turner.
Great bit of history. Lot of important names there. Thanks Mike.
Had no clue Rick Turner was involved in that. Now they’re adding all kind of frets yet they call them 1/2 or + frets. On most dulcimers the octave is at the 8th fret but it’s called the 7th fret and the one before it is the 6+ or 6 1/2. And then there are the fully chromatic dulcimers. Might as well just play mandolin or guitar at that point! Lol