Description
The trouble with solid wood is it shrinks or swells across the grain with changes in humidity in the environment. It can move a lot. The rule of thumb in woodworking is not to glue wood cross grain over 8 inches wide. But we routinely do it in the hammered dulcimer world, gluing tops as wide as 24 inches to maple pin blocks. It is asking for trouble, but we all do it. If the top is not totally dry when glued to the frame, and it shrinks in winter, it can crack. If it is dry, but the humidity goes way up, it will swell and put stress on the overall instrument.
The construction of the top for the Finch model is a completely new and novel way to eliminate this problem. They are composed of 7 individual narrow boards joined by tight fitting tongue and groove joints which are not glued. This allows each individual board to shrink or swell as it needs without causing problems. No more cracks, no warps, no having to keep your dulcimer in a specially humidified environment in the winter or you void your warrantee, no worries at all. Just play it and enjoy it. We believe this is the way solid wood top hammered dulcimers should be built. It works great! We have tested them, and they will take almost any environment and just sound good. No special care necessary. Sound holes all need to be in the back on these. Cutting sound holes on the top would compromise the structure.
Credit where credit is due, this is not my idea. It was given to me, here is how it came about. My aunt, Dottie Raun passed away and we wanted to go to the funeral in Des Moines, 150 miles away. The funeral was scheduled for 8:00 AM which meant we had to go and stay overnight. We wound up in a really bad motel. The bed was awful, I wasn’t sleeping well and dreamed this dulcimer. It was vivid, went on all night, and by morning I had it all worked out. I told Melanie I’d had this dream, described it, and she knew right away things would change. This was not something I had been mulling over or was even concerned about. It is so out of the blue that I know it came from outside myself and was just given to me for whatever reason. You may interpret it however you wish, but since I am a believer, I think it came from above and am just humbly grateful.
For solid one board tops, builders are pretty much trapped with some version of mahogany or other, or a softwood like spruce because they are the most stable. But with our new system it is now possible to make dulcimers from many different woods. We tried a bunch, they all sounded good, but some are better. Air Dried Walnut is just magical with full rich tone and amazing tuning stability!
Air Dried Walnut, Curly Maple bindings, Hard Maple sides, Walnut bridges, and laminated Birch back.
We also have a version of the Finch available as a 17/16/8 chromatic dulcimer. Learn more about the Finch Chromatic hammered dulcimer, or our flagship model, the 17/16/8 Finch Chromatic Pro.
Availability: We are a small Mom and Pop enterprise, and can’t have everything we make in stock all the time. We should have all of the accessories and small items all of the time. We also try to keep natural 
Miranda Thomas –
12/10/21 – Back in February of this year I ordered the Finch 16/15 Package.
Well, I emailed Chris and Melanie this week to say thanks. They asked if I would write a review and I’m quite happy to do it!
It’s a wonderful beastie, I love her so.
Been kept mostly in the open for the year, in an upstairs studio room, about a half dozen outings with it.
Environmentally, Oregon had a pretty wild year going from major drought into flood, It’s seen the entire humidity-gamut.
Taking it out, at the worst I’d say the detune would get maybe a quarter-step out (high humidity). But it would always translate evenly across the board.
And as these days are, things happen. Up until just recently she sat idle on the stand for a bit over two months. Even with the change of season, the entire deck was within ten cents of tuning.
It may not be quite the looker that some of the other models are. But if you want a hardy, beautiful sounding deck that you aren’t scared to take outside – this is the one.
It’s truly a testament to the design, and the craftmanship going into the instuments here at Songbird.
I am perpetually grateful, and thank you all so much for such a marvellous instrument.
M. Thomas