leeneia : "My dulcimer has steel strings. I notice that when I check the high strings with my Korg tuner, the needle sways quite a bit from sharp to flat and back. I'm going to change strings and compare." This could be due to insufficient tension on the strings. I am not a dulcimer player, but I assume all stringed instruments would have the same problem. When my steel strung guitar or nylon strung guitar or lute strings begin to sway in pitch like that I always check the pitch of the whole instrument. Recently I did this on the lute and found that, while it was in tune with itself, because I had tuned it for so long to *itself* and not to a tuner, the whole instrument was down one whole tone. I hadn't noticed, I think, because there isn't much tension on lute strings, anyway. From the *sound* of the dulcimer - again, me not being a player - I can imagine a similar scenario (but I might be talking rubbish here!)