Prayer.

Sorry Don. Although the past 3 years have been limited to special projects and repairs only, I've built over a hundred HD's and been to boatloads of festivals, street fairs, etc. I know at least a couple dozen other builders both large and small and I can say with assurance that prayer is your best answer. I'm really not trying to be funny at all Don...I have only heard 2 HD's that had any kind of installed pick-ups that sounded in a way that you or I would say was acceptable...not great, but acceptable. One was some kind of Fishman looking thing that the girl said her Dad took off of a mandolin...beats me, that's all she knew! The other was a transducer/pickup assembly designed for saxophones and screwed in through the back. I tried this one and it wasn't any better on my trial horse than a Shure mike, ...although I could have bought something more expensive that MAY have been better.

The problem is that outside of Dusty Strings, no builder is in a true factory set-up and no one is going to make their millions on HD's. Most of us just kinda' love the stupid things!!! In our case, hopefully by next year at this time, we'll be back to where we were going with our emphasis on musical folk toys for kids (and adults!). Our dulcimers provide some income and a lot of "legitimacy" and get us to educational venues as well. At all kinds of street fairs, we can play a bit, educate a bit, and send a child home with a simple stick dulcimer or board zither and the knowledge that there's more than the radio and MTV. At folk and dulcimer fests it can be even better, but sometimes the non-musical events give more exposure to talk and play tunes of times past, not forgotten. (End of Mission Statement...Sorry)

The real problem in amplification comes in several ways. First, since there are not too many HD's out there, there isn't much being done...maybe we should get Kaman involved..."Ovation Hammered Dulcimers...Plug In".........maybe not! Also, most HD's aren't used in applications like yours. Then the really big problem is simply with the acoustics of the instrument. The harmonics and sympathetic overtones and sustain are so tremendous...and an integral part of the beast! Remember the guitar amp thread? I almost brought this up then, but comparing the acoustics of a guitar to a HD is analagous to comparing my first Commodore 64 to this Gateway 450.

So after all this, I only have one suggestion that might be useful. Increase the height of your bridge rails by an eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch. You'll decrease the sustain and sympathetic harmonics and that will clear up the muddiness to some degree. Wasn't that thrilling? Whoopee. (catspaw writes major dissertation to tell me to raise the rails.) Probably already tried that haven't you? Once again I prove myself to be a cesspool of unknowledge.

Best of luck and let me know if something works on yours...that's another problem, significantly differing interior soundbox design.......oh well. Lemme' know!

catspaw