Dear HD players--

My musical partner plays HD, and he solved the amplification problem with size. Instead of a 2 and 3 string arrangement, his has a 3 and 4 string arrangement. The instrument is HUGE (compared to other HDs I've seen). Its easily 42" at the bottom and 24" at the top, and about 30" from bottom to top. It's about 3" thick. He uses a special frame on a speaker stand to hold it. It weighs about 20 lbs. But it gets great sound and it fills large and noisy rooms with no difficulty, unamplified. It's got some problems--the string tension has caused it to pull apart, which has had to be repaired with (gasp!) sheetrock screws. I realize on rereading that I'm describing the Blue Ox of hammered dulcimers, but it really does have volume and clear sound. We play a lot of Renaissance dance tunes, and it sounds remarkably similar to a harpsichord.

If anyone is interested, I can get the name of the maker--I don't know if he's still building them.

V