Niles's dulcimer-on-steroids might be an eccentric design when viewed from the reference point of the Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina families of dulcimer. But he called it a dulcimer, people who heard it thought they were hearing a dulcimer, and so by that roundabout means he publicized the dulcimer.

Frank Warner's dulcimer was made by a North Carolina maker in a traditional hourglass shape.

T.