SHARON A.

The "kafoozalum" that Rick refers to is actually an Americanized word for the Nepalese actual word which is Kaffeloozu, a form of hammered dulcimer. It differs in significant ways, but is still a very similar instrument.

The Kaffeloozu has a single rail dividing the strings at the halfway point rather than at the three-fifths of the hammered dulcimer. This tuning design makes it more adaptable to eastern music where it comes from. The string courses are almost always of four strings rather than 2 or 3 with one tunes an octave below the other three (bottom string). The other major difference is that there are 10-30 "sympathetic" strings below the usual string courses running vertically across the soundboard and about three-eighths of an inch above it, making them about three-fourths of an inch or so below the main strings. These are tuned to Pentatonic scales and drastically increase the overtone harmonics. This is not an uncommon practice with eastern instruments, the Citar being another example.

Very few of the Kaffeloozu are ever found here as the difficulty in playing makes them more of interest to people liking Indian and other eastern music. Interestingly, it is the only instrument to come out of Nepal. Some of the them are quite beautiful with mosaic inlays on the soundboard and made of local woods including a dense and hard variety of juniper which grows only in the higher elevations in that part of the world.

Spaw