New Dulcimer!

Playing my new dulcimer at the festival

The festival at Unicoi last weekend was great! But instead of telling you all the reasons why is was great (like I usually do), I think I am going to tell you about a new instrument I received at the festival.

Last August when I played at Mike Clemmer's shop in Townsend, Tennessee, I talked to him about making me a very customized chromatic dulcimer. After we had talked about it a little bit I told him that I wanted two things in particular: First and foremost I wanted it to be fully chromatic; and second, I wanted it to be loud as possible. Other than that, I was going to leave it all up to him... That is until he asked if I wanted anything special for the sound holes. As soon as he asked me that I asked, "Can you do fish?" And as you can see in the pictures, he did fish very well! Along with it being a beautiful dulcimer, it also has a very rich and loud sound, which was just what I wanted.

I look forward to playing it for a very long time, and since it is chromatic, being able to play songs that I have never been able to play before!

Catfish Sound Holes

Thank you so much for all of your hard work, Mike Clemmer!

-Nathaniel