Banjo Style Dulcimer with Diatonically Spaced Frets and Teardrop Body

Like the traditional lap-style dulcimer, this unique twist on the form features diatonically spaced frets like the white keys of a piano, making it an easy to play melodic instrument. Fun and lightweight, it is played like a guitar instead of the traditional lap-style mountain dulcimer. The teardrop body with spruce soundboard helps deliver the rich sound of a dulcimer, but the floating bridge gives it a bit of banjo-like twang. Many tunings work well with the instrument but the recommendation is for D-A-D-D tuning allowing simple chords to be played easily with one finger stretched across a single fret. Further tunings can be experimented with making the banjo-dulcimer as easy or as complicated as the player desires.