Thomann Dulcimer

I waited with anticipation for my Thomann hour glass shaped Dulcimer and was very pleased with the Dulcimer when it arrived.

It looks good has a lovely tone the harmonics ring out nice and clear and it is easy to fret. The tone is sweet especially when fretting a high G chord on the middle string fret 6 and melody strings fret 8.

It is well built and very pleasing in appearance. It is not a hand built custom dulcimer so there are some areas that could do with improvement that are not beyond even an amateur musician/Luther like myself. The tuners are stiff (a drop of light oil helped but new tuners are a project for the future), the frets are a bit sharp where they have been cut and could do with a once over with a fine file, and the tail piece is a bit flimsy (I will replace it with some more traditional pins).

Other than that it is well set up and the strings supplied give a good sound. A spare set of strings are included. I did replace the strings with a Martin M640 set after first trying a set of Martin Darco strings (see reviews). My preference is the M640 still it is a matter of individual taste. But as mentioned above the strings supplied do not sound bad at all.

As I said this dulcimer is not custom built but as a first time dulcimer player I feel that even a seasoned player would not find fault with it. (I have moved sideways from 3 string cigar box guitars which I realised were tuned in the same way as the Dulcimer except that the lower and first strings are reversed and you play from on top of the strings and not from under the neck and up into the strings, if you get my drift.) So there is a lot of music out there that can easily be swapped between the Cigar Box Guitar and the Dulcimer by swapping the first and third string tab.

Traditional tunes and blues sound good on this dulcimer which I have been very impressed by and am very pleased with. Despite the small niggles mentioned above which are easily corrected I will give it a hearty 5 star review and would recommend it to anyone.

One added bonus is that my wife likes the look of it so much that she wants to hang it on the wall so I won’t have to put it away when I am not playing it.

I have the European Dulcimer as well and essentially that is what I learned to play on. The Rossebeck version however is all solid wood and has a wider body which to me results in a richer more full tone. The base is considerably more clear at least to my ear. The nut and bridge have extra slots for string spacing which work for me as I only use 3 and this helps to keep them a bit more equal distant. The action is lower than the European which is appreciated by my fingers. I tuned it right out of the box with the existing strings and it sounded great, but will change the strings out when a new set arrives. You will have to retune this from time to time as is the nature with such instruments so I would recommend investing in a tuner. This Dulcimer has exceeded my expectations. If you are a beginner you should be satisfied with this one. My thanks to Thomann for offering this at a great price, great service and prompt shipping.