Sam Edelston

I believe that fretted dulcimers are among the world's coolest musical instruments. I want the general public to know them the way it knows guitars and keyboards.
 
The dulcimer is similar to a guitar, except for a few of the particulars:
The fretboard sits on top of the instrument's body. Most players put their dulcimers on their laps, and strum them from above. Traditionally, dulcimers had only "diatonic" frets -- that is, each string basically could only play notes in the do-re-mi scale. They usually have only 3 or sometimes 4 strings.
 

For years, I thought fretted dulcimers were uninteresting -- after all, how much could you do with only 3 strings? But once I started playing it, I discovered how much I could do with one -- and those supposed shortcomings actually turned out to be great strengths.
 
DULCIMER ADVANTAGE: A guitar has 6 strings and you have 5 fingers. You're outnumbered. A dulcimer has 3 strings and you have 5 fingers. Nice student/faculty ratio! No excess strings to worry about. A beginner can pick out songs in minutes -- the "mistake notes" aren't there. Yet, 3 strings also is enough to play both melody and accompaniment at the same time.
 
Dulcimers come from beautiful traditional folk roots, but your dulcimer will be equally happy whether you play mountain music, Mozart, or Metallica on it. In fact, I’m increasingly coming to believe we should call it the “fretted dulcimer,” not the “mountain dulcimer,” to liberate it from its backwoods habits. I respect the traditions, but when I play, I care about what the instrument can do, not what it has done in the past.
 
It's common nowadays for dulcimers to have at least one or two "extra" frets. My "standard" setup for a dulcimer includes 0+, 1+, and 8+ frets (as well as 6+ and 13+ frets, which are nearly universal nowadays). This adds several useful notes and many useful chords, but is still simple enough to find the notes and chords without having to think. I also play fully chromatic and regular diatonic dulcimers.
 
Most people -- in fact, even most players -- don't recognize how much fretted dulcimers can do.  In addition, they're easier to learn and easier to play than guitars. I believe there should be millions of kids begging their parents for a dulcimer for their next birthday.
 
I play fretted dulcimers by Ron Ewing, Folkcraft, Bear Meadow, Rod Matheson, McSpadden, George Haggerty, and Jim Fox -- plus a cardboard one from Backyard Instruments. There are many other very fine builders, such as Blue Lion, Terry McCafferty, New Harmony, and others whose instruments I'm not familiar enough with.