Featured Dulcimers
This "Woodland Wildlife" JRS Explorer is a 5 octave Professional Introductory Hammered Dulcimer built by Zachary Hamilton and Jerry Read Smith. The decorative corner scrolls and rosettes are a design created by one of Jerry's customers many years ago for her own dulcimer. Several years back, she gave Jerry permission to offer them to other customers as well. We had lost the files, and Zachary recreated the digital design from some old rosettes that were on the shelf and refined it some, as well.
This Explorer features a ruby-stained soundboard and abalone accents on the bridges and around the rosettes. It was also built with the internal prep-work needed to support our Cable-Drive Linear Bearing Damper System if the owner desires to have us add it.
Model:
JRS Extended Chromatic Explorer
Bridge Configuration:
2/22/22/12
Range:
A1 - A6; 5 Octaves
Completion Date:
August 2024
Sale Price:
The auction on the Woodland Wildlife Explorer is now closed. Thank you for your interest in Song of the Wood!
The Blackberry is a brain-child design of Zachary's inspired by his in-laws' berry farm in Pennsylvania. This JRS Extended Chromatic Navigator features a blackberry-hued stain and new artistic rosettes and organic corner scroll designs based on the leaves and berries of their blackberry plants.
Model:
JRS Extended Chromatic Navigator
Bridge Configuration:
2/19/19/9
Range:
D2 - A6; 4.5 Octaves
Completion Date:
February 2024
Auction Sale Price:
$7151
This custom Grande Concertmaster was built to spec for one of our customers. It features a Leathery Brown stain on Quartersawn Sitka Spruce, which naturally takes stain unevenly to create the mottled shading. The rosettes are a custom Whale Tail design drawn up by the dulcimer's new owner and tailored to work with the laser by Zachary. It also sports a Cable-Drive Linear-Bearing Damper System.
Model:
JRS Grande Concertmaster
Bridge Configuration:
2/22/22/12
Range:
A1 - A6; 5 Octaves
Completion Date:
July 2023
Sale Price:
$5869
Thoughts from the Owner:
"The Grand Concertmaster hammered dulcimer that you built for me is exceptionally beautiful, both in its tone as well as its aesthetics. You have exceeded my expectations in every way! Ahh... the instrument is so beautiful to look at. I absolutely love the mottled/leathery finish and rich color of the top, which is perfectly accented by the bridges, bridge markers, soundhole inlays, and corner filigrees. Somehow you understood what I was looking for and figured out how to build it! I am so happy with the way it turned out.
Perhaps more importantly, the tone also exceeds my expectations. Wow, it is just really pretty to listen to while I am playing! I had tried several of the Song of the Woods instruments over the past many years, typically at workshops where I got to try others' instruments, and one time years ago in the Song of the Woods store in downtown Black Mountain when it was there, as well as last year in Jerry's workshop. Hands down, the instrument that you built for me sounds better to my ears than any of the others I had tried. I had always loved the tone of my previous instrument by another builder, and I figured that the tone of my new JRS instrument would be different yet complementary to my older instrument. Lo and behold, the new instrument you built for me sounds like an evolved, more elegant, more balanced version of my previous instrument. In other words, the new tone expresses everything I loved about my previous instrument, but does it so much better and just takes it to a whole new level!
So thank you for your craftsmanship and attention to detail. You are truly a master craftsman."
The Whimsy Machine is a custom Grande Concertmaster built to spec for one of our customers. This is the first dulcimer with a green stain that we've ever done in 50 years. The rosettes are a custom design drawn up by the dulcimer's new owner.
Model:
JRS Grande Concertmaster
Bridge Configuration:
2/22/22/12
Range:
A1 - A6; 5 Octaves
Completion Date:
August 2024
Sale Price:
$5476