Backyard Music Dulcimers

Backyard Music is a company that specializes in creating high-quality, affordable, and easy-to-assemble folk instruments for beginning players, travelers, and music educators. Our instruments are designed to produce "amazingly good sound, " as stated by Mother Earth News and National Public Radio in their story about our dulcimers. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy of making music, and our mission is to make that possible by providing instruments that are both accessible and enjoyable to play.

Our Instruments

At Backyard Music, we take great pride in the quality of our instruments. We build harps, dulcimers, and banjos of a quality that we ourselves enjoy playing at home, around the campfire, and in the classroom. Our instruments are not only designed to be easy to assemble, but they are also built to last. We use high-quality materials, such as Nicaraguan mahogany for our banjo necks and dulcimer fretboards, and maple for our harp frames. These materials are chosen for their durability, strength, and ability to produce great sound.

Great Action

One of the key features of our instruments is their great action. Action refers to the distance between the string and the frets/fingerboard. If the action is too low, strings will buzz. If the action is too high, the instrument will be unnecessarily difficult to play, and will sound out of tune when played up the neck. At Backyard Music, we carefully adjust the action on all our assembled instruments and thoroughly inspect each kit we send out to ensure that it will assemble easily with good action.

Geared Tuners

All of our banjos and dulcimers use geared tuning machines with a 14:1 gear ratio. This makes the tuning process smooth and easy. Our tuners won't slip, so once the strings stretch out, our instruments generally stay in tune. Good geared tuning machines are expensive, so many inexpensive instruments use inferior friction pegs or geared tuners that slip. Low-quality tuning pegs make tuning difficult, especially for novice musicians, and it's no fun for anyone to try to play an instrument that keeps going out of tune! Our harps use the standard zither pins and nylon harp strings spaced the usual distance apart.

Great Intonation

If fret and bridge placement isn't exact, an instrument will play out of tune no matter what you do. At Backyard Music, we ensure that our instruments have great intonation. Our instruments are designed and built to ensure that the fret and bridge placement is exact, so that the instrument will play in tune.

Wood that Won't Bow Under String Tension

Over time, string tension can cause wood to bow or warp. This is particularly likely to occur when cheaper soft woods are used. We use Nicaraguan mahogany for our banjo necks and dulcimer fretboards, and maple for our harp frames. These materials are chosen for their ability to withstand string tension and to produce great sound.

Hollow Soundboxes Made of Corrugated Cardboard

To keep costs low and the building process simple, we make a few material substitutions that don't affect playability. For example, our dulcimers and harps have hollow soundboxes made of corrugated cardboard. Why cardboard? Cardboard is acoustically responsive, it's strong, and it won't bow under string tension. Wooden soundboxes can crack when exposed to sudden temperature change or extreme humidity (low or high). Cardboard is nearly impervious to weather conditions. When painted, it can even get a little wet-the water will bead up and you can wipe it away. With their folded edges and trapezoidal shape, our soundboxes are very strong. If you knock your instrument off the table, it might get a small dent or crease, but the top won't split.

Lightweight Instruments

Our instruments are also designed to be lightweight, making them easy to transport and play. Our banjos and dulcimers weigh less than two pounds each, and our harps are also designed for quick and easy assembly.