CHAPTER 4: Dulcimers in the British Isles since 1800 > Dulcimers in the Midlands & the North
Bill Fell - materials
The 1948 instrument was made out of packing cases - with no noticeable loss of tone quality - and he also recycles box-wood rulers.
He says he got his ebony "from an old elephant" (33).
He makes his own wrest-pins from 4" nails, a time-consuming practice which gives his instruments an air of having been invested with a large degree of emotional involvement, and which otherwise seems to have died out 150 years ago.
He hammers the ends square, and drills a hole in each, in contrast to the older makers, who hammered their nails flat and, sometimes, filed a notch in the top.
Recent instruments have requisitioned the somewhat soulless mass-produced pins from old pianos.
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