Kamalani

Born: July 7, 2009

Maker: Folkcraft

Model: Custom chromatic

"Since the beginning of my endorsement partnership with Folkcraft, it's been an exciting journey behind the scenes of dulcimer-crafting. The Ash Family have been absolutely wonderful and they are running a company that is giving many lifetimes of happiness to music-lovers from all over the world.

While visiting their shop and store in Woodburn, Indiana in the summer of 2009, I inquired about some koa wood. Koa can only be found growing in Hawai'i and is a beautiful wood with deeply mystical, spiritual energy. Richard Ash showed me their stock of koa, which they had inherited from Dave and Melissa Marks, who had in-turn bought it from Jackal-Rugg, which sprung out of the old Capritaurus dulcimer factory in California. Richard said they had never even cut into it, so it had been aging all this time since the 70's.

For the next dulcimer, I wanted to make the leap over to full chromatic, which would help me in studying/teaching music theory along with making it possible to still play dulcimer while opening up the full spectrum of notes and chords, all the better to prepare for playing with a variety of musicians. I went with a 25" scale for ease in navigating the familiar chord shapes that I use in a diatonic tuning. I named her 'Kamalani', which is Hawaiian for 'Chief's Child', and also a beautiful tune written by Larry Rivera and made popular by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Her total specs can be found here. The galax back really is a big part of her huge voice and it's only going to get better. She's a beauty and a challenge as I begin the next phase of my musical career."

Lipoa

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