I’ve finally completed re-stringing the dulcimer we purchased for $35 at an antique store. I have found out since then that this is a home-made dulcimer and has quite a few more strings than the usual. I tried stringing it with piano wire – I have never worked with such difficult wire before!! So I ended up stringing it with a slew of electric guitar strings – from 0.010 to 0.047.
Line up:
2 tracks (right and left) of hammer dulcimer, fretless bass, and cameo appearances for both fretless guitar and electric psaltery.
http://micro.soonlabel.com/hammer_dulcimer/20110514_dulcimer.mp3
In this case the tuning is unknown (done by ear) though fairly close to 12 equal in a number of strings. My plans are to try to tune this to 17 equal, along with my psaltery, zither, and cannon.