Goose Acres Model H-3 4-String LEFT HANDED Model Appalachian Dulcimer, c. 1990s, made in Cleveland, Ohio, serial # 548, natural finish, spruce top, walnut back and sides, original black soft shell case.
Goose Acres was the family business of Bob Smakula and his father Peter, two names often spoken with a distinct reverence within the world of banjo lovers. After humble beginnings building dulcimers in the 1970's, a teenage Bob enlisted the aid of his father Peter, a German immigrant and all-around steward of American folk music. The pair grew a small repair operation and their "Thumb Piano Factory & Dulcimer Works" into the Goose Acres Folk Music Center. More than just a store to share the fruits of their own lutherie, it was a repair shop and a vital meeting ground that served all manner of local pickers and folkies all the way up to the likes of Norman Blake and Doc Watson. While Bob continues to this day to build and preserve fine folk instruments under the Smakula banner, Goose Acres ceased operations in 2006 and Peter passed shortly after in 2008.
This is an exemplary little Appalachian hourglass dulcimer, beautifully made and generally straightforward but which breaks slightly from tradition. This 4-string dulcimer had a doubled melody string, and the instrument is correctly oriented for a Left Handed player with the bass string closest to the player when held in the standard right handed manner. As dulcimer technique is overhanded, it is actually playable either way but this actually the first commercially made (not kit) dulcimer we have had oriented this way.
This instrument is built with a tightly grained spruce top dotted with circular and f-hole soundholes, and walnut back and sides. What appears to be a cherry scroll headstock is fitted with a unique modern luxury in this traditional instrument: plastic machine tuners fashioned to look like friction pegs while avoiding the constant struggle of violin pegs. The strings pass over a rosewood nut, fingerboard, and bridge to the tailpiece; rosewood is a luxury not always found on older folksier dulcimers, but which would likely have been well in-stock in the renowned Goose Acres workshop. The general workmanship, including the elegant beveling of the fingerboard on the strumming end, is further proof that this is no mere folksy dulcimer but the product of decades of dulcimer lutherie.
Length is 34 1/4 in. (87 cm.), 7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 in. (7.6 cm.) in depth at deepest point. Scale length is 26 1/4 in. (667 mm.). Width of nut is 1 3/16 in. (30 mm.).
This is a well-preserved example of a high quality genuine handmade dulcimer from the Goose Acres shop. There are virtually no signs of use at all, pretty surprising given an audibly superior tone and great playability on display here. The wood is unmarred (well, save what appear to be a few tooling burns from the sawing of the wood). The original frets are full of life and play like a dream, and the modernized faux-friction machine tuners are a welcome touch. The label inside is well in-tact. Overall an excellent instrument, one of the finer dulcimers we've had and the ONLY left-handed one. Comes in the black softshell case it likely left Goose Acres with. Excellent + Condition.
