r/Dulcimer

This is one I just finished. The overhanging top and bottom simplify glue-up, hide mistakes, and are reminiscent of the first dulcimer I saw 65 years ago, when Richard Farina showed me the basic strum on his. The black fretboard is an homage to Paul Clayton's ebony fretboard. His instrument was a treat to play. The saw-kerfed sides are how I learned to make them when I was eleven, from Howie Mitchell's mimeographed booklet.

I received these two instruments from the estate of a dear friend to our music youth program. I am president of a non-profit music association in California. After hanging onto them (sentimentally) for over 5 years, I am finally going to include them in an auction to raise money for our youth program but I have no idea how to value them. btw...I'm also new to Reddit, so I'm not sure if this is even a good place to start or not. Attached are two pictures of each. They appear to be very good quality. If anyone has any advise on how to value these or where to research, I would be most appreciative. Thank you. Theresa

Okay, as the title says, I got questions. I have a dulcimer, the trapezoid one, that I rescued from the dumpster years ago. I couldn't let a instrument of any kind go to the trash heap. So now, I'm looking for a better home for my found treasure. It sounds beautiful, but how would I go about appraisal? Does older mean better? 1989 sticker inside. What can I use to best clean it? It's heavy as hell and I don't want to strip any polish or varnish that's been applied to it.

Google keeps giving me different answers 😓