Custom built by: James Jones of Bedford, VA
Model: 3/16/18/9 Custom Performance with dampers
I was able to choose every detail of the instrument, right down to the exact woods that were used! I wanted the striking red on black look that James has done on some other instruments.
- Blackened redwood top
- Cardinal wood (bloodwood) red bridges and trim
- Lacewood pin panels
- Curly maple sides
- Mexican Rosewood (Cocobolo) dampers
- Custom sound hole
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I have been playing a Masterworks 16/15 non-chromatic since 1995. It is a great instrument and has served me well. I have been very happy with it and I would recommend a Masterworks to anyone. However, I play a lot of fast tunes like you hear at Winfield's Carp Camp, and I wanted an instrument that had less sustain and "brighter" tone so that all the notes don't mush together on really fast tunes. I have listened to Steve Schneider, Jem Moore, David Moran, and Wes Chappell, who all play James Jones instruments. Their instruments produce the sound I wanted. James worked with me for a combination of a bridge and sound board that would provide a thinner, yet still full, lower sustain sound, with a broad range of chromatic notes and dampers, and some interesting wood combinations, all for a very reasonable price. After eleven years of doing without a chromatic dulcimer, I am happy to get some very precious D# and G# notes! Oh yeah, I am still keeping my Masterworks. I still need the mellow, longer sustain sound too! There is no such thing as having too many instruments! |
Custom Sound Hole which I designed myself, (borrowing some ideas from some other crosses that I have seen)
Every instrument that James Jones makes has a unique sound hole design that is never repeated on another instrument. In this case I had to supply a jpeg file and James had it laser cut. Note that some areas are holes cut out by the laser while other areas are just lines burned into the wood, but not all the way through the wood. The amazing detail to me is that James actually made the Cardinalwood trim go around the laser cut sound hole too!
James offers a damper option on his instruments, so I decided that this would be something I had to have. The long, straight piece of damper wood with the neat grain is Cocobolo a.k.a. Mexican Rosewood. James sent pictures of several wood samples so that I could choose exactly the right look.
Note that the dampers have no exposed springs. Everything sits inside the metal tube and looks very "clean" and uncluttered on the instrument.
James does excellent "fine detail" work. I really like the red cardinal wood trim!
The brown wood with all the pins through it is lacewood. Lacewood has a most unique grain, and is one of my favorite decorative woodworking materials for things like custom picture frames.
Here is the damper pedal arrangement. The nice thing is that you can very easily adjust the damper pull string and pedal angle with a novel adjustment mechanism under the pedal. It is very easy to adjust for sitting or standing without having a fixed string length that restricts you to one position or the other.
I must say that is it is a real problem if you happen to pick up the instrument off the stand without unhooking the damper pedal first!!
