Mountain Dulcimer
"My Creole Belle"

Original design base on the J. E. Thomas dulcimer housed in the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C. The top, sides, back, head and tailpiece are cocobolo. The fingerboard is pine with a cocobolo fretboard lamination. The tuning pegs are hand-carved maple.

Cocobolo is very similar in color and grain as Brazilian rosewood. It is an oily wood that finishes very smooth. I coated it with six coats of tung oil, and, after it cured, polished it with pumice, rottenstone, then paste wax. This is an exceptionally nice playing instrument with a good full sound.