New Invention? - the Pandulcea.

Just finished a new cigar box guitar - of a type I'm calling pandulcea. Basically, it's a cigar box guitar with diatonic fretting - like a dulcimer, but with a new twist.

Most dulcimer music is in one of four modes, ionian, dorian, mixolydian, or aeolian... but with diatonic frets, the traditional dulcimer can only play in one mode in any given tuning. The modern dulcimer adds an additional fret for the major 7 above the note which allows playing in two modes for any given tuning.

The Pandulcea uses the same frets as a modern dulcimer (except they're in just intonation rather than 12ET), but it can play all four dulcimer modes in a single tuning. Here's how it works:


The first string uses the "zero" fret as a nut. The second string, using the first fret as a "zero-fret" nut, is tuned to the same note. Consequently, you can play the major modes - ionian and mixolydian - on the first string and the minor modes - dorian and aeolian - on the second string. (Not shown in the photo is the 3 string which uses the 4th fret as a nut and is tuned a fifth above the other two.)

BTW, this particular instrument will be given away to a lucky audience member at the Spazzatorium Galleria
in Greenville, NC on Tuesday (7/8). If you're in the area, come on out to the show and you could take the pandulcea prototype home with you.