The 8-7 Matt-Wood minus hiccups

A dulcimer designed by myself, after a remark made by a close friend Barrie Matthews. After explaining the problem of stopping the dulcimer from bowing under the tension of the strings he said, "Take the strings all the way round. "Taking the strings all the way round wasn't possible, but this gave me the idea of putting equalizing strings on the back. After first trying out the idea on a 8-7 dulcimer, and overcoming various hiccups I was able to increase the courses to a 14-13, with the bottom string length of 46 inches (1170mm), resulting in a deep sounding instrument with quite a resonance.

The 14-13 Matt-Wood with the 46 inch long bottom string length

 It was made, using a friends wardrobe door (Dave Clifford of "THIRSTY WORK").  The friends now have their clothes hanging around the walls, but who cares.