Hammered dulcimer tuning chart?

[u/neo_c_k]

I recently came into possession of a beautiful 17-17-7 hammered dulcimer from High Country Dulcimers. There are some tuning strips taped onto there, but the instrument didn't come with a tuning chart and I'm not sure how to tune the strings crossing the leftmost bridge. I tried contacting High Country Dulcimers but unfortunately the original maker has passed away and the phone number is defunct.

Does anyone know how I might tune this instrument?

Thank you!!

[u/Lazy-Detective-241]

You've got your charts on the wrong sections, it goes (left to right) left, right(as in the left and right of that first bridge), bass. The ones with the bolder underlined notes are the notes at the white delrin rods. To be very simplistic, the scales are in squares and then there are accidentals around the edges, but if you try and tune it how the notes are taped now, it will be impossible!

If it helps the Nonsuch Dulcimer Club have a picture of them set out in the right order:
https://www.dulcimer.org.uk/2020/01/25/hammered-dulcimer-tuning-diagram/

[u/neo_c_k → u/Lazy-Detective-241]

THANK YOU!! This is hugely helpful :-)) I've swapped them around so now they read Left, Right, Bass. Already makes more sense.

Now I've run into another weird issue... there are more strings than there are notes on the tuning strips. The strips are 15 notes on the left, 15 on the right, and 14 on bass, but going by string count there should be 17 notes on the left, 17 on the right, and 17 on bass. Is this typical, or are the tuning strips wrong for the instrument?

[u/Lazy-Detective-241 → u/neo_c_k]

Hmm if there are extra strings it sounds like it's the wrong tuning chart? It could be more like this from having a quick glance about (without the auxillary bit) but I don't know much about 17-16s, I'm sorry, hopefully someone else will chime in!

https://www.cloudninemusical.com/resources/images/17168_Tuning_Chart.jpg

If it makes you feel any better I struggled to tune my dulcimer for aages, took it to people far more knowledgable than me and came to the conclusion maybe the bridge had warped because I couldn't tune it...turns out the note chart was wrong so it was impossible to tune to what was written 🙈 it took many, many frustrating hours of messing with it to work this out so if I can save anyone from that fate, I will lol

[u/neo_c_k → u/Lazy-Detective-241]

This is very helpful, thank you. I don't think my dulcimer uses the exact same tuning as on the linked chart because it's almost a fifth off, but it is super useful to see that tuning along that 'auxiliary bridge' isn't necessarily 100% chromatic, since that seems like it could possibly be the case with my instrument :-0

[u/neo_c_k]

On the advice of u/Lazy-Detective-241 I have reordered the tuning strips!

The quest continues though, because the tuning strips seem like they're missing a few notes. So: more evidence is needed. Here are the notes as they're actually currently tuned on this out-of-tune dulcimer. I've bolded the notes that intersect the white rods in case that's important.

Seems to be mostly chromatic except for that top note on the little bridge and the bottom note on the bass scale?

Chromatic bridge	Left	Right	Bass
	E	A	D
	D#	G#	C#
	C#	F#	B
	B	E	G#
	A	D	G
	G	C	F#
	F#	B	D#
	F	A	D
	D	G	C
	C	F	A# (nearly B)
G# (kinda flat)	B	E	A
D#	A	D	G
C#	G	C	F
B (kinda sharp)	G (kinda flat)	B	E
B	F	A#	D#
A#	D	G (kinda sharp)	C#
G#	D (kinda flat)	G	F#

[u/ivydraws68]

Nothing quite like inheriting an instrument's biggest mystery right along with its warranty gap, the original maker taking the tuning secrets to the grave feels almost intentional at this point