Mountain Dulcimer

I went to our local open air market this morning to take this photo. We have been in a very hot spell so I went early to avoid the later heat of the day. At 9:15am it was already 88F degrees with high humidity.
This mountain dulcimer (hourglass shape) could be found in the Appalachian mountain regions of northwestern North Carolina eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia. This instrument is a replica built by a luthier in southwestern Virginia. It is a simple instrument tuned in AAAD. The double AA’s are the melody strings with the AD open giving it a soft drone-like sound. The melody strings can be stopped with fingers or noter. The drone sound is very similar to other drone instruments like the bagpipes.