Hammered Dulcimer Damping System

Many thanks to Arjen Boerstra for sending us these photos and the info about how he added a damping system to his hammered dulcimer.

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Dampers:

In this case I used oakwood 15x10x580 mm (straight as possible)

Felt on dampers:

3 layers of 3 mm glued on top of each other and on the wood with double sided tape. Cut out spaces at the location of the strings on the right side of the bass bridge. I will also try some experiments with foam instead of felt. This maybe damps the strings even more, without too much pressure on the pedal. (especially the three lowest bass strings need some pressure, I don’t know what kind of felt usually is used for damping material)

Springs:

120x10x1 mm bend on 4 cm and 2 cm from the edge 
Here I used 2 parts on top of each other because my spring material was too thin (0,5mm)

Plugs:

The 8 plugs in the holes through the instrument are made of a part of a blind rivet and are glued in with quick glue.

Wire:

I used dyneema line 1,5 mm (this is stretchless) through the instrument, and for the last part to the foot pedal a more common kind of wire with more structure to prevent from slipping through the aluminium slip thing( I don’t know the name for it, but it is the principle of a guy line)

Pedal:

Oak wood, thinned out to the front side to be a little more ergonomic to the foot, and a hinge.
about 24x8,5 cm