I have been playing Celtic music on hammered dulcimers for over 20 years. Building instruments is a natural combination of my woodworking, metal working, and engineering skills. In 1994 I built a conventional stringed hammered dulcimer combing ideas gained from other makers with string scaling from a Steinway piano. I still play that instrument in weekly sessions. In the mid 90s, I spent a lot of time traveling and needed an instrument that was easy to carry along. So I built a series of instruments blending the Mbira from Zimbabwe with the hammered dulcimer. I call the result a Hammered Mbira. They are tuned when I build them, the tuning is relatively immune to changes in environment and the instruments are very rugged. I have carried these instruments all over the world and play them in bus stations, train stations, in airports, on hotel stoops and in parks.