Alec Anness Restoration and instrument maker

Instrument maker and furniture restorer

Quality Restoration & Bespoke Handmade Furniture.
Based in the Cambridgeshire Fens, I design & make furniture to your specification and I am skilled in the restoration of antique furniture.

As well as all the traditional furniture making skills I can provide veneering, marquetry, woodturning and carving to a high standard. I am an experienced French Polisher and a maker and supplier of fitted furniture.

I also make Autoharps, Hammered Dulcimers and Banjos. Use the links below to view examples of my work.

High Quality English Handmade Hammered Dulcimers My instruments are only made from selected quarter sawn tonewoods. No ply is used in any of my instruments.
The Hammered Dulcimer has beguiled me since restoring an old instrument made originally in 1886 by a local player, I now offer my own range of models to suit all needs.
All my dulcimers are jig built to form a very distinctive backward bend to compensate for string tension, this results in a very stable soundbox.
This process does involve more time in construction but keeps the weight down of the instrument without the need for extra bracing. If the soundbox is built flat it will result in time bending with string tension ending up with an unstable instrument. A common fault even with new Dulcimers.
Soundboards are of selected quarter sawn Sitka Spruce or Mahogany to give superior tone & projection, while unwanted resonance is controlled by careful design of the internal strutting.
Many of my instruments are made with very old period timbers, when available.
Please consider my dulcimers if you are thinking of owning a quality handmade instrument.

This Dulcimer has the latest design of internal strutting and modified pin blocks mainly to reduce the weight. It is a 16/16 hammered dulcimer with the bottom three bass strings as drones ( A, C & D ). The back, sound-board and the 3mm side veneers are made from old reclaimed Mahogany. The pin block is Hard Rock Maple veneered with Burr Walnut. The edges of the soundbox are bound with boxwood & inlaid around the soundboard with a decorative banding. The main bridges are quarter sawn Beech with a nylon 6.6 capping. The outer bridges are also beech with polished brass cappings. The turned soundhole rings are made from Maple. the instrument is completely French polished by hand to a beautiful satin finish.

Email the Webmaster

Website hosting by Cult Studios