I play lap (AKA appalachian, mountain) dulcimer. There are nice hammered dulcimers out there too. But I don't play those. I started playing dulcimer when I was 11. I even took lessons! I was given a second dulcimer for my 16th birthday. This dulcimer possessed the elusive seventh fret, which many dulcimers lack. This single extra note contributed to many, many more songs. When I was 17, I finally got kind of into rock-and-roll, so I bought an amp and pickup for the dulcimer. When I was 18, I commissioned a luthier to build a shiny blue electric dulcimer. When I'm not strumming balefully on my dulcimer, I can be heard/seen as the angry frontwoman in Citizens on Patrol.