The stick dulcimer is a relatively modern innovation, adapted from the old Appalachian "mountain" dulcimer, a three-stringed which is played resting on the player's lap.
The stick dulcimer (Samm plays the McNally "Strumstick") has the same type of diatonic fretboard as the mountain dulcimer, but with a much smaller resonating body, so it can be held and played like a guitar.
Most of the videos on these pages feature the diatonic-fretted stick dulcimer, but Samm is more recently using a chromatic model.
