Around the Late 1800's and early 1900's there was a small but distinct number of people making, and playing, what has become known as "the Birmingham Style" dulcimer. The main differences between this instrument and the more conventional one are it's characteristic curved front and back rails and the tuning of the bass section. Also many of the players plucked the strings, rather than using hammers. I can only mention the the few people that I know about, but I'm sure there were many more. The ones I know of all seemed to be from the south side of the city eg.  Tyseley, Acocks Green, Sheldon, Kings Norton etc. Whether they all knew one another is impossible to say as most of them are long gone, but it's quite uncanny how similar in style the instruments were. It still amazes me that every now and then another old instrument will turn up, and I get to hear about yet another player, quite often only living just around the corner. If anyone knows of other players, or have old dulcimers sat up in their lofts, maybe old photographs, or whatever, I would be really interested. Please get in touch.