and before anyone says anything, I don’t think this is off topic in the pub. If it is, well, get over it 
So as I was saying…I had to get a cleaning rod, so I stopped in at the local music store to get one. Places like that usually have them by themselves, but apparently they were all out, so I had to buy a RCRD*R to get one!!! 
$3 for a cleaning rod and now I have this…this…THING which I am probably never going to use. Can you believe that. Actually, I probably would use it, but it’s one of the el cheapo kinds (obviously, if I only paid $3 for it and the cleaning rod :roll: ) and it doesn’t even come apart for cleaning. At least I have my cleaning rod, right?
But on another note (no pun intended ), the guy took down the dulcimer that he had in the store and played it for me. I think I need one now…so much for WhOA. Now I have WhOA which is complicated by DulOA :roll: I shudder to think what I’ll get next…after all, that $600 mandolin looked REALLY nice. Maybe I can go back this week to have someone play that for me too…SIGH!!!
Are you talking a lap (mountain, Appalachian) dulcimer or a hammered dulcimer? I suspect the latter, since he had it hanging. You can get a good mountain dulcimer for about as much as you’d pay for a handmade whistle. You do need at least a couple, though, to play in different keys. They’re really the whistles of the string family. Incredibly easy to pick out a tune, difficult to make sound really good. Actually, I’d put the hammered dulcimer in that category, too.
Actually, I think it was a mountain dulcimer. It wasn’t trapezoid shaped like the hammered ones are (at least the ones I have seen).
I don’t know if it was a good one per se… but it sounded very pretty, and was only about $75. It was enough to make me want one
Probably? 
Sell it on eBay for $5. 
You could have made a cleaning rod out of a dowel that you could have bought at a hardware store (or even walmart) for $0.35.
That’s what I do.
One of my customers gave me a great idea for a cleaning/oiling rod. Get a bamboo chopstick (not wood) and split the thin end for a distance of an inch or so. Careful, the bamboo is very tough-- a sheet rock knife works well. The resulting slit can be used to hold a gauze pad or little piece of old t-shirt. I’ve been using the same one for about 2 years now.
You don’t need to spend $600 on a mandolin. There are plenty of used ones out there that are great. Check out mandolincafe.com for postings of used instruments.
Mine is an A style Kentucky Mandolin (teardrop shape, not that fancy curlique F style). I got it a number of years ago at a local antique shop. With a tiny bit of tweaking to lower the bridge, it plays fantastically, sounds terrific, and only set me back$125.