Ray Mooers and Randy Hudson first encountered a traditional hammered dulcimer in 1977, quickly became fascinated with them, and decided to build them as a hobby. In 1979, they turned this hobby into a business called Dusty Strings. In the 1980s, they began to build harps as well, and Ray’s wife Sue finished the instruments and sewed the cases. They peddled their instruments at craft fairs throughout the Northwest and soon opened a store in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. In 2024, Dusty Strings is also running a repair shop and music school at the store, which carries a wide variety of instruments in addition to their dulcimers and harps.

Dusty Strings started an annual ukulele festival in November 2001. The Seattle Ukulele Players Association formed in 2003, and the group began to meet monthly at Dusty Strings. Here, Pat Klopich (front left) and Stephen Arulaid (front right) gather with other ukulele players at Dusty Strings at the group's first meeting, which attracted nearly 40 people.

Caption information source: “It may be a fluke but we’re suddenly hot for the uke,” Margaret Horner, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 6, 2003, pages B1, B2.
Caption information source: Dusty Strings website at https://dustystrings.com/