Cheap Musical Instruments

As regular readers of this blog are aware, your faithful correspondent is an advocate of cheap musical instruments. He believes that good and enjoyable music can be made with a cheap First Act guitar and a pair of bongos as well as it can be made with a Fender Strat and a Ludwig drum set.
Be it known that this author has a $40 uke, a $70 guitar, a $7 pennywhistle and a $20 harmonica, none of which he plays well, or even competently. But he enjoys playing those instruments.
He also owns a thing called a StrumstickTM. The instrument is also known, and will be known heretofore as a stick dulcimer because the StrumstickTM is a trademarked name and the "inventor" of said "stick" is not loath to complain about other builders of stick dulcimers calling their products being called "S-sticks."
This writer has owned a "S-stick" for some years and has enjoyed fooling about with it, although he has never taken it very seriously. The tuning is usually G-D-G, which allows for a good range of songs, and the thing is usually played in a diatonic mode. It has only three strings and some people think that it is easier to play than a proper dulcimer, though yours would dispute this since the diatonic spacing of the frets make the thing easier to play on the lap than as a half guitar.
But it is a fun thing to fool around with. It actually sounds more like a banjo than it does a guitar or dulcimer. And the cost of the thing, the last time checked, is not awfully high especially if one buys one of the many stick dulcimers besides the "S-stick." In fact, the quality of the construction of the "S-stick" is lacking and feels really cheap. The neck is very narrow making it difficult to finger chords and the neck feels almost as if it were teak. Teak is a great wood, but it's not very smooth. Considering the fretting demands of a stick dulcimer one would expect that the neck be not only smooth, but slick. One can fret faster with a proper dulcimer than a "S-stick."
So if you want to have a cheap stringed instrument that is fairly easy to play you might consider the stick dulcimer, or in a bind, the "S-stick."
Here's a YouTube thing of an explanation of the "S-stick" not "S-stick" controversy:
This is NOT a Strum Stick! - YouTube