The 1991 band played one year with Rachel Hall, who then left to pursue a Watson fellowship. Tom, Jim, and Helene recruited Melissa Demian, a singer and Appalachian dulcimer player, to complete the quartet. Melissa's strong vocals and distinctive dulcimer style naturally opened the band's sound to new possibilities. The arrangements of the 1991-1994 band tended to focus on vocal harmonies and double-lead vocals between Tom and Melissa. The strumming of the dulcimer supplied the rhythmic base upon which a string-heavy Broadside Electric sound was built. This band recorded two CDs of material, 1992's Black Edged Visiting Card, and 1994's Amplificata. This was the period that Broadside Electric transitioned from being a college campus band to playing folk clubs and coffeehouses around Philadelphia. In the fall of 1994, Melissa left the band to continue her studies at the University of Cambridge in England.

Tom, Jim and Helene continued as a trio for the next two and a half years, with new material and some new instruments. Helene switched from acoustic to a Zeta five-string electric violin. Jim put down the bass in favor of a Chapman Stick®, an unusual 12-stringed instrument resembling a combined bass and guitar. The band also became interested in eastern European music, and started arranging and performing more Balkan and Klezmer compositions. The trio recorded the third Broadside Electric CD in 1997, entitled More Bad News.