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Does this Marx count?

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 12:07 pm
by mattochan
Hey All,

I found this Marx Pianophone at an estate sale. Is this regarded by the community as a zither? If not, is there a forum fo instruments like this? Would standard zither strings would be suitable to use on this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Matt

Re: Does this Marx count?

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:20 pm
by Rudy Mueller
Try "googling" Marx Pianophone" for lots of references. No, this is not a "concert" or "alpine" zither.

Where are you located? Milwaukee County Historical Society has just opened an exhibit entitled "200 years of Milwaukee Music", as cited in Milwaukee Journal "TAPDAILY" section of 1/10/17. Their sites may have some direction.

Some early American cultural/re-enactment groups may be interested.

Rudi

Re: Does this Marx count?

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 11:44 pm
by mattochan
Hey Rudi,

Thanks for the info. I'm in Chicago so I could definitely get to Milwaukee. I'll check that out.

Best
Matt

Re: Does this Marx count?

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 8:57 am
by Rudy Mueller
Per Kurt E, any NO-NECKED string instrument would fall into the zither family. This would include all of the autoharps, dulcimers, hackbrett, the concert zither, Japanese Quing (??), etc.

The only one with more than 20 strings and is fretted is the concert zither...and there are variants of the concert zither (Arion, Perfecta, etc.), and two basic tunings, Bavarian and Viennese.

Wikipedia has an excellent citation on "zither". r