I got my concert zither

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kiemnguyen

I got my concert zither

Post by kiemnguyen »

Today, I examine the whole thing carefully and took some photos.

1) The first thing is to look at the crack on the back (as shown in post#29), it is indeed the joint separation, it's perfectly straight and I guess due to the dryness, the wood contract and cause the joint to separate. The gap is about 0.010" max.
I doubt that I can use hot hide glue to reglue and clamp to close the gap (Imagine the back of a guitar got separated at the center line, same thing). I am thinking about filling this crack with epoxy to close it, knowing epoxy may not be a good choice.

2) The distance from fret zero to fret#12 is 8"1/8 and fret zero to "saddle" is 16"3/8 (so there are some saddle compensation)
However, the notes at fret#12 are sharp !!! I can hear it. This is an intonation issue for me to address (I deal with this on guitars and mandolins quite frequently)

3) I try to play a few tunes such as Silent Night, Tennessee Waltz (only the melody part) and manage to produce the tunes. But fretting is kind of awkward (will get used to this with a lot of practice) and very hard to fret the notes. I notice the strings are kind of heavy strings (instead of medium or light) compared to guitar steel strings. To reduce the tension I change the tuning (from CGDAA to GDAEE) and it is a bit easier to fret the notes.

4) also noticed the string action at fret#12 is 0.090" (2.25mm or 5.8/64"), on my guitar, the string action at the same distance from the nut is only 0.060" (4/64"). I will use lighter strings to see if the intonation issue at fret#12 goes away or not, if not, I will lower the saddle a bit. I also figure out a way to move the saddle, only if absolutely necessary, a bit farther from the fretboard to get good intonation. Guitar steel strings seem to be good for fretboard strings.

5) the tuning heads are "rectangular", not square, fortunately the tuning wrench is included in the box. I will make damn sure I NEVER lose it.

6) the instrument thickness is 1" and 1/4. Quite thinner than the mandolins (2" thick).

Below are the good things , including potential improvements:
1) the instrument is in excellent condition (other than the split on the back plate), the finish is pristine on the top and the back. A little touch up work will address some minor scratchs at the sides (I may leave them as is)

2) the hard case is in good shape, requiring only a few touch up as the (black) paint or stain got scratched. I intend to use the black fabric to cover the entire box with corner pieces (I built two hard cases for two of my keyboards this way), a small project for me to do

3) the fabric inside the case is sky blue in color, I plan to replace with red ones (another small project)

4) the brass handle is in perfect condition, just look antique (and I like that part)

5) steel strings (for acoustic guitar) can be used on the fretboard of this instrument and the ball end with a hole in the center perfectly match the pins on the bridge side. The other 26 strings (12 harmony strings, 12 bass strings and 2 contra-bass strings) appear to be steel string too. *** please let me know whether these are nylon or steel strings ***

I am very happy with this instrument (as I only paid 48$ for it, others listed on eBay have numerous defects and cost 200$ to 450$, some without hard cases). My wife is happy too as it looks beautiful and only cost peanuts, another subject she can brag with our friends.

For now, I have various Xmas music event rehearsals and won't be able to do much until next week (more likely next January).

I like to post some photos but don't know how to do this on this forum yet.
Other forums allows to select photos on the PC to be shown here.
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