Sound Quality of a Meinel or a Horst Wuensche model

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JRCOLS
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Sound Quality of a Meinel or a Horst Wuensche model

Post by JRCOLS »

For those of you who own an older Adolf Meinel zither, does that model have a markedly different tone or sound personality as opposed to other zither makes? Does your Horst Wuensche zither sound any different than the other models? Do the fretted or Griffbrett strings sound any louder, or warmer in either of these two makes of zither? I have heard many recordings where the Meinel zither seems to sound different. Could it also be in the quality of the microphone used? This issue of sound quality fascinates me, as it defines the "personality" of a specific zither model (other than the type of strings or type of Zither Ring used).
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Dave
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Re: Sound Quality of a Meinel or a Horst Wuensche model

Post by Dave »

I've had a recent correspondence with Sasha Radicic regarding this. From him I gather that the internal bracing system used and the relationship of the thickness of the top and back of the instrument are among the top factors that contribute to a zither's tone quality. Here are some of his thoughts on the subject:

"German zithers share the same acoustical principles as guitars, but it is totally different animal so to speak. Zither sides are five times thicker than guitar sides, and the torque from the zither strings is enormous, maybe ten or more times than a guitar! We are speaking here of huge tension versus a relatively small framework, and we want our zither top to be as free as possible. It's a very tricky thing to do! It is all about the thickness of the top and back, adequate size of the braces used and their proper positioning on the top. The back side is another important part of it, but I think that the top side and braces are of the utmost importance.

Both, the top and back, are not the same thickness and each one needs to be calibrated and tuned to a specific pitch by the builder. A luthier usually tapers the thickness of either top or back so it stays the thickest in the middle and gets thinner toward the edges. This really takes a lots of experience, building many instruments and gaining only one thing: the feeling of a spruce top between the thumb and fingers and many hours of scraping, sanding and listening to tap tones!

What is most challenging, every zither top ends up with a different thickness because wood is such an unpredictable material to work with! If you cut several tops from the same trunk, you will find out that all of them will have a different sound and pitch. Nothing is easy!"
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