Hello group, being a pretty new member I still get bedazzled at the sight of a beautiful Zither. I'm not sure if it has been discussed before, but is anyone familiar with Ron Cook Studios out of California? I've never met or spoke with him, but it appears he is a very experience luthier and has taken on some pretty intense/impressive Zither restoration projects. He has a large series of PDF "Repair Logs" where he describes with words and photos how he went about it. You can check these out at: https://www.roncookstudios.com/repair%20logs.htm

Enjoy,
- Bruce

Bruce-

One of my neighbors had Mr. Cook refurbish an old zither some years ago, and the neighbor subsequently gave me his instrument. I have no idea what my neighbor paid Mr. Cook, but I did see the email correspondence of work in process. Let me give you my candid unvarnished opinion. Seeing the results of my neighbor's zither that was returned to him following refurbishment at the Cook Studio, and my having had two of my antique zithers refurbished by Mr. Sasha Radicic of St Louis, MO, I can tell you that your money would be far better spent with Mr. Radicic's superb work with repair, refinishing and re-stringing. Needless to say, I passed my neighbor's zither on to someone else.

Thanks for the 'words to the wise. I guess experience trumps theory!

Hobbyop wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 8:37 am Thanks for the 'words to the wise. I guess experience trumps theory!

Hello Bruce,

I've had a look at Ron Cook's site. In spite of others' negative opinion about his work, I think that his site is not a bad place to gain some knowledge on zither repair.

There are two important questions, however. One, the course of action you choose when you repair a fault or a damage, two, the quality of your work. You can do more harm than good to a damaged instrument if you choose the easy way to repair it instead of a more difficult, but better solution. And even if you choose the right way of action, you can ruin the instrument with lousy execution.

From Ron Cook's site you can learn some repair techniques, but I don't always agree with his approach. Sometimes he does a quick fix instead of a more correct, historical approach. It all depends on the value of the instrument, of course, but I think, in the end it always pays to choose the perfect solution. Careful consideration, choosing the right scheme and its flawless execution are the most important factors if you want to bring back an old instrument to its original splendour.

Attila

What an excellent site....Thank-you!!

Very interesting. You may want to check out the article "Visit with Andreas Waldschütz April 2013" on page 2 of this "Repairs and Restorations" section.

Rudi

Rudy Mueller wrote: ↑Mon Feb 07, 2022 8:18 am Very interesting. You may want to check out the article "Visit with Andreas Waldschütz April 2013" on page 2 of this "Repairs and Restorations" section.

Rudi

Thanks Rudi.....looks like his site is 'down' at the moment.
I'll certainly try again later.

Kev