Unknown harp zither and introduction from Hungary.

[attila57]

Hello Dear Zitherist Friends,

I'm a new member on this forum. My name's Attila, I'm 57, and I live in Budapest, Hungary. I'm a biologist and biology teacher by education, but I've done many other things in life, too. I'm a nature, sports and music enthusiast. For long time I was a pro athlete, but I had to give up because of a mountaineering accident. Then I turned full face towards music, a longtime interest since my youth. I bought a grand piano and re-started practicing like a maniac, but soon I realised that keys were too mechanical to my liking. Still, I learnt a lot and, in the end, I successfully restored and sold my concert instrument to a pianist, which was a great achievement. Then, about 20 years ago, I picked up the guitar, and that has really become my love of an instrument. First I started with songs and accompaniment, then I realised classical music was what I really needed. Since then I have got hold of a lot of various guitars and have played different genres, Baroque, classical, Romantic, flamenco etc. I have 6-, 7-, 8-, 10.string classical guitars, flamenco guitars, a Baroque lute, even a chromatic button accordion for the keyboard parts, and recently I've been dreaming about a 32-string harp guitar, which I'm planning to get built by a luthier friend. I've got involved in lutherie, too, and occasionally I do my own guitar and lute repairs. I did setups first, bridge, saddle and bone jobs, then I dared to touch the instrument itself and now I can confidently level, crown or change frets, level, plane or replace fretboards, glue up cracks or a broken neck, do a French polishing job and many other repairs. At the same time I realised, that for mastering my future harp guitar I would need to build up confidence with multistring instruments. That's how I stumbled into the ZITHER. By now I've fallen in love with it, too, and I'm certain that this instrument has the same potential as the guitar. I don"t really understand why it isn't so popular as the guitar. A zither is smaller, lighter and more transportable than the guitar and it is capable to express just as many feelings and emotions. Perhaps the number of strings is frightening to beginners. Who knows, but it was a very fashionable instrument in the 19th century, even in royal courts, so there's definitely no reason for being afraid of it.

Whatever the cause of their obscurity, at present in my country concert zithers, harfenzithers, alpine zithers and the like are not very well-known instruments. We have our Hungarian zither, but it is a completely different animal. Now, when I'm about to buy an alpine-style zither, I'm facing a serious problem, all available specimens here are, in fact, museum antiques from the period of the Austro-Hungarian empire, presumably recycled from waste dumping sites, estate cleanouts or garage sales, needing a big investment in their restoration. As I'm not very experienced with zithers, I'd like to ask your advice about the one in the photos. It is up for sale for about 150 euros, and, as you can see, it needs complete restoration. Is it worth to buy such an antique instrument? I don't need it for an ornament, I'd like to play Bach and Weiss music on it. I've only seen it in the photos, but from what I see I presume that it was stored in a basement or a similar mouldy place, and the metal parts are all covered with corrosion. The "furnier" seems to have come up in several places from the top, and the I'm sure the tuning pegs and the machine need cleaning, too. The fretboard seems to be made of ebony, but I'm sure it needs leveling, maybe crack filling, and the frets would need to be replaced with stainless steel ones anyway. I just presume that the internal ribs are sound, but the bridge and the saddles definitely need much work, along with the guide pins. I don't know what type of strings to put on it if I eventually succeed in buying and repairing it. What do you think? Should I go to see it, or should I forget it because it isn't worth the effort? Should I go for it, take it as it is, should I bargain for it (how much is it worth?) or should I rather buy a new instrument from the Wünsche workshop? What I'd really like is an altzither, that would be nice for the Baroque repertoire, but it's rather expensive, I'm afraid. Apart from the price of a new instrument, my biggest worry is mailing it from Germany to my country and not being able to actually try the instrument first. As for the antique piece, I could (and should) do the restoration myself (there are no alpine zither specialists here), but I'd rather play music than spend a lot of precious time repairing a worthless crap. Please help with your experience and expert advice. Any input or comment, long or short, would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your kind attention and reply.

Attila

[Kennethpauls]

Hey thanks for the stories, and welcome to the zither group. I am not a luthier and hopefully another member can comment on how much will be necessary / what the costs are involved- for restoring this instrument…. but, it’s pretty awesome looking! And really original design. If you do decide to purchase it and do the restoration, please keep us up to date on its completion. I think it’s quite unique. Good luck!
KP

[kenbloom]

Hi Attila, what is pictured here is a pefekta zither which is what you call an instrument with the contra-basses shooting off at that angle. As perfekta zithers go, it is unusual in that the highest contra bass string crosses the bass strings further over than is usual but it is still a notable instrument. It does need a lot of work but it sounds like you wuld be perfectly capable of doing that work. It really depends on details that you can't see in the photos. If some of the veneer has lifted, that can be repaired by applying heat and mositure to the affected area. A damp cloth and the use of an iron should do that. If all the glue joints are solid and it looks like the braces are still in place and solid then it would probably be worth it to fix up. It would then just be a matter of cleaning, polishing and restringing. For restringing I would us Bergfe green strings. they are great sounding and lower tension which you need for a perfekta zither. I have two perfektas and the Bergfe green does well on both of them.
Perfekta zithers don't come up very often. The advantage is much easier access to the contra bass strings which is wonderful for me. I too am a guitar player but limit myself to six and seven strings there. You won't need to replace the frets here. they are very different from what you have on guitar being bar frets. All you should have to do is file and recrown them. The fretboard may be ebony but it could also be dyed birch. You see both. If it has cracks, it is probably ebony. Just fill the cracks and polish it. If the joints are solid, the price is certainly reasonable. You can't go wrong with a zither from Wunshe but they are pricey. If you have more questions, please feel free to ask. You can post them here or write me directly at kbloom1@triad.rr.com. I'll do my best to anser them and welcome to the forum!

Ken Bloom
http;//www.boweddulcimer.org

[Rudy Mueller]

Vorsicht! Take care!

My real treasure is a Meinel and Herold bought off ebay.de, delivered within the EU, for less than the price of taking our grandkids to MacDonald's for breakfast here in the U.S. Without case, no problem. The real bite is the strings. (How will you string this thing?? Who knows how to string it ??) if you are still remaining in the EU, check out Schneider.

If you are dedicated to breathe life into an antique, you may want to contact academic musicians in Budapest, Vienna and/or Prague, (I have no contacts!); if those fail, Andi in Mittenwald, perhaps others, some in the U.S., referred to at other places on this site.

Rudi, da oida

Learning.....if you are not moving forward, you are moving downstream....to the deep water....

[attila57]

Hello Kenneth, Ken and Rudi,

Thanks for your replies! They're an invaluable feedback and encouragement on this bumpy road. I'll let you all know how it goes with the zither and the learning, too.

All the best,

Attila

[Carmen]

Dear Attila,
this perfekta Zither looks very old and like you need to do a lot of work. Plus, depending on how long this instrument just layed in its case, you might have difficulties with the wood, tuning, ...
As a university trained Zither teacher living in Munich, Germany, I'd say: let it go and let's find another "newer" one and ship it from Germany or Austria to Hungary. You also wouldn't have string issues.

I am not sure how much you want to spend on it, but you could always ask at "Music store Hartwig" if they ship one of their second hand Zithers. This music store is specialized in Zithers and Guitars. They restore the instruments before re-selling. Usually my students get 10% off diverse things, maybe also on instruments.
https://www.musik-hartwig.de/zither/gebrauchtzithern/

I'd be very happy to help you find an instrument. just drop me a line: carmenamrein@yahoo.de

[attila57]

Dear Attila,
this perfekta Zither looks very old and like you need to do a lot of work. Plus, depending on how long this instrument just layed in its case, you might have difficulties with the wood, tuning, ...
As a university trained Zither teacher living in Munich, Germany, I'd say: let it go and let's find another "newer" one and ship it from Germany or Austria to Hungary. You also wouldn't have string issues.

I am not sure how much you want to spend on it, but you could always ask at "Music store Hartwig" if they ship one of their second hand Zithers. This music store is specialized in Zithers and Guitars. They restore the instruments before re-selling. Usually my students get 10% off diverse things, maybe also on instruments.
https://www.musik-hartwig.de/zither/gebrauchtzithern/

I'd be very happy to help you find an instrument. just drop me a line: carmenamrein@yahoo.de

Dear Carmen,

Thank you very much for your kind reply! I'm glad to tell you that I didn't have to let the Perfekta go, but it let me go instead. I'll just explain. Apparently, the advertisement was a catch to strip buyers off their money. The instrument itself doesn't exist, they are selling the picture only...

Anyway, I'm not upset, because its restoration would've been a major job. I'm planning to buy a newer, better instrument, preferably an altzither. At this stage I"m making a research on the net about the existing types, models, makers of zither. And I'm not completely without instrument either, because I've bought a small antique concertzither, which is in a reasonable condition, but still needs repair. It's not playable yet, but it wasn't expensive and it's good for getting to know the basics, being close to the instrument, learning to do some repairs and keeping up the spirits, I would say.

I'll just check the links you've given and I'll contact you if I make up my mind what kind of zither I'd like to get.

All the best and happy zithering!

Attila