Restoring My 1930s Schmidt 4 Chord Zither

[joelgardner]

Hello fellow zitherists,

I am starting this post to track my progress restoring a 1930s scroll and pillar style 4/15 zither made by Oscar Schmidt.

When tuning the strings for the first time in decades, the body began to pull apart from the back, the glue appears to be giving out. My first order of business was to remove the strings and tuning pins, and remove the back completely so it can be repeared with modern glue.

Which brought me to an interesting discovery. The sticker on the inside showed that the zither was marketed by F. A. Porter Co. of Chicago.

20230803_112429.jpg (435.46 KiB) Viewed 15069 times

But after pulling the back off i noticed this was not the only sticker inside.

20230803_214521.jpg (616.81 KiB) Viewed 15069 times

I held it up to the light and could just make.out another company name

20230803_214540.jpg (643.28 KiB) Viewed 15069 times

After a gentle bath in some warm water and dawn, I got the stickers to separate and found this -

20230803_232308.jpg (629.83 KiB) Viewed 15069 times

I have never heard of the U.S. Music Company, but I found this great answer that explain why it might have 2 stickers, and how they could both be subsidiaries of Schmidt Music and sold door to door at a discounted price without hurting the parent brand.
https://www.justanswer.com/antiques/4pt ... nited.html

I will post more as I go, lots of work to do to get this thing ready to play again.

[NutmegCT]

Joel - congrats on continuing your exploration.

I would be good to learn from other zitherists the pro's and con's of different repair techniques and wood glues.

How are you separating the old parts, cleaning, patching, clamping, gluing, etc.? What other instruments have you restored?

Tom M.

[joelgardner]

Thanks Tom!

I live in a historic home from the 1880s and do a lot of carpentry and restoration work on everything from paintings to toys and furniture. I also have a small collection of older musical instruments that I love to make musical again. Some are brass like a tuba and baritone, I have also done regluing and repairs to several modern guitars ukelele's and a banjo-uke from the 1930s.

Admittedly this is the most I have had to do to a wooden instrument. I chose this zither as my guinea pig because it is a lower cost version that already had disrepair and damage to the point that it was not playable. I am definitely leaning on my friends and resources that do these types of repairs professionally, and making contacts in the zither world for things unique to this instrument.

The glue on the body appears to be the hyde or hoof variety, it was already splitting and coming apart in several places and I was able to release the back using a misting water bottle and steam from a clothes iron. I used a steel spackle tool to work into the seams until they released.

I have a lot of wood clamps and i will be making a custom jig to get consistent pressure on all the edges when i put it back together.

The other piece I am tackling is removing the top layer of finish (likely linseed oil) which has darkened to the point that it is hard to see the decorative paint underneath. I will give it a modern protective coat once I get it cleaned up but i am still doing small tests on the end cap to see what will remove the top layer without damaging the color finish or paint.

Any tips and techniques I can get are always welcome!

[joelgardner]

For those of you following along at home I have some progress to report.

I purchased this zither last month on Facebook marketplace. It had never been played by the previous owner and had several major issues keeping it from being more than a wall hanging.

Structurally it was missing 2 strings, 2 other tuning pins were loose, and the body was separating from the back making it impossible to tension the strings or get any resonance from the body. There was also a crack in the wood all the way across the top.

Cosmetically it was very dirty, the wire nails were rusty. The detail painting was almost not visible because of the thick varnish that had darkened over the years. The varnish had also developed ridges and bumps that completely hid the original wood stain.

Weathered surface, possible linseed oil

20230814_202016.jpg (837.77 KiB) Viewed 14973 times

After a ton of reading on luthier and museum sites I began experiment8ng with removing the top layer of varnish.

I tried:
Turpentine
Xylene
Paint thinner
And mineral spirits

All using different techniques and time delays. Nothing would touch this stuff.

Finally today I hit the right mixture. I used Citristrip mixed 50/50 with water. Using a soft dry cloth I dipped it in the solution, wiped it gently on the varnish, and then with a clean rag, wiped a layer of varnish off. It takes 5 or so repetitions but it started to work.

Citristrip and water removing the linseed oil

20230814_202108.jpg (781.7 KiB) Viewed 14973 times

By working gently in thin layers I found I could preserve the detail paint and stain, after a couple of hours I was able to strip most of it off.

Linseed oil removed showing original stain and detail.

20230814_230813.jpg (636.24 KiB) Viewed 14973 times

I am very happy with the result, a few repairs and I will be ready to clear coat it to preserve the exposed color.

Next repair!

[joelgardner]

Next repair: that crack running across the top is going to keep the body from resonating like it should, and could buzz or break worse so I had to deal with it.

Here is one section with the crack

Crack in the top on bot sides of the sound hole

20230814_231855.jpg (719.08 KiB) Viewed 14973 times

On the top I lined the crack with painters tape to isolate it, put super glue in the crack, wiped the surface off and quickly removed the tape. I also clamped the body to hold it closed.

Painters tape to guide the superglue

20230814_231825.jpg (803.14 KiB) Viewed 14973 times

I also super glued the under side of the board and made some little butterfly bits for extra support.

20230814_231524.jpg (625.08 KiB) Viewed 14973 times

20230814_231539.jpg (334.48 KiB) Viewed 14973 times

Next it's time to reattach the back and touch up any visible wood that this operation exposed.

Hope this info helps.someone out there!

[joelgardner]

My zither is turning out more beautiful than I expected. More pics to come of the results, but I decided that if I am going to display this thing it needs a good table stand. I made this today.

Zither stand

20230817_224521.jpg (477.67 KiB) Viewed 14937 times

[joelgardner]

I also did my best to replicate the original music holder that is missing.

I posted this in the other forum, but I am adding it here so that the details of this restoration can be found in one place.

Music holder

20230817_200444.jpg (254.93 KiB) Viewed 14937 times

Mounted on my zither

20230817_200640.jpg (355.29 KiB) Viewed 14937 times

Seems to work.great

20230817_201100.jpg (443.71 KiB) Viewed 14937 times