Virtually all the old instruments were made with hide glue as this was the most available glue to use. It has many benefits, one the best is the ease with which you can get pieces apart. A little steam and heat and things come apart very easily and cleanly. Titebond, sometimes called alphatic resin ...

Hi Tom, All very true. The violin operates very differently from guitars or zithers. Violins have a soundpost which acts as a fulcrum around which the top and back move. The string is given constant energy by the bow. Guitars have a bridge which drives the top but the energy dissapates fairly quickl...

Zithers are not violins and operate very differently. They are not guitars either. The soundbaord on the zither is actually the back. Zithers are low tension instruments and the plates are much thicker than violins or guitars. They have been mounting bridges on zithers the same way since the instrum...

Most hammered dulcimer makers consider the top the soundboard. The same for the cymbalom. The back of a cymblaom is often many inches thick to help take the strain of the strings. I have used all sorts of pickups over the years. I had an interior mounted transducer in one but it wasn't great. The so...

With regard to Rudi's question about that top Ab on the accompaniment strings, I do know that violinists prefer not to use open strings becasue of the difference in sound and the inability to use vibrato. Thus a key like Eb is attractive for a lot of waltzes etc. Having the high Ab makes the key of ...

The thumb rings I use I got from Zapf's decades ago. The part that goes around the thumb tends to dig in to where my nail meets the flesh so I take a pair of needle nose pliers and bend a slight curve there so it won't dig in. On the other end, the part that strikes the string, I round and smooth th...

I've worked out a few tunes with contrapuntal lines played on the accompaniement and bass strings. Dixie works out especially well and you can gussy up the chords a lot. I'm trying to find some time to write out some of my arrangements for Dave. O'Carolan tunes work out especially well for this appr...

Ideas about how to approach zither playing have changed a lot over the years. When I began playing, th eonly information I could find in English was the old book by A Darr published back in the 19th century. In that book they said to put the little finger of the right hand in a groove on the bridge ...

I've used my little finger so much that it has become part of my standard technique. I use it all the time for chords as well. As to the right thumb and my thumb pick, I use number two thumb rings which fit rather tightly. I take and bend the end that wraps around the thumb up a bit so it doesn't di...

I don't know about anyone else but I've used the pinkie ever since I started playing zither. I have found it very useful for grabbing all sorts of chords. I work out my scales two ways, the normal way you find in the books using the thumb and then using my little finger and forgetting about the thum...