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Newish Horst Wünsche

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:01 pm
by Andy
Afternoon everyone,

Around the middle of July I started shopping around for a new Zither. While I thoroughly enjoy playing my Great Grandfathers Oscar Otto, I am less comfortable taking it places with me. I figure it would be safer to leave the antique at home and find something less irreplaceable to play on a day to day basis.

Fortunately for me while emailing with Frank Meinel over at Horst Wünsche about used Zithers, he received one of theirs from 1996 to refurbish. This week it finally arrived and it was well worth the wait. The instrument is just gorgeous, and the sound is quite different from the old Oscar Otto. I think the fretted strings are a different material? (Bronze? Copper?).

An interesting thing to me is that the instrument is narrower, but with more strings. The spacing between the free strings is tighter, but it was easy to adjust. The fretted strings are also much easier on the fingers, but I’m not sure if that’s just calluses at this point. Anyway, I just wanted to share. I’ve attached pictures and a side by side, 1910 vs 1996.

- Andy

Re: Newish Horst Wünsche

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 4:40 pm
by NutmegCT
Hi Andy - congratulations on the new family member!

Could you give a bit more detail on "The fretted strings are also much easier on the fingers"? I don't understand what you mean. Less tension so easier to press down? or softer material (nylon vs. metal)? or strings are closer to frets so less "distance" to press them? or ...?

Thanks.
Tom M.

Re: Newish Horst Wünsche

Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 7:22 am
by Rudy Mueller
WOW!!!

Re: Newish Horst Wünsche

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 9:45 am
by Andy
Morning Tom!

It seems like the fretted strings don’t require quite as much force to achieve good sound. What stood out the most to me was the Bb on the A string. The strings themselves are the same on both instruments. I think the issue comes down to some wear on the fret, I had to press the string in a very particular way to stop it from buzzing. The new instrument does not seem to have that issue.

- Andy

Re: Newish Horst Wünsche

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:26 pm
by NutmegCT
Thanks Andy. Looks and sounds like you have a winner!

Tom M.