Newish Horst Wünsche
Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:01 pm
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
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