What are the two extra holes for on my zither?

[joelgardner]

And done.

I took a piece of steel bar I had laying around and made myself a music stand. It is a heavier gauge steel than the original so I had to enlarge the holes. But i think it came out very nice.

Wire music stand for a Schmidt zither

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Zither music stand

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Music stand holding sheet music for playing in the original zither position.

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[NutmegCT]

Joel - looks good! If zither owners send you the distance between the two holes on their zithers (if their zithers have holes), you could provide the music racks. Good on you for tracing down the original idea.
Tom M.
PS - If you do start making them, you might want to use a smaller dimension wire, like what's used for some metal coat hangers. Then you wouldn't have to modify the original holes.

[joelgardner]

Thanks Tom!

If I come across some smaller guage steel I would consider making them by request. They are not difficult to bend in a vice. I also polished it up with steel wool, and then gave it a coating of floor wax to fill in the metal pores and keep it shiny for a few years.

I'm not sure if you have been following my other post in the restorations forum, but I also made a nice looking stand for it. I might make a case as well, I haven't decided yet.

[Rudy Mueller]

Before drilling holes in the instrument, you might want to consider mounting the note stand on the table, as described elsewhere on this site.

Does the instrument mounted stand affect acoustics?

rudi

[joelgardner]

Hi Rudi, thanks for the response.

Just to clarify, this is a replica of the original note stand that would have come with this zither.

The holes were factory drilled through the outer frame of the instrument body outside of the tuning pin holes. Most zithers I have seen were manufactured with these holes for this purpose as well.

Just like the tuning pin holes, they do not go into the resonance chamber or effect the tone. I did enlarge the holes slightly to accept a sturdier wire stand, but that was my only modification.