Newbie here, building a 5-chord fretless zither
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 1:12 pm
I just discovered this forum, so I thought I'd introduce myself and my project. I'm 70 and retired, with almost no woodworking experience, and what little music knowledge I remember from taking piano lessons as a kid.
After building a cigar box guitar and discovering that my fingers are too fat and stubby to work on a fret board, I stumbled on a you tube video of Etienne de Lavaulx playing a fretless 5-chord zither and realized here's an instrument I can probably learn to play. So I found a beat up old wreck of a Menzenhaur model 2-1/2 on ebay with the idea of restoring it. Once I got it, however, I saw that it was a hopeless case. Back and soundboard not just split, but broken; pins loose in the pin block, paint flaking off, and so on. So instead, I decided to take it apart, measure the pieces, and build a copy from scratch. I wasn't worried about sacrificing the instrument since the model 2-1/2 was a cheap mass-produced zither sold in the Sears catalog around the early 1900s and even today, it's as common as dirt.
I picked up a 1" piece of maple wide enough for the widest piece at the local home improvement center and set to work cutting out the parts and pieces. I don't have much of a workshop, just a bench under the car port, and no power tools beyond a drill and a hand held jigsaw, so I'm using hand tools for almost everything. The original was 1" thick, but since I'm using standard 1-by two pieces laminated give me a thickness of 1-1/2 inches.
I don't have anything to show yet, but I plan to have the frame glued up and ready to photograph this weekend. Since I'm a beginner at this I'm probably making every mistake in the book, and discovering new mistakes to add to the book. But, hey, I'm having fun. And with a little bit of luck I will end up with a playable instrument.
After building a cigar box guitar and discovering that my fingers are too fat and stubby to work on a fret board, I stumbled on a you tube video of Etienne de Lavaulx playing a fretless 5-chord zither and realized here's an instrument I can probably learn to play. So I found a beat up old wreck of a Menzenhaur model 2-1/2 on ebay with the idea of restoring it. Once I got it, however, I saw that it was a hopeless case. Back and soundboard not just split, but broken; pins loose in the pin block, paint flaking off, and so on. So instead, I decided to take it apart, measure the pieces, and build a copy from scratch. I wasn't worried about sacrificing the instrument since the model 2-1/2 was a cheap mass-produced zither sold in the Sears catalog around the early 1900s and even today, it's as common as dirt.
I picked up a 1" piece of maple wide enough for the widest piece at the local home improvement center and set to work cutting out the parts and pieces. I don't have much of a workshop, just a bench under the car port, and no power tools beyond a drill and a hand held jigsaw, so I'm using hand tools for almost everything. The original was 1" thick, but since I'm using standard 1-by two pieces laminated give me a thickness of 1-1/2 inches.
I don't have anything to show yet, but I plan to have the frame glued up and ready to photograph this weekend. Since I'm a beginner at this I'm probably making every mistake in the book, and discovering new mistakes to add to the book. But, hey, I'm having fun. And with a little bit of luck I will end up with a playable instrument.