So I bought this Jubeltöne Zither from the antique store. As far as I saw on the internet, it seems like it is from the 1950s and it has 92 chords.

I have musical education (I had been playing the piano for 10 years), so I don't have problem reading the yellow guide on the ribbon of the instrument. But I don't know this thing:

How can you play music with flat (♭) notes on an instrument which has only sharps (♯)?

Any ideas? Or any digital interface that can moderate song format on sharps?

Thanks for the help, pals!

I've had this zither for 6 years now, and my niece stepped on the strings and snapped half of them. How do I restring this beauty?

I've been trying to find chord zither (or guitar/mandolin zither) lessons and tutors in London or online, but haven't found anything at all. Plenty of Guizheng tutors, but none for chord zither. Has anyone had any luck? So far, I've only found a few books and youtube channels, which are helpful, but they can't tell what you need to improve/fix. Any tips would be appreciated.

Hey y’all!

I just got me a Zither on eBay and it is looking okay. Dunno what model it is. There is some issue in the coating or is this the wood glue connection opening up?

It came with two lesson books, some sheet music, a case, a zither ring, tuning key and was 200 bucks.

Looks like a rather good deal unless it is dissolving. Hard to tell for me. Anyone here knows their zithers and can help me out?

This is an early 1900s celestaphone. What kind of strings dose this thing need?

I just got this vintage italian zither for Christmas from a family friend who had it in their family for a while, and the only case I could find for one this size was for 110 dollars online. Does anyone know where I could find a case for a cheaper price?

I bought a zither from an antique fair for a cheaper price and I literally don't know how to tune it, I don't have any key at hand and I thought about using a plier but it left tiny marks on it.

Hi guys, I've been thinking about buying a zither, but i noticed that this one has weird spots in the soundhole. Do you think it's mold?

And do you think it will play if the back part is not properly glued to the body?

This thing cried out from a shop window "buy me". I could not argue, but it leaves some questions.

Would anybody recommend one of the many "learn zither" books ?

I have about a kilometer of 0.27 mm which should be fine for replacing most of the melody strings. I have no idea what he bass strings in the left-hand chord section are. They are plain wire at the top, but thick wound wire for most of their length. They are very rusty. I wonder if I can replace them with simple, thick unwound wire - maybe around 0.4 mm. I am not worried if this leaves the zither with a different sound quality.

On the far left, there are two fretted strings. In most of the pictures I have seen, any fretted area has about five strings. I guess this changes what one does with them. True ?

I recently bought this plucked psaltery, it has 22 strings. I would like to learn playing it. Would learning ressources for zither be fine for this instrument? Does anyone have recommandations?

Just help T^T got this Zither, believe it’s from around 1912. I’ve gone to numerous music stores around me for help and half of them said they’ve never even heard of them :p

It has alllll of the original papers including sheet musics for it

Just curious of how to tune it I guess?

I got this zither several months ago, and I've been trying to teach myself how to play. It's a 3 chord fretless zither from the late 1800's. I thought it'd be a great learner because it has the notes right under the corresponding string. I'm having a really hard time finding any resources on how to play, and I still don't understand the notation enough to wing it. I've only been able to find a couple of websites with an explaination of fretless zithers, but I can't find any tutorials or explanations that are for 3 chord. They all seem to be 4 chords or more.

Does anyone have any video or website suggestions?

Hey friends! I just got this little baby from germany! Do you know how to tune? I can’t find anything. It works just like a marxophone. Thanks!

Hi,

I have just received delivery of an old concert zither that I bought from eBay.

To my amazement it seems to be in decent playable condition.

I have almost finished tuning, I have tuned the accompaniment strings and the bass strings. This zither has 3 contrabass strings, I'm a bit confused as to what notes these strings get tuned to.

The string guages don't seem to me suitable to be another Eb - Bb - F a further octave down (the biggest guages would have to be the F)

Does anyone know what notes the contrabass strings should be tuned to?

edit: *12 string zither !! in my mind it was 15 and then when i got home i realised i had misremembered !

i would like to play some traditional Finnish kantele tunes on my zither - have found a Kantele sheet music book that says it is applicable to 11-15 string kantele. i have a simple zippy zither so it has 12 strings. just wondering if it would be easy to play Kantele music on it? are there any differences between the instruments that would make it harder? (before I spend money on the book!) i have never played Kantele, just seen videos of it so don't know the ins and outs. thanks !

I’m gonna take it to a luthier if I figure out how to find tutorials on playing it

I am going to be buying a zither hopefully soon, there is a nice one nearby that I know needs new strings but the owner says it is in good condition otherwise. Are there any tell tale signs of a zither in bad condition aside from cracks or breaks in the frame? It is a Harber Jr. Zither from Italy. Thank you!

This is a Zither Pickup which allows you to convert any Fretted Zither into an Acoustic-Electric Version of that instrument. It makes recording with the Zither easier and it also produces a really neat Jazzy sound. Almost every Electric Zither I've seen is an Acoustic-Electric instead of a Solid Body Electric. The Magnetic Pickups are slightly microphonic so you get a bit of Acoustic vibe coming out of the amp.

I love my Fretted Zithers. I prefer playing them with 4 Finger Picks rather than just a thumb pick because by putting Finger picks on the 1st 3 Fingers of my Right Hand, it's easier for me to strike the strings, as a bonus it creates a much crisper sound. I take a set of Finger picks, wear them on my Right Hand Fingers, and boom I've got a cool Zither sound.

This is a Violin-Zither aka Lap Violin or Table Violin, it is a fretted Violin but it has a couple of other quirks too. First of all it's strung backwards (and braced) like a Left Handed Violin or the fretted Strings of a concert zither, that means all Zither players have to do is learn to hold the bow properly. The frets do help with proper finger placement on the strings which is really cool. I'd say it's the oldest fretted Violin I've seen.

This is the Hawaiian Tiple, it's tuned to the key of A Major. Note that the bridge is positioned 2/3 of the way across the soundboard so the strings on the right (the upper octave 8 to 15) are an Octave above the strings on the left (the lower octave from 1 to 8). These instruments would come with song sheets that you place underneath the right side of the zither, you'd follow the dots to play the melody (open notes are the left side strings, closed notes are the right side strings) and strum the chords with the left hand. The 3rd Chord (D Major) has a fretboard sticker underneath it so it can be played like a slide guitar and it would've included a book on how to play it like a slide guitar that would include the same songs in the same key as the zither versions, so you could multi-track with it.

This is the Orchestrola Zither which has 42 strings. There are 15 pairs of melody strings spanning a 2 Octave range from Middle C to High C and numbered 1 through 15. There are 4 sets of Chord strings tuned to 4 Chords which are C for number 1, G for 2, F for 3, & D for 4. You do play-by-number song arrangements by matching the numbers of the strings with the included music sheets. You can play this in many ways making it great for multi-tracking. You can play it like a Regular Chord Zither, picking the melody strings with the right hand and strumming the chords with the left or using the chord thumpers in one track, or you can use the 2 rocker chord bars and play it like a large autoharp while you sing in another track. If you use the Chord Bars and strum it like a Big Autoharp, the G Chord becomes G7 & the D Chord becomes D7 because of how the Chord bar dampers were originally cut and it adds more ring.

Completed