Musima chord zither

[eller]

I promised zither pics, didn't I?



This "Musima" 3-chord zither is a relatively new instrument, built in 1987 in the former GDR. (I'm calling it relatively new because, frankly, not many zithers are being built these days.) You may notice that 3 chords (C, F, G) are not very many. While this immediately invites all kinds of communism jokes (it's the GDR, they couldn't afford more chords... you know, you know), in this particular case it's not that they ran out of tones. Rather, it's an instrument intended for children. It's almost normal-sized (it has to be, considering the length of the strings demanded by physics) and - very unusually - has a full chromatic (!) scale. (Typical chord zithers tend to have ten tones per octave. This one actually has twelve. It's a bit weird, but, okay. I'll have to get used to it.)

Ahem.

Anyway - I got this one not because I expected to receive a good instrument (it's a GDR product, ffs!) but because I liked the design. The flower motif is a classic - this particular combination of flowers (poppy, cornflower, ...) isn't chosen randomly but represents the typical flowers you'd find growing on the edge of a grain field. As a whole, this design represents something like a good harvest or, more generally, prosperity. It's very common in German folk art. It's less common to put it on a bright orange background, though. XD I think the designer chose this a) to make the instrument more appealing to young girls, and b) because orange is associated with autumn and harvest, too, so it's strangely appropriate. I think it's a really cool design!

The sound quality is... Well. I wonder why-oh-why this sounds like a badly made plywood box with some wires. (It's bad plywood, too...) At least it's in good shape - no cracks in the wood, no rust on strings or pins. Of course, I wasn't able to tune it yet (you know how it is with wood instruments: they need to get used to the new room climate for a few weeks first; otherwise, they will be ruined), and actually playing it is going to be difficult because of the weird tuning, but it's a cute instrument for sure! :3

Comments

[yhlee]

Sound quality aside, how lovely! :D Thank you for the explanation of the flowers' meaning. :D

[yhlee]

Genuine question: how do you tell good zither sound quality from bad? I don't have in-person familiarity with this instrument so I honestly can't tell. :p

[eller]

Eh, good question! :D I think it's the same as with other string instruments. There are some basic quality criteria (like, does anything rattle if you shake the instrument? Do the strings produce any weird buzzing? If this is the case, you may have a problem. LOL) and some advanced criteria like clarity of tone, volume, and so on... Kind of like you can tell it with a guitar: a cheap instrument will just sound, uh, thin.

[yhlee]

Ah, thank you! That makes a lot of sense. I'm used to a different timbre with (classical) guitar so without having heard more zithers, my ability to judge this is nonexistent, but "thin" and "does anything rattle" are criteria I am familiar with. (My last classical guitar, a flood casualty, I could rarely bring myself to play because it RATTLED and it drove me nuts. It was a $100 3/4 instrument and needless to say not very good...)

[eller]

My guitar is a 3/4, too (the curse of small hands!), and - because it's actually an okayish one - nothing rattles, but that's the best that can be said about the thing, really. It just sounds... thin thin thin THIN. ;_;