Zither Music Company

[Capt. E]

I may need to get one of these. Featured recently on "Texas Country Reporter", The "Zither Music Company" makes 2 kinds of 4 string electrics, a mini "solid body upside down dulcimer" diatonic tuned and a Tenor tuned CGDA like a mandola. Neko Case, Elvis Costello and Sting all have one of the Tenors. Cooool!

http://www.zitherusa.com/Zither/Welcome.html

[delsbrother]

Is he saying those people play HIS tenors, or just that they are tenor players? I've never seen Neko Case with one of those (at least in public; whether she plays one at home in her jammies, who knows). Sting and EC, eh, they probably have one of everything (and I don't want to think about them in their jammies). :)

[allenhopkins]

The "Mini" looks like a solid-body electric Strumstick (http://www.strumstick.com/) to me. Diatonic scale, so it doesn't work in more than one or two keys without retuning. The tenor might be interesting, though info on its pickup is a bit sparse, other than it's a "single coil Tele style." Price is pretty reasonable. You're in TX, can presumably try before buying -- let us know your "hands-on" reaction...

[Capt. E]

I may drop by and check them out next time I'm down around Brenham (1 hr from Austin). The mini looked like it could be tuned like a mandolin, though the frets may be spaced wrong...
Perhaps they should go for actually making an electric mandolin.

[Caleb]

I saw the episode (best show on TV!). Looks like a cool instrument and a nice little company. They had one on there a while back (years?) about an 80-year-old fellow who made guitars out of mesquite wood. The segment is (somewhere) on my blog (see sig).

[allenhopkins]

...The mini looked like it could be tuned like a mandolin, though the frets may be spaced wrong...
Perhaps they should go for actually making an electric mandolin.

(1) The Mini is basically a solid-body electric dulcimer, though with "reverse" stringing. On an Appalachian dulcimer, the bass strings are on the opposite side of the fretboard, from where they are on a guitar, banjo or mandolin. The Zither Co. instruments are strung, apparently, with the bass strings on the same side of the fretboard as a guitar -- hence the "reverse." The fretboard is also diatonic, rather than chromatic, which means it's "missing" some of the frets that your mandolin or guitar has; it only plays in one key, basically, unless you retune it, because some of the notes "aren't there." Buying one of those in hopes of using it as an electric mandolin won't work.

(Parenthetically, I have no idea for what market the Zither Mini was intended. Are there a lot of people out there who are looking for a solid-body electric dulcimer, with a guitar body and reverse stringing? Strangely, in 40+ years of playing acoustic string music, I've never met such a person. Maybe only in Texas...?)

(2) The Zither Co. seems to do quite a bit with making custom models, so why not suggest an electric mandolin (with a real mandolin scale and fretboard) to them? They could at least quote you a price.

(3) Finally, why would they call themselves "Zither," I wonder? By definition a zither is a neckless stringed instrument, one where the strings don't extend beyond the soundbox (dulcimer, Autoharp, piano, psaltery, hammered dulcimer etc.) The Zither Co. builds instruments with necks. Odd.

[Capt. E]

I dropped them an e-mail suggesting the "electric mandolin" possibility. We'll see how he responds.
The owner's thinking regarding the Mini is an instrument that is easy for anyone to play, much like a dulcimer itself, but has a rock and roll kind of look and cache. He seems to sell them pretty well.
I guess the classic dulcimer market is pretty well taken up, at least here in Texas. I can't remember his name, but I saw a program (probably Texas Country Reporter then as well) about a guy in East Texas who makes dulcimers that are very well regarded.

[Caleb]

I think the dulcimer guy's name is J. Pepper. I remember that episode.