Merry Christmas from me and Waldo

  1. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I try to coax Waldo into playing a couple of Christmas tunes:


    Waldo says my fingers must be too short and fat.

    You can also see the video here: http://honketyhank.com/2018/12/22/ch...reetings-2018/

    Merry Christmas and Good Mandolinning to All for 2019.
  2. MikeZito
    MikeZito
    Cool instrument, nice video. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas.
  3. Louise NM
    Louise NM
    You two are sounding quite festive. Interesting to dig into the history of some of these old, traditional songs to see what you can find.
  4. bbcee
    bbcee
    Looks like you were able to coax Waldo just fine! Nice restoration and sound - and thanks for the history!
  5. Swimbob
    Swimbob
    Thank you for that very informative little video, Hank. Oh, and thank Waldo as well.
  6. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Very nice sound you get out of your Waldo, Hank.
    I like these instruments a lot. My Thuringian Waldzither is only 70 years old. Because of the open tuning it sounds well with double stops or chords thrown in.
    And have yourself a nice time with your instruments in 2019
  7. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I admit that I do not have Waldo tuned "properly". I currently have the four pairs tuned like a mandola with the ninth string a low G. This makes it easy to transfer mandolin logic over to Waldo as long as I can reach the notes. But it is an instrument that was originally intended to be strummed, not picked. So an authentic tuning would probably be an open chord that would ring out like a church organ with all stops pulled. I may experiment with that.

    But if you pick it gently, it will generate its own volume without getting all jangly like a zither is supposed to do. Plus I made that ebony bridge to replace the original glass bridge -- that tones down the jangly sound a bit too.

    The more I play on Waldo, the more I learn and the more I like it. Too bad it was so badly treated in the past, but then if it hadn't looked like a lost cause it would have had a higher price on it and I wouldn't have given it a second look.
  8. Sleet
    Sleet
    Beautiful Waldzither, Henry. Good rescue. I have also a Christmas CD with a vocal of your first tune, quite lovely.

    We moved from our farm a couple days ago so I'm in a fortress of packing boxes waiting to be unloaded. As a friend help convey a couple of mandolins, fiddles and concertina to the car, I remarked that it's a good thing I didn't take up piano. Got to love an instrument so portable in these situations.
  9. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    You and Waldo did a great job, Henry. Thanks for the video and Happy New Year!
  10. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Thanks guys. Waldo says he is ready for a nap. Don't want to put too much wear on his strings. Changing them is real special chore.
  11. bbcee
    bbcee
    Ugh, you got that right, Hank. I just changed mine, and I'm too embarrassed to post a pic of the mess I made!
  12. Louise NM
    Louise NM
    A "real special chore." That phrase says all you need to know right there!
  13. mandoweather
    mandoweather
    Thanks for sharing. Sounds great and really enjoyed the explanation about the tune.
  14. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Louise, in reply to your question on the TOM thread:


    Theoretically, one could tune it without the clock key, but it is not very practical. Portuguese instruments usually don't have the square end for a key but the tuning shafts are longer and staggered so they can have bigger knurled tuning knobs. I bought at least three different clock keys on eBay to get one that fit nicely.
  15. Louise NM
    Louise NM
    That looks like one for-sure engineering fail!
  16. bbcee
    bbcee
    Interesting, Hank - are you winding the ends yourself? I thought about buying a winder, but decided to just knot them on the tuner side (I'm using ball ends wedged between the tailpiece posts). Boy Scouts was a LONG time ago, I think you'd agree, if you saw my work!!
  17. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Yes. I wind them myself. In the photo you can see my winding on the two highest strings. All the others have my wound loops down at the tailpiece. I used a vise-grip pliers to hold the two sides of the loop, then a screwdriver to turn the windings. There was a video recently on the main forum on doing this, which I also found last year and learned from. If you can't find the right guage strings in loop end, you can use a wire cutter pliers to cut out the ball in a ball end string.

    The handmade loops at the tailpiece are really snaggy. They'll draw blood and rip shirt sleeves. So I use velcro strip to cover the snags and also dampen some of the stray vibrations down there.
  18. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    test of image posting from within group:



    well that did work but I didn't like the method. Mark has suggested a better way in the following post. El Jefe has expressed his displeasure over the method I had been using to post pictures here, so I have been looking for alternatives.

  19. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    You can post it a couple other ways without using an external site, Henry. Oops, I see that for whatever reason, Scott is unhappy about one of them, LOL.

    Anyway, there is another way. You can go to your profile and create an album to put them in. Just use the My Profile link at top of page, and follow the menu in left column of your profile.
  20. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    O wow. I wondered what that "album" thing was good for, and if anything, wondered how it worked. Was blind. But now IC.

    The following is from my new album, which is fittingly named My Albumin (no yoke):

  21. JH Murray
    JH Murray
    Haven't heard Noel used in many decades here in Canada. Carol has become the default melody in all our hymn books. Thanks for the reminder of a beautiful melody.
  22. Swimbob
    Swimbob
    Also nice to see someone else still remembers Walt Kelly.
Results 1 to 22 of 22