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Thread: Is there any reson to buy a waldzither if you have a mandola?

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    Likes quaint instruments poul hansen's Avatar
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    Default Is there any reson to buy a waldzither if you have a mandola?

    Is there any reason to buy a waldzither if you have a mandolin, mandola and an octave mandolin?
    Kentucky KM-805..........2 Hora M1086 Portuguese II(1 in car)
    Hora M1088 Mandola.....
    Richmond RMA-110..... .Noname Bearclaw
    Pochette Franz Janisch...5 Pocket............Alfredo Privitera pocket
    Puglisi Pocket 1908........Puglisi 1912.......Puglisi 1917
    3 Mandolinetto ..............C.Garozzo
    1 Mandriola...................Cannelo G. Mandriola...Böhm Waldzither 1921
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    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is there any reson to buy a waldzither if you have a mandola?

    IMHO, if you can afford it, you should buy whatever calls out to you. I bought a flute a week ago, and I've never played a flute in my life.
    "To be obsessed with the destination is to remove the focus from where you are." Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

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    Default Re: Is there any reson to buy a waldzither if you have a mandola?

    Quote Originally Posted by Sue Rieter View Post
    IMHO, if you can afford it, you should buy whatever calls out to you. I bought a flute a week ago, and I've never played a flute in my life.
    Sure, i just wonder if it will give me any different sound/experience. I do buy whaatever I want but I have more than 40 string instruments by now :-)
    Kentucky KM-805..........2 Hora M1086 Portuguese II(1 in car)
    Hora M1088 Mandola.....
    Richmond RMA-110..... .Noname Bearclaw
    Pochette Franz Janisch...5 Pocket............Alfredo Privitera pocket
    Puglisi Pocket 1908........Puglisi 1912.......Puglisi 1917
    3 Mandolinetto ..............C.Garozzo
    1 Mandriola...................Cannelo G. Mandriola...Böhm Waldzither 1921
    Johs Møller 1945............Luigi Embergher Studio 1933
    Marma Seashell back......Luigi Embergher 5bis 1909

  5. #4
    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is there any reson to buy a waldzither if you have a mandola?

    Difficult to say. If you keep the original (open C) tuning of the waldzither, it's certainly a different experience than a mandola or octave mandolin. If tuned in fifths (or thereabouts), it's closer to the mandola but still usually with a rather different tone quality well suited to early music, for example. Here is a recent recording I made of a renaissance madrigal on a 1925 waldzither (not a Boehm), tuned GDAEA:


    https://youtu.be/aveim0FSMm0

    Martin

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    Default Re: Is there any reson to buy a waldzither if you have a mandola?

    I have several waldzitterns, and perhaps the best reason for me was to change (one of them) from a 9 to a 10 string instrument, making the lowest chore double strings. Obviously it needed a new set of tuning pegs for that, and it needed lot of work to make it playable and presentable again. So another reason to buy one is for the pleasure of repairing an old instrument and making it better. I now use it as a side instrument for outside, in an open tuning (ADAEA).

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    Registered User bbcee's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is there any reson to buy a waldzither if you have a mandola?

    I had a pluckthun(?) waldzither modified for use as an octave mandolin. The neck was really big, but it had a great, resonant sound. PM me if you'd like to know more, Poul!

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    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Is there any reson to buy a waldzither if you have a mandola?

    Quote Originally Posted by Marien View Post
    I have several waldzitterns, and perhaps the best reason for me was to change (one of them) from a 9 to a 10 string instrument, making the lowest chore double strings. Obviously it needed a new set of tuning pegs for that, and it needed lot of work to make it playable and presentable again. So another reason to buy one is for the pleasure of repairing an old instrument and making it better. I now use it as a side instrument for outside, in an open tuning (ADAEA).
    There are some waldzithers that were built as 10-strings from the start -- I have one of them (not the one in the video above)! On mine, the original string configuration was 2+2+2+2+1+1, i.e. two single bass strings, one of them fretted (as with other waldzithers) and one free, sitting outside the fretboard on a little ledge extending sideways from the nut. I've cut a new nut to change it to five double courses, which was fairly straightforward. Mine is a fairly short scale, so I've tuned it CGDAE, i.e. the combined mandola and mandolin range. It needs a very thin E string but works.

    Martin

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