I wanted a waldzither… but got: what?

Ok, so I wanted one of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMh7bp845f4

play video

And so, I went to this site and bought one of these:
http://www.bruunari.nl/for_sale.php?id=552
Now, it may be oldish and may look good, but when it arrived it’s as big as my hand and all the weight of a brown paper bag. It’s terrible!! I was expecting a good heavy deep sounding instrument and got this thing like a plastic ukelele. I really feel this is a junk instrument, something you’d buy from a church jumble sale. I can’t say the vendor misdescribed it, but it’s so light to hold it’s almost unplayable.
So: if I’m stuck with it…. how on earth do I tune it? The strings are really tinny, the tuning heads are all really tight, and I can’t even begin to find a key to tune it to. I play guitar, bouzouki and cittern but this thing is a joke!!
Any advice on even getting it in tune?

Seems to me that both players are using the Portugese Guitar, although at first I though Mr Hanley was playing a waldzither. But you have a waldzither, no doubt, four double courses and a single bass.

The PG comes in various sizes - the one I have is about the size of a mandola. I had the bridge and nut cut down from six courses to five. My Waldzither.

There’s lots of info on the web about both of these, if you look (haven’t got any links handy just now). Waldzither can be fairly flexible with regard to tuning, within limits of string gauge, scale length, of course.

My waldzither is lightweight too - frankly, I think this can be a good point in a stringed instrument. If your scale length is about 17.5 inches, you can use lightweight tenor banjo strings and tune to CGDA (tenor mandola tuning) or any open tuning variant until you settle on what gauge to put on the bottom!

The instrument can sound really good - first radio session I ever played on (back in 1970), I played one and it sounded fine. And get a good set-up from a repair man. And use a medium pick, not something flimsy. Enjoy!

Wonderful video, I forgot to say. What beautiful playing and singing. Great days, eh?

I’m inclined to agree with JIm about lightness - ever played an Eko guitar ? As heavy as a railway sleeper and with the same level of resonance. Sturdy, almost unbreakable, just not resonant.
On the other hand, I reckon those instruments are both waldzithers; one definitely is lacking the single bass string. The Portugese guitarras tend to have these ornamental heads with the long curved piece and the end, and the tuners are usually 12 in number, fanning out from the nut in an arc with ornate cylindrical knobs on the ends.
A few more details from your seller might have been good; body dimensions, scale length, etc. Is it too late to send it back ?

…at the end…
Sack the editor.

[*As heavy as a railway sleeper and with the same level of resonance. *]

Pete, that is hilarious 🙂

>>“So: if I’m stuck with it…. ”

1. remove the fingerboard.
2. Remove the truss rod if it has one, or route a channel in the front of the neck if it hasn’t.
3. Drill a 6mm hole in the back, near the tail block.
4. Run some electrical cable through the channel in the neck and out through the hole in the back, then replace the fingerboard.
5. Add a lamp holder on the peghead, and a small stand.
6. Take it to a car boot sale.

Pete - I think you may be right about them being waldzithers in the video.

“I reckon those instruments are both waldzithers; one definitely is lacking the single bass string. The Portugese guitarras tend to have these ornamental heads with the long curved piece and the end”

I agree. The Portuguese guitar has a tight camber on the fingerboard (much more so than a ‘normal’ steel-string guitar - even an electric), whilst these two appear to have flat fingerboards. Mick Hanly’s has the traditional Waldzither stringing (as described above by Jim Y.); Andy Irvine’s has just four double courses but, from the width of the neck (and the fact that the stirings are not central to the fingerboard), it is clearly designed to take another string. The fingerboards are too narrow, however, for a full 6 courses (which, as G. Pete says, is the standard stringing for the Portuguese guitar).

Whilst the absence or presence of a head scroll is just a stylistic matter (although Portuguese guitars almost invariably have one - broadly, in one of two styles, depending on whether it is the Lisbon type of the Coimbra type), the number and layout of strings and the fingerboard radius are important defining factors.

Actually, I want both a Portugese guitarra AND a Waldzither, but my boat has to come in first, as another anything in our flat and ’Er Indoors will throw me out and sleep with the instruments instead.
This story does illustrate the pitfalls of buying online. I got a reasonable bouzouki that way but I don’t recommend it for instruments.
Glad I could raise a smile on Worldfiddler this April 1st.

G.Pete - my Waldzither cost a guinea (remember them?) in the Portobello Road and was given to me by a good friend. My Portugese Guitar, I’m told, was hanging on Tommy McCarthy’s wall in London and came via Richard Thompson (yes, that RT) when he had a bric-a-brac shop in Crawford Street W1. He knocked twenty quid off the price because I got a tune out of it. Come to think of it, the most money I ever made with one tune … I won’t charge you any more for the provenance though.

The tight camber/radius on a PG fingerboard certainly discourages using a conventional capo!

“The tight camber/radius on a PG fingerboard certainly discourages using a conventional capo!”

Incidentally, the same kind of fingerboard is used on the traditional Portuguese type of mandolin or bandolim (nothing to do with the semi-round backed so-called ‘Portuguese mandolin’). Its Brazilian counterpart, on the other hand, has a flat or very slightly cambered fingerboard

I think the most sensible suggestion so far has been the table lamp. It hasn’t a truss rod or at least I’d get some cash back when I traded it in for the metal scrap value.
I’ll just have to experiment with the tuning, it will be more along the lines of my bouzoukis i.e. GDAE rather than some weird cittern style. Not sure even Jim Younger would appreciate the lightness of this - it’s almost insubstantial, so quite hard to play as there’s insufficient weight to rest it on my knee and insufficient size to jam it under my arm. I’ll have to say it’s the first instrument out of quite a few, bought from the internet (and most from eBay!) that has disappointed me.

Ah, well, Footerin’, looks like one of those unfortunate deals. Good luck with the string gauge/tuning search. The wee babby might surprise you yet.

You could try holding it on the hip, like ambulatory Neapolitan mandolinists used to do when out on the “pull” (or serenading, as I believe it’s known).

Im selling a cracking Guitarra for €250 with a bag and string winder ( essential as both ends have to be wound). This thing sounds so good someone could put a bouzouki neck on and have an instrument to rival a Fylde or Foley.

Any pictures?

http://freespace.virgin.net/boost.regex/waldzither/html/index.html