What is Zither
Zither is the family name of all plucked or strummed instruments that have strings stretched across a wooden sounding board box. Zithers include the medieval European psaltery and the dulcimer. I have three forms of instruments from zither family at home. An acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and an ukulele.
Zither (ukulele) as birthday gift
The ukulele was a gift from my wife on my 40th birthday. I plan to add/ upgrade a few more.l in the near future. She wanted to surprise me. But, somehow, I got to know about her plans and told her that surprise is not a good idea. Since, a lot of parameters are to be checked before buying. Brand, type, cost, the wood used to make it, string dimensions, keys, etc. So, I decided a model and she bought it online for me. It was slightly risky, but I took it after carefully checking the specs.
Ukulele basics
Ukulele is basically a concise form of a guitar with lesser frets and strings. The open fret of an ukulele starts from fifth fret equivalent the higher strings of a guitar. Rest everything is same. The standard tunes follow the usual DGBE strings transposed to GCEA. Playability is very similar. While guitar may be of steel or nylon string, ukelele are essentially of nylon strings. Hence, the thick, mellow and warm tone. I will share whatever I have gathered all these years about the basics about guitar and ukulele in a separate post.
Things to look for before buying guitar/ ukelele
I will share a few quick tips about what to look for before buying a ukulele for beginners. Ukulele are mainly of four types(check google). I would suggest to go for the concert or baritone variety. The other two basic ones are more like toys. If you get serious about playing in the near future, ‘concert’ and ‘baritone’ varieties can be used even for live playing. Plus the fret size is comfortable for an adult.
- Look for wooden variety than fibre body. Wooden ones will deliver warmer tones and have more sustain.
- Check the action for any fret buzz. Play each and every string on each fret for this exercise. While buzz can be
- Check for ‘fret intonation’. To check this, download free guitar tuner app and play open string and the twelvth fret. The notes should coincide. Any deviation in the twelveth fret, don’t buy that.
- If you can spare a couple of thousands more, go for the ones with factory fitted equalizers and tuners.
While we can blindly have faith on certain brands, if possible check for all these before buying. For anyone who is first and does not know about the technicalities discussed above, please google it. Ample tips are shared in a lucid manner.
Some of the top brands
Ukulele
Kala, Makala, Fender, Kamaka, Lanikai, Martin, Luna are some of the brands to go for.
Guitar
Gibson, Fender, Suhr, Ibanez, Yamaha, Taylor, Dehradun(Indian brand), Takamine, Ovation. The list is exhaustive. The best ones according to me are listed above. The most expensive of them all is Martin. Just fyi. Felt like sharing. I dream about martin. But, I know wont be able to afford it.
The best of the best gift
One thing which I liked more about the ukulele gift itself is that while I was on official tour during my birthday, my wife who had no knowledge on guitar picked the happy birthday tune in the ukelele, practiced it and sent me a video clip on my birthday. This is huge for me. I was highly impressed at this gesture. And equally amazed at her capability. I will share the link for my readers to hear the beautiful tune.
And there goes the last post with Z which is slightly a difficult letter to write a post with. Hence, borrowed the family name ‘Zither’ to complete this challenge. Phew!
I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z and this is the final Z post!
I love the sound of the ukulele! Congratulations on finishing the A2Z challenge to both of you!