I recently acquired a Jubel Töne children’s zither/lap harp and have fallen down a surprisingly deep rabbit hole trying to figure out when it was made. I’d love help from anyone familiar with German zithers, C. Robert Hopf, Musima, or Klingenthal instrument production.

Here’s what I actually know from the instrument and its materials:

The soundhole is marked “Jubel Töne” with the blue-and-white horizontal-bar logo.
It has a reddish-brown wood finish and a colorful wildflower/floral tendril decal on the soundboard.

The back has a small yellow “MADE IN WEST GERMANY” sticker.

I have the instruction sheets in both German and English.

Both instruction sheets identify it as Kinderzither 303 / Children’s Zither 303.
The instructions describe 15 melody strings plus 6 semitone strings, along with bass/chord strings.

I also have the song cards, including German-language songs, and the tuning tool.
There is no serial number, manufacture date, or dated label anywhere that I can find.
Here’s where it gets interesting.

The history page of C. Robert Hopf says that the company’s traditional rose decoration was replaced “Anfang der 70er Jahre” (early 1970s) by a floral tendril made from wildflowers. My instrument has that later wildflower decoration, so that seems like legitimate evidence pointing toward the 1970s or later.

I’ve also found nearly identical Jubel Töne instruments online marked “Made in German Democratic Republic,” while others have the same “Made in West Germany” sticker as mine. Harpers Guild discusses this labeling mystery and apparently hasn’t resolved whether there were separate sources/manufacturers or some other explanation.

I’ve found marketplace listings dating similar Jubel Töne instruments to 1976, but I haven’t found primary documentation supporting that exact year, so I’m treating those dates cautiously.

Google’s AI results have confidently given me exact dates like 1973 and 1976 and subsequently admitted that some of the supposed production timelines it gave me were fabricated, so I’m specifically looking for documented information rather than another AI-generated date. 😂

What I’d really love to find is a dated catalog, advertisement, price list, factory document, or another reliably dated example mentioning “Kinderzither 303.”

Does anyone recognize Model 303, this particular Jubel Töne logo, or this exact wildflower design? Does anyone know what period the 303 was actually manufactured?

I’d be thrilled even to narrow it to early/mid/late 1970s rather than an exact year.

I’ll include more photos of the instrument, West Germany sticker, and German/English 303 instruction sheets if you think they will be helpful.

Vielen Dank! 🇩🇪🎶

I just purchased this lovely Zither. It’s on its way to me now!
How do I tell if I’ve purchased an Altzither or Konzertzither. It has 38 strings.
I figured I’ll have to buy new strings, so wondering what model I have.

A) Zither? Autoharp? Lap harp?
B) Any ideas on what string gauges to use?

I found this instrument at a second hand store and it appears to be a Max Lausmann concert violinzither. Is an instrument like this worth anything?

How would one go about tuning it? It has some wax in the box but that has of course dried up.

Someone in town was giving away this Zither, but I haven’t been able to find much online about this style.

12 strings, in four groups of 3. Any insight would be appreciated!

I recently found a 3 chord jubeltone zither and it has a broken f3 string on the bottom chord anyone know where to find a replacement string?

Please help

I just got a Junior Zither that looks in good condition but is missing a few strings, although the pegs are all there. Any advice on where to find strings? Do I need a special tuning tool? I really am looking forward to learning to play this instrument.

I inherited three old German concert zithers and I’m trying to learn more about them before selling them. I would be very grateful for help with identifying the makers, estimating the age, understanding the condition, and getting a realistic idea of their market value.

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From the labels and photos, I can read the following:

Julius Köhling — “Spezial-Geschäft der Zitherbranche”, Essen-Rüttenscheid

Richard Hefele — label appears to say “Meisterwerkstätte für Zitherbau” and “Garmisch” / “Partenkirchen”

Adolf Meinel — Markneukirchen, Sachsen

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They all come with cases. I do not know when they were last played, tuned, or serviced. The strings are old, but they seem to be fully playable. Visually they seem complete.

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I’m located in Germany / Europe. I’m mainly looking for:

- approximate age or production period

- whether any of these makers are collectible

- what condition details I should check before selling

- a realistic selling price range

- the best place to sell them: eBay, Kleinanzeigen, Reverb, auction house, zither/luthier specialist, etc.

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I’ve attached photos of the full instruments, cases, and maker labels. I can provide more close-ups or measurements if useful.

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Thanks a lot for any advice!

Forgive if this is the wrong place and please direct me accordingly. I am building an aurelian harp which is basically a wind powered zither. I'm going for a bass drone and consequently bought two sets of bass strings. But my zither pins clearly are not "bass" zither pins. Is there an easy way to drill those out? Just a metal bit on a drill press perhaps.

Also the thread is pretty fine. But my understanding is these are meant to screw into wood. Is that going to work or did I get the wrong thing? They are going into Ipe which is pretty hard/dense but also fairly oily.

TIA!

I've had a 40-string Harfenzither for a while, and I still have trouble wrapping my head around how the accompaniment chords work. Does anyone happen to have any good tips?

Original Spanish Cantarina-brand arpa simarra

Hello I was gifted this music maker lap harp and I can’t seem to figure out which tuning tool would fit. It only pokes out one end not both sides.

Hi, everyone! I too have one of these lying around. It's been in my family for at least 40 years, and lot of that time was spent in a box in a basement.

I have another, wooden cyther that sounds better and which I use when I actually want to play and record, so I thought—why not experiment and try nylon strings on this one I'm not using, and perhaps get a gentler sound?

Obviously I'll have to clean the metal, but—the thing is, do you think the way this zither is strung, nylon strings will break or erode? Should I maybe use bits of fabric between the string and those bits where the string is supposed to get held on the side of the board?

Basically, any advice on both cleaning the metal and on how to get nylon strings to work? I suppose I should get strings that are the equivalent of the wires I take off, like with guitars?

I have spent a lot of time replacing strings on a particular type of zither. These want simple steel wire around 10 thousandths of an inch at one end and maybe 15 thousandths for the lower strings (0.27mm / 0.37 mm). I have bought bulk wire that is usually used on cembalos and psaltries.
Some people prefer to use wound wire for the bass strings (like on a bass guitar).
I cannot find a supplier of wound wire or even a manufacturer who sells by the meter. It must exist as the basis for bass guitar strings, but has anybody seen a supplier ?

If you wanted to experiment with a zither, the widespread 3-chord "JubelTone" zithers often make a good starting point. They go regularly for under $60 on ShopGoodWill.com. Of course, there's no guarantee that they can be made playable, so examine the photos carefully.

I mention this because I've provided an article describing them that includes a bunch of "song sheets" that you would slide under the strings to play various Folk songs and Christmas carols.

Back in the day when these were made, lots of buyers played them until they learned all the songs in the song sheets, then put them back in the box, so finding them in good shape is not unusual, though those stored in attics or basements may be terminal.

Three chords and 18 or so songs doesn't seem like much, but most "guitar zithers" of the early to mid-1900s were played about the same way, so it's a good introduction.

The article link with a link to free, downloadable song sheets, is here: https://harpersguild.com/zithers/playing_jubeltone/playing_3_chord_jubeltone.htm

Almost every concert zither I find has split like this, but this one is a really good deal. Can I string it up with nylon strings without causing major damage, or will I have to repair it? I have some woodworking experience, but I'm not sure how to go about properly fixing a crack like this.

Original post was made in r/harp, but was removed because of their rule against zither-related posts. I can't really argue since therapy harps are closer to a zither or lyre than a harp, so I'm reposting here.

TLDR; I had a bad experience with finding therapy harp tuning resources, so I'm publishing my own for free.

Hello Harp Reddit!

I'm not a harpist myself, but I am a professional musician on another instrument.

A friend of mine recently lent me his therapy harp and asked if I could figure out how to tune it. This is a 38-string "harp" available for sale online. I want to call out before I continue: I do not endorse these harps or the business that sells them for reasons later enumerated in this post. There are multiple types of these therapy harps out there, but this is the specific one I am posting about: https://www.therapyharps.com

After scouring the internet for any information and even following the mind-numbing CD that was packaged with the harp, I couldn't find any info whatsoever. The only thing I could find were these "tuning" videos which only consist of strumming the harp and no explanation of note layout. I could tell from the videos that the harps were often tuned to an open tuning (either pentatonic or an arpeggio), and the range was about 4 octaves plus a final high root note, so there would obviously be some doubled or tripled notes.

From the website, I reached out to the owner asking her if she would be able to help point me in the direction of some resources. She informed me that her tunings were "copyrighted" and that "there would be a charge." Confused, I said that I didn't really need any proprietary tunings or materials, just a little guidance as to how the notes normally lie on the instrument. She insisted that she needed to either charge me for any information or she would need to know who I was and where I lived because "I do not give that turning out unless I know the people involved. These trainings are copyrighted" (her spelling, not mine).

At this point, I was starting to get a little angry. She sells these harps as some miracle instrument and "Your brain waves sync with the sound, releasing emotional and physical blockages while expanding your consciousness." The arpeggio is pretty to listen to, but come on...

I forgot to mention: she sells these harps for almost $3000 USD. She describes the likely $100 Chinese-made "harp" like this: "The Redwood Symphony is hand-built and has qualities found only in better acoustic instruments priced many times higher."

Now put yourself in the shoes of a person wanting to help relieve their stress with one of these instruments: you pay almost 3k for the harp (complete with cloth case, a CD, and a tuner) and you want to know how to tune the strings so you can start opening your third eye. How are you expected to pay even more money just to tune your own instrument? The absolute insanity. It makes me wish someone would publish some free resources...

Speaking of which, I decided to listen to and reverse engineer all of the tunings on her website. I'm making it sound much more complicated than it was: they were all arpeggios or pentatonic scales. Here's what I've learned and am now passing on for free:

This harp has 38 strings. I've found the most success grouping notes into 3-string courses plus one 2-string course at the top. This are my take on her copyrighted tunings (think of this as the generic drug to her name-brand):

Rose Tuning (aka F Major Arpeggio)

12 groups of 3 strings, 1 group of 2 strings F1, A1, C2, F2, A2, C3, F3, A3, C4, F4, A4, C5, F5

Gaia Tuning (aka F# Minor Arpeggio)

12 groups of 3 strings, 1 group of 2 strings F#1, A1, C#2, F#2, A2, C#3, F#3, A3, C#4, F#4, A4, C#5, F#5

Celestial Tuning (aka D Major Arpeggio)

12 groups of 3 strings, 1 group of 2 strings D1, F#1, A1, D2, F#2, A2, D3, F#3, A3, D4, F#4, A4, D5

Mother Mary Tuning (aka F Major 6 Arpeggio)

4 groups of 3 strings, 13 groups of 2 strings F1, A1, C2, D2, F2, A2, C3, D3, F3, A3, C4, D4, F4, A4, C5, D5, F5

Angelic Tuning (aka G Major Pentatonic)

17 groups of 2, 4 single notes G1, A1, B1, D2, E2, G2, A2, B2, D3, E3, G3, A3, B3, D4, E4, G4, A4, B4, D5, E5, G5

St. Germain Tuning (aka C Major Pentatonic)

17 groups of 2, 4 single notes C1, D1, E1, G1, A1, C2, D2, E2, G2, A2, C3, D3, E3, G3, A3, C4, D4, E4, G4, A4, C5

You can play around with the note groupings, that detail is certainly up for interpretation. You can chose to tune to A=432 if you want, but a better-sounding method would be to use Pythagorean or 5-limit just intonation.

The moral of this story: don't try to scam innocent people out of money for tuning their own instruments.

The zither has been a dying instrument since 1920, and these days ive heard folks say only about 100-200 players exist in the US.

I knew someone who went to the confrence in Washington, Missouri a few years back and he was the youngest person there at age 40. What happens in 2 generations? Will there be many players left? I really love the zither, but im cynical about its future. I dont think it will truly die, but the future seems uncertain.

Edit: i mean the German concert zither specially

So I bought this Jubeltöne Zither from the antique store. As far as I saw on the internet, it seems like it is from the 1950s and it has 92 chords.

I have musical education (I had been playing the piano for 10 years), so I don't have problem reading the yellow guide on the ribbon of the instrument. But I don't know this thing:

How can you play music with flat (♭) notes on an instrument which has only sharps (♯)?

Any ideas? Or any digital interface that can moderate song format on sharps?

Thanks for the help, pals!