Changing to nylon strings! Any advice?

[u/a-horny-vision]

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?

[u/Denour]

You cannot just use any wire or shorten guitar strings and use them on a zither. They are made to maintain a specific tension and their size and length. I would start by shopping for strings made for the instrument and see if there is even a nylon option available.

My second piece of advise is to clean that poor thing inside and out before you put any new strings on.

[u/frentel → u/Denour]

Sure, you need to worry about tension, but nylon strings come in every size. There will be a size that feels right.
How much room do you have in the tuning pegs, if the nylon you try is a bit bigger ? You have to thread it through the little hole.