Maybe I'm just drawing a syntax blank, but I can't seem to fix my zither. Through a bad combination of circumstances, Meigs ended up standing in the snow for more than a couple hours holding this poor zither in hidden sleep mode. Once I got it repaired and cleaned, all the strings were missing.

Went to the bard shop in Hib and purchased the 24 string set and tried this:

put strings on my zither
You stare at your ash zither in confusion, turning it this way and that in effort to see where to place your new twenty-four strings, but no matter what you do you can't seem to figure it out! Finally, you give up with a frustrated sigh and vow to learn more about your zither before trying again.

appr my zither
The ash zither appears to be a stringed instrument.
You are certain that the ash zither is crafted from wood.
You are certain that the ash zither is finely made.
This instrument appears to be missing its set of twenty-four strings.
You are certain that the ash zither needs a pick to be played.
You are certain that the ash zither weighs exactly 15 stones.
You are certain that the ash zither is worth exactly 13530 Dokoras.
Roundtime: 8 seconds.

assess my zith
Cradling the ash zither in your hands, you carefully look it over from top to bottom, assessing what damage has been done to it. After a few moments, you realize that ...
You are certain that the ash zither is crafted from wood.
You are certain that the ash zither is of good quality.
Roundtime: 5 seconds.

recall my zith
You search your mind for what you know of the ash zither...

The zither is a flat box-like instrument shaped like a truncated triangle. It's strung horizontally in 24 courses over two separate bridges with the strings attached on one side by hitch pins and on the other by small tuning pins. The soundboard has two holes that lend a rich resonance and tonal quality to the instrument's sound.
Roundtime: 2 sec.

examine zither
A muted crescent moon picked out with whisping lines of silvery gilt rises behind the darkly stained image of a palace upon the front panel of the zither. Skillful use of black and grey dyes have lent a realistic appearance to the building, making it seem as if it truly were awash in the wan hues of moonlight.


Bought the 4 string set and got an obvious "these aren't the strings you're looking for"
put strings on zither
That is not the correct component needed to repair your ash zither with. Perhaps you should examine the zither more closely.

Tried a number of other commands and couldn't get anything to work, but every command except "put strings on my zither" came back with an obvious "this isn't the right thing to do in this case" kind of message.

So am I completely forgetting the proper syntax (and it's been a long, long time since I had to fix broken strings) or am I missing something? Are there maybe multiple 24 string sets on sale in multiple places that are different from each other? The strings in the Hib Bard shop just say "a set of twenty-four strings", nothing about metal or gut, and nothing in any of the zither descriptions indicate the need for a particular kind of string, just that there are twenty-four of them. If I have to buy the right set of strings from the correct shop, anyone got any idea which shop sells the right set?

Meigs

I looked in my logs for you to see if I'd ever done this. What I found was that I had tried PUT STRING ON LUTE with a baby bard, and failed with the same message you got. I then went around asking for someone good with stringed instruments, and found someone, who managed to do it successfully -- but I'm not sure what syntax he used. I did tell him to try PUT STRING ON LUTE, so most likely he did, but he didn't confirm either way. He did use the strings I was trying.

So, at least, the strings themselves are likely not at fault. My guess is that it's a skill thing. Possibly Performance, but I'm guessing most likely Mech Lore, as if I recall correctly, that was always the instrument repair skill. So find someone with very high Mech and ask them to try?

Eyuve has decentish Mech if you want to try with her. You can IM me at Eyuve if you like.


-- Player of Eyuve

Tried repair and fix, those got a "you don't have your repair kit out" kind of message

Mech 648, Performance 932, so I'm hoping it's not a skill thing.

Meigs

>>>This may be a stupid question, but have you tried other strings?

>>>buy strings
>>You decide to purchase the strings, and pay the sales clerk 360 Dokoras.
>>The sales clerk hands you your four silk strings.
>>>get zither
>>You get a stained white ash zither from inside your black backpack.
>>>put strings on zither
>>That is not the correct component needed to repair your ash zither with. Perhaps you should examine the zither more closely.

Well, tried a four string set. When I get a couple minutes, I'll run back and try the other string sets in the Hib bard shop, but I'm guessing, given the failure message with the four string set, that it isn't going to work.

Did some digging on Elanthipedia and it appears that this zither was bought from the "Tall Human Peddler" who hangs out in Riverhaven (he's probably had this zither for 10 real life years) and doesn't sell strings, so my first hope of buying strings the same place I bought the instrument isn't going to work.

Searched Elanthipedia for shops that sell 24 string sets. There's a 24 string set in Haven, but it says "for the psalterie", so... maybe? There's also the Ratha shop that sells 24 string sets and also says "for psalteries" and the Leth bard shop sells a set for "the stately psaltery". Theren shop sells an unqualified 24 string set, like the Hib shop, the rest of the references I could find were for fest shops (and yes, I know there's a fest coming, but Meigs almost never goes to a fest, I think the last time he wandered into a fest was the Shard fest and that was an accident).

Guessing Meigs'll be taking a bit of a walk-about... or maybe not... probably been two years real life since he's been anywhere except zombies in Boar Clan... but he's got to decide if he's upset enough about his sort-of-beloved-more-like-accustomed-to/these-bagpipes-are-weird zither to actually travel when he's still learning the weapon skills that keeps the guild-leader from yelling at him... and sometimes things simmer for a while and then he just up and goes whether I'm expecting it or not <chuckle>

Anyway, thanks for the input,

Dave, the person regularly confused by Meigs

So, digging around it looks like a lot of the backend changes throughout the past few years have made a few things... weird. Particularly, instruments don't really break anymore, and well, if they are already broken, they are ... special .... to fix.

I'm not sure what a quick and easy fix would be, right now, but right now I have a note set up for you in game, Meigs, and someone should contact you about your zither to get it fixed up in the meantime.

Rest assured you are not going crazy :)

~Evike

> instruments don't really break anymore...

It seems I have a special skill. Tuning flat about a hundred times will still cause yer strings to unravel off their pegs.

Az

---

Player of Azkaban UiNeill, Bard of Therengia, an Elf
https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Azkaban

Letting it all hang out, since 312.

Evike got my zither all fixed up in mere moments...

Sounds like fixing the underlying problem will be a tad tougher, so take care of your instrument strings. We don't want to drive her nuts replacing strings by hand.

Meigs