Hey, Max. . . a great story; glad to hear that you finally found what you were after. I knew someone in the States who used to play blues on his concert zither, which was amazing to hear. Your advice about searching for a GOOD instrument could be applied to ANY musical instrument. Having said that, I found and rescued a simple "toy" zither last year in a flea market for 3 euros and it cost more than that to replace its strings and then a tuning wrench had to be made for it from a radiator key, but it is great fun---now that it is staying in tune.

cheers,

Aux