Sheng maintainence kit

[sanmenxia]

Here are my tools for maintaining and tuning my sheng.



Red wax (zhusha),
brown wax,
lighter,
small craft/utility knife,
blunt knife,
kitchen paper, tissue or rag etc.

The red wax is for tuning the reeds, and the brown wax for attaching the reeds to the pipes. You need a heat source to melt the waxes, a lighter is handy for carrying around although a candle or a spirits burner would be better for home use when you're tuning a lot of pipes for example.

Next you need a sharp knife for cutting out a reed, which also can be used to tune a reed by heating it up and touching its point into the red wax on the reed, a tiny bit of wax will transfer to the knife and the reed pitch will will go up a tiny bit. You then need to wipe off the wax on a piece of tissue etc.

Last is a blunt knife for applying the waxes. I made mine from a spoon handle. One end is for the red tuning wax and the other is for the reed wax.

It's not in this photo, but an electronic tuner is also very handy.

[edcat7]

Do you replace the reeds or just clean the old one?

[sanmenxia]

I haven't replaced any reeds so far as all the one on my sheng are working and I don't have any spare reeds anyway.

I had to remove some of the reeds so that I could push up the reed "tongue". Previously I pushed them down too far when trying to sort out the "soft" sound problem. But it's tuning that seems to need more attention.

[edcat7]

My teacher told me if the reed does go and you don't have any replacement reeds then the old reed may be cleaned with very fine sandpaper.

[sanmenxia]

Perhaps he's taking about the reed on the hulusi but I think the reed on a sheng works in a different way.

The reed tongue and the reed surround is one piece of metal:



I suppose after the reed is played a lot, metal fatigue will make the tongue more stiff and eventually break off. And then it has to be replaced.

There is one other thing to do on the sheng and that is to maintain the off-white "paint" that covers the outside of the reed. It protects the reed from corrosion and improves its sound. It's made from powdered copper or bronze mixed with powered stone and water. The stone is called wuyinshi in Chinese, lit. five sound stone.



There are water droplets on top of the wax on the tips of the pipes, and also on the red wax.