Where to buy in Taipei, Taiwan

[rojieh]

Hello, I live in San Diego but will be visiting Taipei, Taiwan later this year. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a music store in Taipei to buy qin supplies such as strings, tuning pegs, etc. I would be particularly interested in buying a set of real silk qin strings and a set of synthetic NAGA-style strings. My teacher has also recommended that I replace the wood tuning pegs on my qin with jade/stone ones because these tend not slip as much, so I am looking for these as well. Any recommendations that people have for Taiwan would be great!

[carol]

You can try Bai Yue. I think they have the most selection on qin products in Taipei.

baiyue-music.com/
phone: [phone]
address： 100 台北市中正區重慶南路三段68號2F

[rojieh]

Thank you! That is very helpful.

[sanmenxia]

Baiyue's blog has some interesting photos. Eg:


Erhu maker Wan Genxing and Xiao Baiyong's 40 year old erhu

baiyue-music.com/blog/?p=834

Gluing skin on a jinghu

baiyue-music.com/blog/?p=820

Old instruments

[Charlie Huang]

TBH, I have never come across jade pegs in the 8+ years a a qin player and I wouldn't be able to comment on their anti-slippage properties... But I could say that slipping wooden pegs is not about material, it is about how they are made and the wood used for the peg pool on the qin and the rongko cords (must be pure silk, not rayon, cotton, wool, polyester, etc) plus how you string the qin.

As for silk strings, only get the Taigu brand ones and the gauge should match the qin as per the description on the packet. For the 'NAGA' nylon strings, they are called 'fuhe' strings in China and are far more cheaper than on NAGA.

[rojieh]

Thanks for the information. Could you suggest and online source for Taigu strings?

[Charlie Huang]

Fraid not. There is none really as the production of the batches starts and stops all the time so there's no steady supply of them...

[rojieh]

I'm in Taiwan now and just visited Bai Yue. The store is great and I am very tempted by a qin there, but at $2000, I think I will need to pass. They have Taigu silk strings in two qualities, "concert" for $88 USD per set of seven and "regular" for $52 for a set.

However, I purchased another brand that the owner uses on her own qin (which I got to play in the store, a great treat!). The Taigu strings are only sold in a full set and the two thinnest strings are more liable to break. Thus, she uses this other brand (I have no idea what the correct PinYin spelling is) and can sell the additional strings separately. This other brand costs the same as the standard Taigu.

In any case, if you are ever in Taiwan, please check out:

baiyue-music.com/
phone: [phone]
address： 100 台北市中正區重慶南路三段68號2F

[rojieh]

There is another store that a student found for me:

禪藝雅集
ZEN ART GALLERY
address：台北市太原路76巷2號3樓
phone：[phone]
email：[e-mail]

I may try to visit it in a few days.

[rojieh]

Mar 8, 2011 9:48:35 GMT Charlie Huang said:

TBH, I have never come across jade pegs in the 8+ years a a qin player and I wouldn't be able to comment on their anti-slippage properties... But I could say that slipping wooden pegs is not about material, it is about how they are made and the wood used for the peg pool on the qin and the rongko cords (must be pure silk, not rayon, cotton, wool, polyester, etc) plus how you string the qin.

By the way, I suspect now that the jade peg thing may come from Wang Peng. My qin teacher has a Wang Peng qin fitted with jade pegs. I mentioned looking for jade pegs while at Bai Yue and the owner was horrified (although she did carry elephant ivory that, needless to say, I did not buy).

[Si]

My Wang Peng qin uses a black marble sort of material. Bit annoying cos when my 7 string broke the peg fell to the ground and smashed so now I have a wooden one in its place.....but now my 7 string has broken again......

[Charlie Huang]

Si, do you use silk then? You're probably tuning it too high if the seventh keeps breaking. You do slackened it after play, do you?

[Si]

I use Nylon metal and i dont unslacken. Maybe I better start to do, how much can I unslacken (minimum).

[Charlie Huang]

You don't need to slacken for m-n. I think either the strings are bad or the qin is bad.

[Si]

i changed to wooden peg and its fine now. I never slaken still, my teach said its should be fine.....