A request for some small help.

[gazza]

In my quest for more knowledge about ancient China, I fell in love with the sound of the Guqin.

Searches in my local area show me that no local musical instrument stores sell them. I can't come to grips with the concept of buying a musical instrument that I've never seen or touched (or anything hand crafted for that matter). And because I'm not certain I have any musical talent at all, I've decided after much web searching to try to build my own before I buy something online from overseas.

Despite all of my reading I haven't seen anything definitive about thickness. I've read how being too thick or too thin affects the sound, but I have no basis from even where to start.

Please, if somebody could use their forefinger and thumb to give me an idea of how thick the lower half is I would be very appreciative.

Thank you in advance!

[davidmdahl]

Welcome to the forum, gazza. There is not a lot of activity here on the guqin. You might look for the guqin group on Facebook. That is pretty active, and there are some there who have made guqins.

Good luck!

Best wishes,

David

[oskarch]

The gentleman at

littleoldqinmaker.blogspot.com/

has shared some info on his blog and also at

web.cecs.pdx.edu/~jrb/chin/index.html