fine tuners

[mariasimarro]

Hello: I would like to know how to use fine tuners for my erhu.I know how to put in its but if i have to tighten or loosen more or less.How do you know it?
Please find attached a photo of my fine tuners on my erhu.
thank you

[edcat7]

I had fine tuners on my first erhu and personally I thought they looked smart. However it caused so many problems: they never seemed to work properly and worse still the bow hairs would catch against them.
If you are a novice player you really won't need them anyway. I'd advise you to dump them.

Ed

[davidmdahl]

This comes up often. I also had my bad experiences with the fine tuners. The idea is that often times the pegs are hard to move for fine tuning adjustments. The fine tuners make tuning a lot easier. Unfortunately, they can also be hard on strings and bow hair.

My teacher prefers to wrap a loop of qianjin cord around each string. I set the pegs so that a string is about in tune when the loop is about halfway between the qianjin and the peg. When I need a small pitch adjustment, I just move the loop a little higher or lower.

Sometimes when the strings are in tune with each other, but a little off from other instruments in the ensemble, I will simply move the qianjin up or down. This usually changes the pitch enough without messing up the scale my fingers are used to.



Best wishes,

David

[Minh]

If your ears are not used to it, you use and electric tuner to check the pitch, and you screw or unscrew depending on how your low or high your string actually is.

[mariasimarro]

thank you more for your advises.It helps me a lot. Good wekkend

[edcat7]

I've just bought these:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353819775824

I love them, very easy to use and doesn't catch the bow hairs. I hated the Witner type ones.

[NikoLeo]

edcat7 that's good to know! An erhu teacher from the Discord said that professionals don't use these types of fine tuners, but honestly I don't see why they are worse than the default ones.

Here are some different types of fine tuners I saw on Taobao (and custom qianjins with built-in tuners).

#1 (standard fine tuner):


#2 (special fine tuner):


#3 (qianjin + tuner):


#4 (qianjin + tuner):


I guess #3 and #4 won't be recommended because they may alter the sound of the erhu. Or maybe they are also fine? Just curious, I don't plan to buy such qianjins as a newbie.

[edcat7]

I hate type 1, type 2 which I now use admittedly looks bulky but works well. 3 and 4 looks too complicated for me. I don't think fine tuners are necessary for beginners or at least until you can accurately fret a note without looking at the strings, then you rely on sound and muscle memory.