Tuning a Bawu?

[richard]

I have a double Bawu in F/Bb, one of the pipes is in for repair at the moment, but while playing the other pipe I noticed that while the low "C" is sufficiently in tune, and the instrument seems fairly in tune with itself, all the other notes are very sharp. Around 35-40 cents. 

Does anyone have any idea on how one could solve this issue? I don't want to touch the reed, but if that's the only way...

[edcat7]

Hi Richard and welcome,

I don't think the reed has anything to do with the tuning. On some more expensive hulusis the tuning can be adjusted by altering the length of the middle pipes. I have not seen any on bawus like you get on a dizi.

I bought an expensive rosewood hulusi and all the notes are fine except one which is horribly out of tune.

I didn't know anyone who did bawu repairs.

Ed

[richard]

I had a problem with the Bb pipe so I sent it back to where I purchased it because they offered to repair it free of charge. We'll see if the tuning issue is similar on that when it comes back. It doesn't sound bad when playing over backing tracks etc, but it's slightly noticable. Maybe it's just impossible to get all notes in tune. If I were to record I could just pitch-shift the bawu down a little. I read that you could put some beeswax on the reed to make it heavier and become more flat in pitch, but I'd like to get some instructions first. Maybe from someone on this forum?

Mine is also a rosewood Bawu. Professional grade. I am quite pleased with it!

[edcat7]

Yes that's true. I remember putting melted candle wax on the base of the reed, avoid touching the v shape part of the reed.

Very early on I bought an unusually large C hulusi; it sounded dreadful so I retuned it by altering the length of the main pipe and put wax on the reed. I eventually gave it away. Much later I realised it was a G hulusi mislabelled to a C.

I don't understand why double bawus are necessary if the scores you're playing are composed for one key?

[richard]

The two scales overlap, so on an F/Bb double bawu you can play in the key of F using the Bb pipe's scale if you avoid the Bb note and play D, (underblown) F, G, A, C, D, F, G. (without alternate fingerings). It basically extends the scale slightly, (an extra F and G) as well as allowing you to have two different scales in one instrument.

They're of course not necessary at all, and are probably more often used in Vietnamese music where it's called "Sáo Mèo Kép". For playing traditional Chinese compositions, it might be a better idea to invest the extra money in a higher quality instrument. It caught my interest, so I bought it. But now I want a Hulusi too...