Tips to choose my erhu (Brands)

[artsandstra]

Hello everybody,

I live in Europe and I'd like to buy a high quality erhu. This is my first erhu, but I prefer spending more money now rather than buying more than one erhu during the next couple of years.

It's really hard for me to understand which Erhu to choose. I've previously bought a guzheng produced by Sound of Mountain and they sell some good looking instruments produced by brands that mean nothing to me ( www.soundofmountain.co.uk/collections/erhu ).
This is mainly because I have simply no experience. I fear that they're just good looking and not good sounding.

I'd like to ask you if you could help me naming some good brands. I'd also really appreciate if you took the time to look at the erhus on the Sound of Mountain website.

Cheers!

[edcat7]

Hi artsandstra and welcome,

For the best erhus the forum always recommends Easons Music of Singapore. There are so many erhu makers out there and the question of which makers are the finest is not an easy one to answer. We choose Eason because over a long period of time, he has proved to be a knowledgeable and honest seller. He actually plays the erhu whist I suspect many others vendors do not.

You don't mention if you have a teacher and erhus take time to break in. Because without a teacher even the best erhu will not reach it's potential. I have a Lu Lin Sheng: at first it sounded so weak and quiet my teacher was convinced it was a fake. But now after three years of continuous playing, it has fully opened up, sounding rich and deep, that my teacher now loves it.

I had a quick look at Soundofmountain and if I remember correctly Joe the owner, does not play any instruments. This does not mean his products are poor but I wonder how he chooses which instruments to stock. His dearest one, (a maker not known to me) seems fine, with both good quality wood and snakeskin.

You could like myself spend much, much more on one but without tuition it would be pointless.

Best wishes,

Ed (London).

[artsandstra]

Thank you so much for your kindness, edcat7.

I'll probably go for Eeason, then. I'll open one more tread to discuss the erhu skin matter, just not to go off topic here.