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Post by sanmenxia on Dec 8, 2005 17:19:00 GMT
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Dec 16, 2005 0:49:56 GMT
hi!
Your erhu is of Burmese Paduak (i think). Good skin. Perhaps you might want to change the bridge to a maple one. Ebony Oil-fried bridges tend to dull a Zitarn instrument. Do you hve any problems playing the 5th and 6th hand position notes? The maker is not well marked out, but i saw this model of qinchuang somewhere.
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Post by paulv on Dec 16, 2005 18:42:18 GMT
Hi Sanmenxia, Your erhu design looks exactly mine except the wood color is different -- mine is [supposedly] antique rosewood (what I requested), white rear grille and fairly heavy. Does yours feel heavy compared to other erhus? I have a good solid sound all the way up to the resonator box for all finger positions. My erhu was a gift from my sister-in-law who lives in Tianjin. The erhu either came from there or Beijing. Got it about two years ago.
Regards, Paul....
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Dec 17, 2005 3:08:11 GMT
Hi!
I like your Gaohu. Its the 20 years ago design. If the geometric design is made up of pieces of wood, its especially nice.
You might want to use a maple bridge in your gaohu. If you play it the normal way instead of between your knees, and use a piece of cloth under the bridge, you can play butterfly lovers...
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Post by sanmenxia on Dec 17, 2005 17:41:01 GMT
Hi My erhu hasn’t got a maker’s name on it, so I don’t know who made it or even where it was made! I think it's a typical Shanghai type erhu. The outside string’s OK in the higher positions; 2 octaves above open string, but the inside’s not so good. It’s heavy, but there’s some metal inside the base. The colour is quite dark, I made the pics a bit lighter to show more detail. The shop in Beijing where I got from said it’s made from zitan. I was a bit confused about the term “zitan” so did a bit of research on it. It seems it can refer to several woods classed in the pterocarpus genus which icludes: Pterocarpu. dalbergioides (Andaman padauk) P. indicus (narra) P. angolensis (muninga) P. macrocarpus (Burmese padauk) P. soyauxii (African padauk) P. santalinus (red sandalwood) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PterocarpusNot to be confused with (white) sandalwood Santalum album, which is a different wood belonging to a different genus, tanxiangmu in Chinese. Some bridges: uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/abbaabba@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=2dd7&.dnm=c9fb.jpg&.src=phThe bridge I’m using is like the ones in the bottom row, I don’t know what the woods are. I’ve tried the others, to me this one sounds the best for my erhu. The others sound too thin, sharp and nasal, I think my erhu’s naturally a bit bright. I thought playing the gaohu between the knees was the normal way. Yes, the different colours are separate pieces of wood and it’s quite old, around 15 years.
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Dec 18, 2005 1:01:56 GMT
I make bridges using 30 year old violin back with flames. The wood cost $300 USD a piece. The cutting may not be perfect, but the wood is a maximum resonator. Hence he sound is bright, and both strings are able to play all the way till the finger touches the bow.
no joke, several teachers in singapore visit my lil shop to buy bridges, and i take the opportunity to itroduce the erhu to them. The bridges literally increased volume by 20% (in decibel difference) and the brightness is the key.
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Post by paulv on Dec 19, 2005 20:34:20 GMT
Sanmenxia,
I bought a bunch of bridges (teacher's recommendation) the last time I was in China. Most look like the bottom row in your picture with hard/soft wood. I use the softer wood bridge as it makes my erhu sound its best -- the harder bridges made the sound (in my opinion) too bright.
Also, did you look inside the resonator box (through the grill) to see if there's a label? I think there's one on my erhu in addition to the label on the bottom. Of course, the bottom label is so worn I couldn't read it anymore -- besides, I glued a non-slip pad to the bottom.
Regards, Paul....
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Post by sanmenxia on Dec 20, 2005 17:25:48 GMT
There isn’t a label on my erhu anywhere, perhaps it was a reject! I do have another erhu which does have a label under the base, I don’t have it with me at the moment, but it says something like: Beijing musical instrument factory, erhu, laohongmu (old red wood) and a date, all in Chinese. I would have thought, apart from the very best, most erhus tend to sound too bright and harsh, especially when new. The bridge I’m using gives the smoothest sound, but it’s still a little bit thin and bright on the A string. I just tried the bridge from my gaohu which is made from softer wood and is smaller (made it myself), the sound is fuller but less smooth. To make a bright erhu more mellow I guess you would need a bridge made from softer wood, a bigger size, to dampen the higher frequencies.
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Post by sanmenxia on Jan 20, 2006 18:55:06 GMT
I've got some pictures of my other erhu: uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/abbaabba@btinternet.com/album?.dir=/babb&.src=phIt's an 8 sided old redwood erhu, the label says Beijing folk instrument factory. The annoying thing is that it was about half the price of my 6 sided zitan erhu, but it sounds better! The skin is not as good, it's bit rough, the bridge presses in more and has smaller scales although it has a nice regular pattern. You might have to copy and paste the whole address.
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Post by calden on Jan 22, 2006 21:18:51 GMT
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Post by sanmenxia on Jan 23, 2006 10:52:39 GMT
The 'oval 8 sided' erhu looks interesting, what's the sound like? How does it compare with the 6 sided erhu?
I'm having trouble opening the pics, it took quite a few clicks before the pics would show and the Chinese Music folder doesn't open at all.
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Post by calden on Jan 23, 2006 15:08:28 GMT
My Wangguoxing (oval) erhu was given to me as a "di-yin erhu", tuned to GD, and meant to play "Er QUan Ying Yue." It sounds great like that - however, it looks exactly like other regular Da erhus I've seen by Wangguoxing, so I suspect the person who gave it to me might have just put the lower strings on a good-quality erhu. I've thought about stringing it up with regular strings to have a taste of it that way.
I'm surprised you can't opening this - I can't imagine why not. On my Mac it just pops right up. Maybe I can put the pictures up elsewhere.
Carlos
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Post by davidmdahl on Jan 23, 2006 17:23:14 GMT
I don't have any problem viewing the pics in any of the three folders on Carlos's site.
Best wishes,
David
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Post by stringdidj on Jan 24, 2006 11:38:49 GMT
I bought a cheap erhu on ebay, mainly because it came with 2 bow 2 bridges and two sets of strings which i needed to set up an old one I had. This instrument is made of stained hardwood and is labelled Yong Ming www.michaeljking.com/DS2_0314.jpghere is the webpage that shows the other repaired instrument and sound clips of both (please bear in mind I have had the erhu for only one week!) www.michaeljking.com/erhu.htmThe Yong Ming is not very well made, the skin is rather scaley, the wood heavy but roughly made, the base plastic, the 2 bows not very good. But it works, and I think if I add 2 violin string adjusters it will do until I can get the real deal from cadenza!
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Post by calden on Jan 24, 2006 13:01:30 GMT
Stringdidj:
Nice playing for only having had it one week - nothing to be ashamed of there.
Carlos
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Post by sanmenxia on Jan 24, 2006 17:06:43 GMT
Hey calden, I can see all your pics now. I've also got a standard erhu strung with erquan strings. It was a cheap erhu which didn't sound very good, now I used it to play along to Cantonese music, which is mostly in C, so it's tuned to G-D, sol-re, 1 octave below the gaohu.
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Post by calden on Feb 10, 2006 14:31:32 GMT
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Post by calden on Feb 10, 2006 14:35:07 GMT
Oops - try again:
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Feb 10, 2006 15:35:44 GMT
HAHAHAHAAH
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Post by davidmdahl on Feb 10, 2006 22:13:35 GMT
I can't see your photo, Carlos. Maybe you can put it on that magix site with your other erhu photos.
Best wishes,
David
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Post by yehzhaofeng on Feb 12, 2006 9:31:36 GMT
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Post by yehzhaofeng on Feb 12, 2006 9:46:46 GMT
I see you guys have a piece of cloth under the bridge, what is it for? If you notice, my zhonghu has a copper bowl that can be screwed on and off, I think it's to keep the sounds coming out the other end and it does produce a much mellow-er tune.
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Feb 12, 2006 14:31:00 GMT
thats an age old beijing design.
It may make sound mellower, but the cloth relivees exccess poressure off the skin, and removes wolf tones when well adjusted.
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Post by yehzhaofeng on Feb 13, 2006 1:52:53 GMT
Really? I don't know too much about the instrument. If I can make out the writing, it's made in Suzhou.
BTW, thanks for the info.
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Post by sitorimon on Feb 15, 2006 13:30:05 GMT
Everyone's looks lovely - I love the little details in that slideshow you've made Calden! I'll post a pic of mine shortly!
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