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Post by rozz on Oct 9, 2006 4:24:32 GMT
Does anyone have info on building an erhu or are there kits....any info would be appreciated....Thanks Rosalind
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Post by davidmdahl on Oct 9, 2006 5:11:43 GMT
I have never seen a kit for building an erhu, but there are plans for building a tin-can erhu. Search on erhu from Google.com and it should be easy to find. If you were handy with wood the main challenge might be finding an appropriate snake skin and getting it stretched over the resonator in the right manner.
Best wishes,
David
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Post by maaltan on Oct 9, 2006 10:36:37 GMT
The skin is the problem. No matter how pretty or fancy, the erhu is it basically a box/can on a stick. It seems the better erhus are made from dense wood. I assume its to take natural resonance out of the equation. I assume you could use any dense hardwood thats more available in US areas. (oak, teac, mahogony?) I have yet to find a substitute for the snake skin. Some probable, yet as of yet untested substances: Banjo head, drum head, a US "native" snake skin. I would really like to see an erhu with garter snake skin. I dont know how you would get the multiple skins stiched together in a way that wont affect the strength or tone, but the bright green scales would be nice with a reddish mahogony. Sort of an alien erhu  |
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Oct 9, 2006 13:16:03 GMT
hmmm....
making erhu is really hard work. REALLY blisters and bruises and burns, which make erhu really hard to make
Most erhus in china are mass made using methods which i can teach you over the phone, with some pictures. These erhus sound dry and empty.
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Post by jetz320 on Oct 9, 2006 18:36:07 GMT
I've never gotten or understood how they get the snake skin over the sound box. I seem to notice there is a white piece of something under it. It will be a hard peice of work to build an erhu. I've seen people build violins but erhu, that I've never seen. I don't think it's that simple.
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Post by shoppingchinanow on Oct 10, 2006 5:46:23 GMT
I have the video tutorial for erhu making, but it is in Chinese and is a little big that it is difficult for me to share with you. Erhu making can't be an easy, but either a difficult thing, if you are an experienced carpenter, the possibility of making an erhu is something easier. When I was still a child, my father made his own erhu from the wood produced in south china and of course, the snake skin is necessary. Does anyone have info on building an erhu or are there kits....any info would be appreciated....Thanks Rosalind |
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Post by Charlie Huang on Oct 10, 2006 9:44:25 GMT
Can you build a violin? No, because it is an expert job. Same with any instrument, there's unlikely to be a building kit for them in the serious sense. Best buy an instrument instead.
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Post by calden on Oct 10, 2006 13:39:52 GMT
I've made several instruments. I think that with some decent woodworking skills one could make an erhu without a great deal of trouble. Of course, it won't sound like a Wang Guo Xing erhu, but it would certainly be a lot easier than making a violin. The biggest challenges would be how to construct the body (barrel) and how to stretch the skin head to an appropriate tension. That's the real art of it - choosing the wood, constructing the barrel, and choosing and stretching the snakeskin.
Carlos
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Post by rozz on Oct 10, 2006 15:57:01 GMT
I an new to replying so I hope I am doing this right . Thankyou all for your great information reguarding building an erhu. Appreciate all your ensusiasm...Carolos, David, alien erhu man and others....not sure how to read everyone's names....will the genteman whose father made the erhu and has a big video which is too big to send tell me where I can purchase it. I don't know Chinese but I have purchased some beginning erhu lesson cds from:
WJ Bookstore Inc
379 Broadway
New York New York 10013
212 226-5131 ex. 123 or 121
and I am able to pick up alot even though I don't understand the language...a picture is worth
a thousand words.... Blessings thanks again....I hope this gets out to all of you generous people......ROzz
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Post by simon18i on Dec 11, 2006 12:17:14 GMT
I am building my own erhu too. I found all my woods by the side of the road . I finished the neck in which the wood is a part of old furniture that fell apart. it is a very dence wood that I dont think it will bend, but it has warp a little,yet i guess its ok. the qintong i make 8sided cos the wood is 9.5cm old dismanthed house beam. very heavy, which i am having trouble "hole-ing" it through. so i made another qintong of light white wood. i bought a chinese incence holder and cut a section out of it.^^ but its round. For the tuning peg i plan to use the reclining part of a half burnt chair but i havent dismantle and bring back. now i'm still looking for the skin. thinking of using substitude but snakeskin characteristic is said to be the best. yesterday i almost tan a road kill rat for the skin, but at last i didn't. bless the rat stil lying on the road.@@
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Post by dsouthwood on Dec 11, 2006 14:00:41 GMT
For snakeskin in the U.S., just plan a trip to the Florida Everglades. The python population is growing there, thanks to the pet pythons people have released into the wild. According to news reports, the pythons are seriously messing up the populations of native creatures there, even including the alligators--although with gator vs. python it seems to be a toss-up who eats whom. All you need is a kayak and a really big net.
Dennis
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Post by calden on Dec 11, 2006 15:22:57 GMT
For snakeskin in the U.S., just plan a trip to the Florida Everglades. The python population is growing there, thanks to the pet pythons people have released into the wild. According to news reports, the pythons are seriously messing up the populations of native creatures there, even including the alligators--although with gator vs. python it seems to be a toss-up who eats whom. All you need is a kayak and a really big net. Dennis Ah, yes, another reason I don't wish to live in Florida. Along with the humidity, excess sun, hurricanes, large and nasty insects, prickly things that live in the grass and are waiting to bite me, knife-edge palm leaves that slice my flesh, etc. etc. Carlos |
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Post by damien on Dec 11, 2006 15:56:04 GMT
I thought it was not good for the snake skin when the snakes live in very hot dry countries?
I got the impression that snake skin was better in the rainforests.
I agree Carlos, i did the stupid thing of running onto the grass without any shoes or socks and found it was like nails. Let alone walk along the main road with friggin aligators and snakes... When Americans say just up the road, don't listen you will be walking for miles... i get a taxi back and the Irish driver is saying look at those idiots walking just where we were lol
But Florida has Disney world still te he
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Post by calden on Dec 11, 2006 17:07:50 GMT
I lived in Florida when I was just a wee little lad, and have nightmarish memories of all those things. Running from large wasp attacks, right over the hot sharp grass, then onto coral gravel roads like broken glass, then getting tangled in the hanging Spanish moss. Not for the faint of heart. It's not dry, by the way, but actually very humid.
The entire Disney corporation, and their money-grubbing approach to stealing traditional fairy tales (and dumbing them down wtih Elton John pop songs) turns my stomach. They are the Wal-Mart of children's entertainment. They are the 12- Girls-Band of traditional Chinese music. They are the George Bush of international statecraft.
Got up on the wrong side of the bed today. Grrrr.
Carlos
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Post by dsouthwood on Dec 12, 2006 2:11:46 GMT
Damien,
Your comment reminded me of the old joke contrasting our two cultures: An Englishman thinks a hundred miles is a long way; an American thinks a hundred years is a long time.
Dennis
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Post by damien on Dec 12, 2006 10:05:59 GMT
I don't think you woke up on the wrong side Carlos, you just like the truth haha
And your right Dennis, the amount of Americans that told me it's just up the road. I will never listen to them again haha we only live on a small island and i guess 300 miles is a long way....So if you ever see the English pissed off at the airport you will know why, saying that you will always end up with northern families with too many kids and just LOUD i see why the world hates us haha. Infact on bbc 2 days ago it said 5.5 million brits are living in other countries. I guess we do have different cultures but were all pretty much the same when it comes down to it.
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Post by maaltan on Dec 13, 2006 1:12:28 GMT
I don't think you woke up on the wrong side Carlos, you just like the truth haha And your right Dennis, the amount of Americans that told me it's just up the road. I will never listen to them again haha we only live on a small island and i guess 300 miles is a long way. ha .. when i was young i had to walk 150 miles to school everyday in the snow...even in the summer.. and it was uphill..both ways. When we got home at night we had to work in the tobacco fields until dawn. sorry couldnt resist (btw i AM commuting 100miles round trip a day to work at the moment. getting annoying. |
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Post by calden on Dec 13, 2006 2:31:41 GMT
Long commutes....
We fly to Portland, OR, from where I live, about once a year to see my Mother. It's about 320 miles, and about a 40 minute trip, quite fast. On one of these flights, at 7 am on a weekday morning, I met a guy who flew to Portland every day for work. He had been working in Portland, then decided the urban ratrace was too much for him and quit to move up near where I live. The company he worked for didn't want to lose him, and told him they would pay for his 5-day-a-week commute. He drives 30 minutes to the airport, gets the flight, gets his company car parked at the other airport, drives the 10 minutes to work. THen reverses it again at 4 pm. He's home by 6 with family for dinner.
Carlos
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Dec 13, 2006 3:10:23 GMT
100miles....
singapore is 35km east to west, 28km north to south
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Post by calden on Dec 13, 2006 3:25:10 GMT
Back to making an erhu... I'm going to attempt this sometime in the next few months. We've just rebuilt our garage, in part to make it bigger so I can put my woodworking tools in there.  I found a router bit that is specifically for joining polygonal sides of a cylinder.  For those of you unfamiliar with woodworking (it's a massively popular hobby in the US) this router bit carves a groove on the edge of a piece of wood. This particular bit's shape is such that when you glue the boards together on edge they will be joined at the right angle to create an 8, 12, or 16 sided cylinder, depending on which of the three bits one purchases. Looks like it's just right for making erhu barrel blanks. Probably not the traditional way but if I join up some thick stock in a octagonal cylinder I can then carve it to whatever shape I want. More information on these bits can be had by going to the Lee Valley website: www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=45160&cat=1,46168 Carlos |
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Dec 13, 2006 9:40:46 GMT
WOW!!!
CArlos! This opens so many possibilities!
I shall send you some CAD internal design pictures and diagrams. As for skinning, I will assist with whatever i Can.
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Post by dsouthwood on Dec 14, 2006 2:30:25 GMT
Sometimes it's confusing to realize that pythons are endangered some places and pests in other places. This is from the Associated Press:
Man pulls 7-foot python from toilet
An Australian wildlife worker pulled a 7-foot python out of a septic tank Wednesday after a plumber found it hiding in a woman's toilet, officials said.
Peter Phillips, a wildlife officer for the Northern Territory's Parks and Wildlife Service, was called to remove the snake after a plumber who was fixing the blocked toilet discovered it curled in the pipes.
"The ... resident originally called a plumber because her toilet was blocked," Phillips said in a statement released by the Northern Territory government. "I arrived to see a large python head peering out of the toilet bowl."
Phillips removed the snake from the septic tank because he said it had grown too big to be pulled straight out of the toilet. The mostly nocturnal Carpet Python had probably taken up temporary residence in the septic tank because it was a good place to hide during the day and hunt for frogs.
"The tank was obviously a great home, because the snake was so fat and healthy it was it difficult to retrieve," he said, adding that the nonpoisonous snake will be released.
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Dec 14, 2006 3:15:28 GMT
7 ft pythons dun make erhus
we need a minimum 10 ft for an AVERAGE erhu, and 15-20ft ones are BEST
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Dec 14, 2006 11:36:35 GMT
Can you build a violin? No, because it is an expert job. Same with any instrument, there's unlikely to be a building kit for them in the serious sense. Best buy an instrument instead. hmm... I agree, but its fun. I pasted plastic pieces to mantain steady hands. Defleshed snakeskin for hours on end. Its a tough job to ensure pure white backs of erhu. Its really a tough job, with strict discipline, and lots of studies and thinking. Hence, a DIY kit won't work. U need to learn. Many things are made from raw materials. and, i jokingly mentioned to my shifu that if someone really wants to learn wholeheartedly, we may teach. |
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Post by simon18i on Dec 17, 2006 17:31:48 GMT
you need that big snakeskin? i almost plan to buy a 8inch wide snakeskin next weekend. the guy is selling at rm100, expensive? i ask for a small snake he say its available in 8in 10in and 12in. i've done all parts of the woodworking of the erhu except hole drilling for some screws and tuning peg. i plan to use my uni's drilling machine for doing stringht hole beside there is a variety of drill bit size to use. the skin is really giving me a headache now~~~
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I found a router bit that is specifically for joining polygonal sides of a cylinder.