Retracted skin

[loky123]

Hey all,

I was wondering, lately, my erhu's skin as been retracting due to the dry and cold weather. It originally started with a small white plastic showing which was originally glued to it, but now.. its about 2 mm wide, meaning it has retracted by that much! Is there a remedy for this? I mean.. it plays fine.. im just worried that if it gets any dryer, it may become brittle and hurt itself.

Thanks!

[dsouthwood]

I wonder if a leather conditioner might help. I used one on my erhu for a different problem--the sound was somewhat harsh, and the conditioner made it clearly smoother and more mellow. I went to Boot Barn because I know that some shoes and boots are made of snakeskin, and I asked them for a conditioner that was made for snakeskin. They recommended "Bick 4," a conditioner made by Bickmore for exotic leathers, including snakeskin.

Using the conditioner did not change the color of the snakeskin at all, but it evidently did soften it a bit. I would wait for others to add their opinions before doing anything though, because as I said, mine was a slightly different problem.

[loky123]

hum... well it now seems clear to me that under closer inspection, the entire drum of the erhu has shrunken by the same amount. I'm guessing that the wood has contracted due to the weather. Anyone experience this before?

[calden]

loky:

My erhu just went through some contraction due to the long cold winter we've had. I noticed the seams slightly opening up. Yow! I put a guitar humidifier in there - it's a length of surgical tubing with holes in it, with a sponge inside, also made for violins:

You also can buy humidfiers made for violins - very small , about the size of a tube of lip balm, and they do the same thing. Probably a better fit for those tight erhu cases. Follow instructions, and check it after a few days. Should help.

Carlos

[YouLanFengChune]

somehow, wood retracting doesn't sound good.
refering to my taiwan associate who mentors ERHU for taiwan university:

lao hong mu should never retract, if they are of authenthic value. They have been aged long enough. Zitan should retract by 0.07%, and that will rightly mellow the high-treble sound. Hong Mu will retact by 0.5%, if is of poorer quality. Sadly, Wu Mu will retract up to 2%, a hge amount. the sound may go flattish

[calden]

Not sure what mine is made of.

However, I do know from my work with guitars that most any wood will change subject to humidity. The crucial factor is the relative humidity of the wood when the instrument is made. Where I live is moderately dry, and in cold winters is bone-cracking dry. In order to have an isntrument that is NOT adversely affected by dryness, it would have to be made in a very dry environment. Getting more humid would only tighten things up in that case. What's happening with my erhu is not unusual for wood instruments of any kind where I live.

Carlos

[loky123]

hum.. well, Im not sure of your input Youlan, because I have a very expensive violin, and it too goes through the same shrinking properties, but not has adverse as that of this erhu. It was weird though, the sound did become flat, and had to retune both strings the same amount. Yeah, Ihave that humidifier tube in my violin case, and it had just occurred to me that it could be used for the erhu! hah, how stupid of me.

[saggio]

my computer skills are minimal at best. I saw this post about erhu and thought someone might be able to help me. I bought an erhu from ebay about 2 years ago. I paid about $180 and the instrument looks to be the real thing if not of a high quality. But I cannot get a single sound out of it. Not quite sure how to apply the resin. I asked a violin player friend to help me. He also could not get the erhu to play. I'm not a string player and I'm really at a loss as to what to do now. Can anyone help?? I'm [e-mail].

[maaltan]

saggio said:

my computer skills are minimal at best. I saw this post about erhu and thought someone might be able to help me. I bought an erhu from ebay about 2 years ago. I paid about $180 and the instrument looks to be the real thing if not of a high quality. But I cannot get a single sound out of it. Not quite sure how to apply the resin. I asked a violin player friend to help me. He also could not get the erhu to play. I'm not a string player and I'm really at a loss as to what to do now. Can anyone help?? I'm [e-mail].

I assume you got here through a search engine. A few useful tips to help you learn about the forums in general.

first off never put your email in a public forum unless its one you care nothing about. YOu will be getting porographic and medicinal emails (spam) before you know it. If you wish to correct this there is a "modify" or "edit" button on your post.

Now for a couple things about this forum:

go to starvoid.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=Erhu and you will see hundreds of posts about erhus. There are a few "stickied" posts at the top that are typically good starting points in forums. I recommend you repost your question here as a "new topic". that way the most people possible will see it and your more likely to get answers.

starvoid.proboards30.com is acually the main site. You can learn about just about every chinese instrument from there.

also near the top you will see a search button. its very helpful in finding topics that have already been discussed.