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Post by carol on Jul 15, 2005 19:16:04 GMT
dsouthwood:
Your new zheng is a great one. That looks more like a zitan guzheng to me. The sound boards of your guzheng has rather straight wood grains. The maker as engraved at the back: Dai Yun Jung is a good maker. As for selecting sound board, she doesn't care too much about having a parabola center shape in the paulownia(that usually weaken the sound), but rather she prefer looser lines over tighter lines. So, her guzhengs have deep and loose bass among all dunghuang Yuns. Hers are really popular in Taiwan. Generally, Taiwanese prefer deeper bass rather than the brilliant high notes. Also, she uses a special technique in raosting the boards, so the grains are shown nicely. You can see the difference comparing to my old rosewood one made by Tian Jiang Zheng. He is another Dunhuang Yun maker.
You are really a lucky man. It's so rare to see such a good instrument in the States.
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Post by Vi An on Jul 15, 2005 21:43:30 GMT
Carol,
What is the length and width of your 18 stringed?
Thanks,
Vi An.
For me the Scarlet Bird is still most appealing and sounding!
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Post by carol on Jul 16, 2005 15:30:28 GMT
Hi Vi An:
The 18-stringed is 55"x12.5"
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Post by Vi An on Jul 16, 2005 16:35:04 GMT
Hi there Carol,
Thank you!
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Post by twilight on Jul 17, 2005 4:07:47 GMT
wow! very nice pictures everyone :-)
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Post by calden on Jul 21, 2005 13:47:01 GMT
Okay, I'm not REALLY a guzheng player, just temporarily migrated over here from the erhu room to discuss the little travel guzheng I bought in china 20 years ago. Here are some pictures: carlos-alden.magix.net/And you need to click on "Chinese Music" Carlos
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Post by Vi An on Jul 21, 2005 16:27:42 GMT
Thank you Carlos,
Very good pictures. My gal pal here also has a Xing Hai but its a 21 stringed instrument. It sounds way better than my DUNHUANG duo cranes guzheng. Her's is really old and has a lot of age and damage! Yet the instrument still rings loudly and beautifully.
Enjoy,
Vi An.
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Post by calden on Jul 22, 2005 0:35:45 GMT
Thank you Carlos, Very good pictures. My gal pal here also has a Xing Hai but its a 21 stringed instrument. It sounds way better than my DUNHUANG duo cranes guzheng. Her's is really old and has a lot of age and damage! Yet the instrument still rings loudly and beautifully. Enjoy, Vi An. Well, that's unexpected good news. I assumed that the Xing Hai brand was an entry-level product for use by kids. I always thought it sounded good, but then, what do I know? Carlos
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Post by carol on Sept 28, 2005 19:12:42 GMT
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Post by Vi An on Sept 28, 2005 23:01:16 GMT
Beautiful instrument Carol thanks for the pictures so wonderful and inspiring!! It is a really warm and ellegant color! I really like what I'm seeing of the Tienyi design details so far with those bone insets with a single stripe of wood, like I only seen on the Scarlet Bird guzhengs. They look like a cross between Scarlet Bird, Yun and Jinyun designs.
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Post by Vi An on Sept 29, 2005 22:36:01 GMT
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Post by blonderedhead on Oct 28, 2005 18:13:35 GMT
these aren't mine but thought i'd share their beauty this koto cost 2.1million yen (18,200USD), decorated with ivory and of the highest grade soundboard. i don't see much ivory but a lot of beautiful japanese kiri. can someone make me a zheng like this ;D this one is only 840kYen (7,263.02 USD), wow!
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Post by Vi An on Oct 28, 2005 18:21:36 GMT
Ahhhh yes the magnificent art of the Japanese koto. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm *sigh*. How I have loved these visions for all of time. I must admit that before I got all in love with guzheng my first love is koto.. Shhhhhhhhhh. *Looks around*.
Vi An
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Post by Vi An on Oct 28, 2005 18:28:12 GMT
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Post by carol on Oct 28, 2005 18:58:46 GMT
Sigh, I really wish someday I can find a piece of sound board with that even radius grains. It seems to be impossible for the width of guzheng. If there is one, maybe the cost will be twice as much as that koto, since guzheng is 2x wider.
I'll post the pictures of my kayagum sometimes.
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Post by Charlie Huang on Oct 29, 2005 11:25:49 GMT
Bloody Hell! Looking at the grains of the first koto, the tree must have been massive! No wonder it cost a bomb!
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Post by Vi An on Oct 29, 2005 15:47:25 GMT
Looks like the Japanese lead in this paulownia industry. They have a long history of working with paulownia and creating nearly everything with this wood. I read on line somewhere that even scrap paulownia is made into slippers (I saw a girl here wear them at a performance), toys, tiny objects and such.. Their techniques of lifting wood grains of kotos is fascinating!
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Post by carol on Nov 11, 2005 18:21:51 GMT
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Post by Charlie Huang on Nov 11, 2005 20:30:57 GMT
Your qin is Zeng Chengwei, isn't it? I can tell just by looking at it.
Nice Kayagum!
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Post by blueharp on Nov 12, 2005 9:13:55 GMT
Thank you Carol!
I really appreciate you sharing the pictures of the various guzheng makers too!
Steve
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Post by davidmdahl on Nov 26, 2005 4:34:35 GMT
I finally added some more photos to my web site. home.comcast.net/~davidmdahl/Check out the dan tranh and dan bau sections. I hope eventually to add tune files, particularly dan bau. Best wishes, David
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Post by twilight on Nov 26, 2005 4:49:17 GMT
Love your instruments David. Soooooooo pretty!
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Post by carol on Nov 27, 2005 23:15:37 GMT
David:
Your Dan Tranh is so so so beautiful!!! I can't keep my eyes off it.
What's the material for the last two strings? They look like silk strings. It's also interesting that it doesn't have string holes on the right side. All strings go into the side box.
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Post by davidmdahl on Nov 27, 2005 23:35:08 GMT
Thank you Trac and Carol. I am pretty proud of my instruments and hope to be worthy of them some day. The dan tranh has unique design that apparently borrows from the guzheng. I have not had a chance to change a string yet, but the guzheng-like box should make that a relative breeze. The lowest two strings are actually guitar strings. I don't remember which ones at the moment. I may replace them with more typical unwound steel strings as I am not quite sure I like the sound as well.
Best wishes,
David
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Post by Vi An on Dec 1, 2005 17:49:17 GMT
David, What a great piece of instrument you got there for a dan tranh. It is very handsome! I approve! Very good work on it, clean lines and splendid to look at for sure. Vi An
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