new strings, bad sound, need ideas

[calden]

Hey all:

Kind of quiet around here! Well, here's a question to get you erhu folks thinking. I need some advice.

I just changed strings. The old ones were sounding okay, but I'm playing on the sidewalk next week for a street music festival, and thought new strings would be louder.

As part of this changeover I tied up a new qianjin according to Song's wonderful clear and concise instructions on Youtube. (By the way, the erhu community is incredibly lucky to have him around for instruments, parts, advice, ideas - everything.) I did a fairly good job with it - nice and neat, even rows, etc.

So I changed strings. The wai xian sounds fine, but the nei xian has a horrible catch on the note start - only the open nei xian, not fingered. I fussed with the qianjin, and although it seemed to help a little I couldn't get a consistently good sound. I then used a different brand nei xian, and it seemed to help, but there's still a bit of scratch on some open notes. Kind of sounds like the string tension is too low and the bow is catching for a millisecond.

1) Qianjin issues? Should the qianjin ties that are on the strings be perfectly level and parallel with the neck? ( I tried to aim for this.)

2) Bridge issues? Same bridge as before.

3) Does it matter where the string terminates on the winding peg? Should it go right to the point where the hole is, making a sharper angle to the qianjin, or should it contact the winding peg a bit closer to the neck head, thereby resulting in less of an angle to the qianjin?

4) string brand? The first string that sounded bad was a Kai Kai SuZhou, then I changed that to a Shanhai Dunhuang (Flying Spirit Lady brand), which seemed to work a little better.

5) More rosin? Will it sound better with a bit more gunk on it?


I'm inclined to think it's the qianjin because it only occurs with an open string, but I did a pretty good job with tying a new one.

Any suggestions on where to start? I'm pretty baffled by this. I usuallly can troubleshoot stringed instrument problems, and have NEVER had a glaring problem like this that didn't suggest an immediate solution.

Thanks tons,
Carlos

[calden]

Update:

After leaving it for the night and playing it this morning, a lot seems to have resolved itself. I think that the qianjin settled itself and evened out the tension on each of the six round-the-string wraps. From observation, it would appear that if any one of the wraps should NOT be loose it would be the one closest to the body. A good snug contact with the strings at the last wrap there would approximate a good solid finger pressure, which, when applied, stops this bad sound.

However - I'm still open to hearing thoughts and ideas about this.


Carlos

[maaltan]

you beat me to it . That was the cause and solution I was thinking of.

I found each of the qianjin loops need to have identical tension. the good thing is that most strings will stretch until the load is balanced if you get it close enough.

My only other suggestion is maybe the bow got contaminated with oil or dirt somehow.

[calden]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I, too, would have thought that something was up with the bow, but it was the same one i had been playing with half an hour previously. I didn't even take it out of the strings to change the strings and tie a new qian jin.

I also pondered whether it might have been caused by a sudden gust of bad technique!

Carlos

[dsouthwood]

It does seem to matter whether the qianjin loops have even tension. In an ill-fated experiment I tested whether waxed string sold at craft shops for stringing beads would be better for the qianjin loops because it would be stiffer. Well, it was stiffer, but because it was impregnated with bees wax, it was also slightly sticky rather than slippery, as we usually associate with waxed things. The result was that although it was easier to wind the qianjin loops because the waxed string stuck to the neck of the erhu, the loops also could not adjust themselves and even out the tension. So I cut it off and retied the qianjin with string from Eason. Maybe I'll take up beading to use up the rest of the waxed string. Or candle making.

Dennis

[calden]

Or dental flossing if you have bad gums.

Carlos

[song]

I'm happy to serve Carlos!

Well, the horrible inner string could be due to the qianjin as you have pointed out.

Another reason is because the strings have not settled down. You have to give it a week but I guess you don't have that much time. So what do you do? You do the reverse bowing!

Trust me it helps....

[calden]

Hey Song:

Reverse bowing?

Carlos

[song]

Yeah the reverse bowing!

tansungwah.blogspot.com/2007/11/reverse-erhu-bowing.html

SW