Tips From Mr Z (Part I)

The great thing about having a shop selling musical instruments is that you get music enthusiasts that come into your shop regularly and they share with you some of their own findings on how to improve their instruments.

Today I had a visit from an old friend who loves to tweak his Erhu. He was playing around with the Erhus in my shop here and there he gave some of his tips of how to improve the sound the Erhus. Most of them make sense to me, although some of them goes against what I have been usually doing.

Some of them may work for you, some of them may not. You have to do some trial and error to find out if it suits your Erhu.

So here they are, the first tip from Mr Z, as we shall call him. Have fun trying them out.

- Qianjing
The Qianjing should not be tied with too many loops. This is because too many loops reduces the vibrations circulation from the strings to the neck of the bridge. The ideal number of loops should be 6 across the string, and just one extra loop above and below on the neck. You will find that the sound of your Erhu improves by 10-15%. If you're worried that the Qianjing is unstable, put some UHU glue or superglue on the Qianjing on the 2 areas indicated below: