Sunday, January 5, 2014

Helping a Customer Choose an Erhu

We just want to share here the lengths we go to to help a customer on the other side of the world choose his erhu.

-------------------

On 2 Dec, a customer emailed about our Shanghai Dunhuang aged rosewood erhu.   He pointed out that the sound clips were of poor quality and wondered if we had better ones.  I quickly realized that I have not updated the sound clips since we starting selling online which is 7-8 years ago.  So I quickly did a new demo and posted it on youtube:



------------------

He replied that it is not exactly the sound he is looking for.  He is looking for something close to the video below:



I replied that although I do not play or look as good as Yu Hongmei, I will try to give him some recommendations as close as possible.  I recommended him the Aged Rosewood Erhu by Hu Han Hou, and the Ming Qing Aged Rosewood Erhu by YKM

--------------------

He replied that he likes the Ming Qing Aged Rosewood Erhu by YKM, but it is a little out of his budget.  He then requested a video demo of the below two erhus:

YKM1 - Aged rosewood Erhu by YKM
HEH10 - Shanghai Dunhuang aged rosewood Erhu

He wanted to hear the same person play both erhus, with the camera/microphone the same distance away the whole time. He also requested to choose two songs and play the same two songs on each erhu as well as to show a close-up of the front and back of each erhu.

I came back to him with this video.



----------------------

He came back and told me that he liked the sound YKM1 (Aged rosewood erhu by YKM) but he wanted to hear the erhus being played on the higher registers (which I didn't do in the previous video)

I subsequently made this video for him, playing the hark the herald angels sing on the high registers for both erhus.



---------------------

He replied that while he liked the overall tone of YKM1, he didn't like their higher registers.  He requested another video demo of the following 3 erhus:

MMK4 - Suzhou Black Sandalwood Erhu by MMK
HEH14 - Shanghai Dunhuang Violet Sandalwood Erhu
YKM2 - Violet Sandalwood Erhu by YKM

I told him the quality of YKM2 is quite inconsistent and recommended him the Suzhou Black Sandalwood Erhu by Wan Qi Xing instead.  I subsequently made this video demo for him, playing Love me tender on 3 positions on the below 3 different erhus:

- Suzhou Black Sandalwood Erhu by MMK
- Shanghai Dunhuang Violet Sandalwood Erhu
- Suzhou Black Sandalwood Erhu by Wan Qi Xing



---------------------

He told me he liked MMK4 and wanted more of the same for comparison.  So I made the below video for him (cos I'm left with only 2pcs).



I told him I like the second one in the video better.  He agreed that he liked the second erhu too and subsequently made the purchase!

----------------------------

So, if you are looking to buy an erhu from us online and want to see the exact instrument before buying.  Feel free to ask!

4 comments:

  1. Nice demo. Thanks for the info and demo.
    How much does the aged rosewood erhu by YKM cost?.
    The second erhu in the last video sounded the best of the two.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What is the name of the second one played in the last video?

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is the erhu SGXGAL: http://www.easonmusicstore.com/webshaper/store/viewProd.asp?pkProductItem=11

    ReplyDelete