The Crystallized See Through Electric Erhu

Well, I went back to Shanghai Dunhuang's exhibition booth to have a go at the see through Erhu played by the 'lovely Chinese girl in Greek goddess robes'.

It feels alright, a little plasticly, but because it is shaped like a Erhu, it feels like a Erhu. The sound however, is a little flat and contained. They replaced the snakeskin with the skin of another animal as you can see from the picture from the earlier post. I was a little perturbed when I heard what kind of animal skin they used. Not for public consumption, but email me if you are dying to know.

After playing the Erhu, I confirmed my suspicions that the 'lovely Chinese girl in Greek goddess robes' was hand-syncing during her performance the other day.

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

While I was walking around the exhibition grounds, I saw another see through Erhu. Except that this Erhu is an electric Erhu with built in pick up and equalizer.

Here's a short clip of it:



The tone that came out of the electric Erhu is similar to what you would get from a electric violin. Although it doesn't have the warmth, sweetness and richness of a standard Erhu, it still sounds ok. (The sound quality in the clip is compromised when I converted the original video file to smaller file) The sound came out of a speaker that was connected remotely by a wireless transmitter attached to the pickup of the Erhu.

Take a closer look at it:

The headstock...

Another shot of the headstock...

The soundbox with electronics.....

Another shot of the soundbox with electronics....

Complete with tone and volume knob controls....

They use fishing line to tie the qianjing. The Erhu strings seem to be of a heavier gauge.

Pretty interesting eh?

They also have see through electric Pipa and Zhongruan!