I've recently worked closely with an erhu maker from Zhejiang China to bring in his erhus.
Since I'll be putting out quite a few of his erhus on sale, I thought a share a little on how I got to know him....
One fine day in Shanghai at a music fair, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and it was Mr SYR.....you know, the famous erhu performer from China who knows erhus more than anyone else.
After a few exchanges of pleasantries, he told me he's been looking everywhere for me because there is this up and coming erhu maker he wants me to meet. They are displaying their erhus here for the first time and are creating already creating some buzz with the quality of their erhus. One music instruments factory has offered to buy up all his erhus. Famous erhu maker Lu Lin Sheng went over to check out his erhus and commented that he's someone to watch out for.
Oh wow I thought. This I got to see for myself.
We zipped over to the booth in a jiffy and was greeted by YKM and his sister. The booth ain't too fantastic but they seem to be sincere and earnest people that takes pride in their products. I later heard that it was a last minute decision to come to the fair so they weren't prepared with things other than their erhus.
So how are their erhus? First impression is that they use good materials. The snakeskin and wood used are of good quality. Most of the erhus are made from different grades of aged rosewood. Their aged rosewood are either harvest from old furniture or beams of old houses. They give their erhus a natural finish so moving up and down the neck feels very comfortable. The wood is undyed so you can clearly see the lines and grains of the wood - for better or worse.
On the whole the tone is clear and articulate with a little warmness. It sounds rather clean and the high registers are good as well. It isn't as responsive as MRX erhus but its not bad either.
We thus brought back a few of their mid range erhus from the fair and feedback so far has been very good. So we've decided to include them in our range of erhus.
Check out the 3 current models below:
1) Professional Grade Aged Rosewood Erhu
2) Concert Grade Premium Aged Rosewood Erhu
3) Concert Grade Violet Sandalwood Erhu
Awaiting their entry level erhu, gaohu and zhonghu to come in next......
