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.

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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:



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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

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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.



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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.



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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



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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!

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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!