Erhu Necks
My Erhu Seller
By chance, we found the dealer above, whom I trusted more than anyone else I met on Jinling Lu. At his shop, I chose an erhu produced by Shanghai No.1 Musical Instruments Factory with a good sound for its price and bought it only after hearing the dealer play a beautiful melody on it. I made sure it came with a registration card as well as the necessary government export certificate. The case also came with bow rosin, extra bridges and padding, 2 sets of strings, a tuner keychain, and a VCD that lectures on how the traditional Chinese erhu is the best instrument ever made. There was a little nick on the body, though. If I would have pointed this out to dealers at other shops, they’d state that such things don’t matter and just talk the instrument up or desperately drop the price another 5 Yuan. Instead, this guy polished the nick with a repair kit at the shop and it looked fine.
Sichuan Meal
Lastly, as with all adventures, the search for an erhu ended with a feast. Above are three spicy Sichuan dishes: cold chicken, minced lamb, and some rice derivative. As I ate, I was choking on both the spice in the food and in the air of the restaurant.
That was a wonderful story! I’ve recently started playing the erhu and wish i knew more about purchasing one. They don’t have many players down south. I wish you well in your future adventures!
If I remember my orchestration class correctly there are 2 ways of notating music for this instrument. which are you using? traditional(chinese and apparently less precise) or western(5 line staff etc..). Stumbling upon these posts makes me wish i had been a bit more attentive that day.
How much did you pay for this erhu?