How to make an Erhu
Hey listen up y’all i’ma show you how to make your own home made Erhu because that’s a thing people want to know how to do
1. first things first.
buy yourself some sticks, and some coffee so you can use the container as the sound box
What thickness should the sticks be? i hear you ask. Well I don’t know I just guessed so just make sure the neck is thick enough for pegs to go through. But if you really want to know the thinner wood which will be used for the pegs is about half an inch and the thicker wood which will be used for the neck is about an inch and a half
2. cut 2 holes on the coffee cylinder thing and shove it on the thicker stick
I did this by makeing the holes smaller then the base of the stick and then cutting slits in the holes so the coffee container would fit nice and snug so it doesn’t slide around
Dimensions: I made the sound box a little less then 2 1/2 inches from the bottom of the neck
3. Measure the width of smaller stick and drill holes the same size or the slightest bit smaller into the neck of the instrument, they should be parallel to each other
Again when it comes with measurements i just guessed. After doing some research I found that most Erhu’s were 81 cm so i sawed the neck accordingly, and for spacing between the pegs they are about 3 inches apart. The first hole is about 5 inches down from the top of the neck.
4. Cut and insert the pegs
I was lucky enough that the holes I drilled into the neck were small enough that the pegs fit in with out falling out but big enough I was still able to turn them. If your holes are too small you might need to whittle the wood down so the pegs fit. My advice to you is to create some type of cross section with the pegs so they are easier to turn or at least use pliers to turn them, I’ve been too lazy to do this so I’ve just dealt with getting blisters very time I turn the pegs.
Dimensions: Once again I simply guessed with the measurements but if you really want to know, my pegs are about six inches long
5. screw in the strings
Make sure you wait until you get the strings before doing this because you need to make sure the loop at the bottom of Erhu strings* can fit over the screw and I made the mistake of putting in a screw that was too big so the strings couldn’t fit over it.
*I just bought the strings off amazon they were only $5
6. Making a bridge
I just used some wood left over from the pegs to make the bridge, and cut the bottom so it would lie flat and not role around and I cut divots into the wood where the strings would go just to insure the strings would stay in place. The piece of felt is optional it doesn’t really affect the sound quality at all
7. String the strings
and that’s it!
WooOw look at her.
(you can also add a qianjin if you want i just didn’t like the way if effected the sound, you can look up videos how to tie one yourself)
all in all this project only cost me about $15 dollars