FutureMillennium web.net – Zdeněk Gromnica

Energy drink can jinghu (erhu)

4th August 2010

Making musical instruments has been a dream of mine for quite some time. I'd say it all started somewhere between frantically collecting instruments and admiring people that build instruments out of tins and cigar boxes. So this Sunday I finally decided to get off my ass, went to the nearest hardware store, bought all the necessary tools and materials and made my first very own can jinghu (erhu)!

• energy drink - $0.50
• thick spruce pole - $0.60
• thin spruce pole - $0.40
• smoother sandpaper - $0.50
• rougher sandpaper - $0.80
• saw - $1.10
• knife - $1.60
• cotton qianjin - $1.50

Total cost: $7.00, a clever idea and some good old manual labor!
Okay, I cheated, because I have years of experience with musical instruments and I used two old guitar strings (E and B), two screws I found and borrowed a drill, but you get the idea.

So, how did I make it? First, I bought and cracked open an energy drink. This was the most delicious part of the project. After I was done with it, I washed it and cut crosses on each side of it for the neck to come through. Then I sawed two even parts off of the thicker spruce pole to make the tuning pegs, and a small piece off of the thinner pole to make a bridge. Then I drilled holes in the tuning pegs for screws and thicker holes in the neck for the screws to come through. Then I screwed the tuning pegs to the body. I searched for old guitar strings and proceeded to string them up on the jinghu (erhu). This was the most frustrating part of the project. Finally, I tied a qianjin on the strings, put on the bridge I made and a bow and voila! An energy drink can jinghu (erhu) was born!

Things I learned:

• You CAN, in fact, make a super cheapo jinghu (erhu) with almost nothing that actually plays! There's no magic in it!
• Energy drink cans are pretty thin and don't take string pressure well.
• While my tuning peg design is functional (i.e. it works), it's not very practical for the bottom peg, as it's hard to reach while holding the instrument.
• Old guitar strings don't work all that well for a jinghu/erhu, but they do work! Original jinghu (erhu) strings would probably be much less of a pain to string up.
• I should drill a hole for attaching the strings at the bottom next time, so they don't slip out of position while being strung up.

So there you have it! Now off to make more crazy instruments!

Update: I've finally changed the soundbox can last week. And I decided to use nylon guitar strings instead of steel. Here are the results:

Additional things I learned:

• Plain nylon strings CAN be bowed! Why doesn't anyone make nylon bowed instruments?
• I seem to have a problem with wolf tones. I asked around for a solution and that is – an eraser between the strings! Now to get one
• Diagonal cuts in the can seem to hold better than vertical and horizonal cuts.