He Mingwei

The qin at right was made by He Mingwei of Chengdu around 1990. Until I recently started using a qin by Wang Peng, my main concert qins had aways been ones made by He Mingwei some years before this. To my ears those have a better sound, but this later one has much better finishing.² The difference in sound may be due to He Mingwei, by this time, using metal strings while testing the sound of his qins. Also, the top of the qin is a bit flatter, as it should be with metal strings. Because of this I put an extra piece of silk string along the top of the bridge, under the strings, to raise them a bit. This helps prevent a buzzing sound when stopping the strings in a lower position.³

Footnotes

1. He Mingwei stopped making qins for a while, but I heard that he has started making them again (ca. 2006). (Return)

2. Subsequently Wang Peng did some considerable refinishing of my three earlier He Mingwei qins, improving their appearance dramatically. (Return)

3. The pale wavey effect on the top and bottom surface of the qin is the reflection from a white radiator that was standing behind the qin as I took the picture. (Return)