Gopro Hero 3 Singapore
June 3, 2014Erhus and their Baseplates
June 8, 2014One fine day, someone brought their zhonghu in for repairs.
It was broken and the owner took things into her own hands and fix it with….
SUPERGLUE!
Don’t you just love the mess created by the super glue.
Here’s another front shot of the neck…
Here’s how the super glue ruined the grains of the wood….
The other side….
Look how grotesquely deformed the heads are now.
The thing about using superglue to fix your erhu head back is that for some reason they do not stick very well, despite being ‘super’.
And once it comes off, you are going to have a hell of a time sticking it back.
When the neck breaks, the two parts of the head has natural grooves that join together snuggly like some jigsaw puzzle.
When you gloss it over with superglue, the whole surface is ruined and they do not join together so snuggly any more.
But all is not lost. Enter Mr Kangaroo the superglue dissolver, a brush, a glove and lots of patience.
After painstakingly brushing both surfaces, soon you will be able to get rid of all the superglue.
After which, we do our usual sticking, sanding and buffing.
And finally……
As good as new!
When the neck of your erhu breaks – do not use superglue. Just bring your erhu to us and we can fix it for you.
If you are overseas, bring it to your local luthier who repairs violin or guitars and they should be able to do the job too.
If you are going to DIY, use white glue.
If you going to bring in a broken head cover with superglue, we will charge you double the price to fix it!
3 Comments
Years ago I had a zhonghu with a broken head. Since I am in the USA, sending it back for repair was not cost effective. Fortunately, I found a local violin maker who fixed it for a good price. The repair was invisible to me, even though I knew where to look. My first impulse now for such repairs is to look for someone who has a better chance of knowing how to do it right. A good repair is worth the cost on an instrument I value.
Good post!
Wow, thanks for this tip – best to do it right the FIRST time.
Haha, man you know how to really salvage and repair Erhus that are messed up.