On the luoxia guqin, I carved some off the nut and lowered it so that the strings would be closer to the surface. This proved to be a good adjustment. Playing the instrument has been absolutely delightful. I refreshed my memory on some of my old repertoire. The first piece I played on it was 流水 (Flowing Water), as that was my goal when I first learned the piece this year. Other pieces I tried included 陽關三疊 (Farewell at Yang Pass), 梅花三弄 (Three Variations on the Plum Blossom), 平沙落雁 (Wild Geese Landing on Calm Sands).
In the meantime, I’m working on the jiaoye guqin. It’s almost done. After finishing the other instrument, I wanted to quickly wrap up the entire project, now that I’m so close to the end. I thought of not carving the small inscriptions on the second guqin, but I decided to just go ahead and do it. Like the first time, it was painstaking. I finished that today, and I’m glad I persevered.
The next steps in this guqin construction project is to complete the final sanding and polishing of the jiaoye guqin. Then, I need to make tuning cords for it and attach the strings.
For the luoxia guqin, I ended up using nylon-wound metal strings. For this second guqin, I’m thinking of trying out silk. The sound will be more delicate, but this instrument has a pick-up system embedded within.
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