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A Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng
Video explanation of the Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng
Brands that makes Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng
Making Guzheng since 1958, the Zhuque Brand Guzheng was the oldest and leading Chinese brand that makes Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng. Their Guzhengs are known to have a rich, bassy and extremely resonant sound. (Click here for a video on Zhuque brand Guzheng along with unboxing and demo)
The Mujiuchen Brand Guzheng is a popular and well-established brand with beautiful modern designs. Their Guzhengs are rich sounding and extremely well balanced on all registers – marks of truly versatile Guzheng. (Click here for a Mujiuchen demo)
Traditional Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng Vs Modern Day Framed Zhemian Guzheng
Below is the construction breakdown of a Framed Zhemian Guzheng. Unlike the Fully Hollowed out Guzheng, the soundboard is heat treated into shape from a flat piece of wood and the side frames and soundboards are separate pieces.
Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng:
The Top Soundboard and the Side Frame Panels are carved from a single piece of log.
Material Usage:
The Fully Hollowed Out method is an inefficient use of materials and tedious to carve by hand, hence a much higher cost. Using the same piece of wood material, 8 of the soundboard of a Frame Zhemian Guzheng can be made.
Fully Hollowed out Guzheng Pros:
- Extremely Durable, the crown and curvature of the guzheng will be maintained in its original shape for a lifetime
- Deep and Strong Bass, due to its construction method the guzheng resonates much better resulting in a stronger and deeper bass
- Louder, due to its construction resonates more freely resulting in a higher Sound Pressure Level (SPL)
- Lighter in weight, as it does not have an internal frame, it is lighter in weight and hence more portable.
- Low Maintenance, as it does not require an internal frame, much lesser parts are used to make the guzheng, resulting in lesser components becoming faulty with age
Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng Cons:
- Costly – Requires 5-8 times the amount of soundboard material as compared to the framed guzheng.
- Requires highly trained craftsmen to carve out each guzheng by hand.
- Very dependent on scale design – the scale design, which is the blueprint of the guzheng’s geometry that includes the thickness of the soundboard at various points, dimensions and types of the bridges and strings used, down to the type of wood used. Will affect the tone of the guzheng vastly. Out of many different brands that we surveyed, the scale design of the Mujiuchen and Zhuque Guzhengs are one of the best you can find in the market. Click here to have a look at these Guzhengs.
How to Identify The Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng
What Makes A Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng So Highly Sought After
The workmanship involved in a fully hollowed out Guzheng is tedious and lengthy, on top of that, the sound of the Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng is amazingly beautiful and everlasting. This makes the Fully Hollowed Out Guzhengs the highly sought after and most Guzheng players will want to have one Fully Hollowed Out Guzheng as part of their collection.
