About buying pipa
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I. Look
Look at the material of pipa first. Pipa materials can be divided into top grade, top grade, intermediate grade and inferior grade as far as the raw materials of the backboard are concerned. The top grade is rosewood, which has the best timbre and the most expensive price. At present, there are few pipa backed by a whole piece of rosewood. Although there are some, they are also made of two or three pieces of rosewood. With high-grade mahogany as the backing, there are many kinds of mahogany, among which old mahogany (dark red in color, which is difficult to buy at present) and new mahogany (light red in color, which is available in the market at present) are the backing, with good timbre and slightly expensive price. The mid-range is rosewood and rosewood, with good timbre and moderate price. The second grade uses white wood (such as (long) wood) as the backing, which has poor timbre and the cheapest price.
The whole backboard is the best, and the elephant shell is the most expensive.
No matter what kind of material is used as the backboard, most of them choose a whole backboard instead of several backboards. Because it is made of several underlays, it will not affect the appearance and sound when it is bought newly. But after using it for a period of time, you will see spelling marks in the spelling place. If degumming, the sound will also become worse. For the whole backing, it is also necessary to look for cracks or deformation.
How to distinguish the bottom materials of red sandalwood, old mahogany and new mahogany can be distinguished by scraping off the paint on the back of the mountain pass and the upper end of the bottom material with a knife, and then testing or looking at its wood grain and color with the naked eye. If you don't know the wood grain color of rosewood and can't test it, please pick it with people who will, because there are too few rosewood materials at present, and it is inevitable that there will be inferior ones.
The materials used in Shankou, Liuxiang and Fengzhen can be divided into ivory, jade, white horn, black horn, aggregate and mahogany according to the cost price. Elephant beetle is the most expensive and mahogany is the cheapest. Touhua is divided into ivory, jade, aggregate and so on. Zhen Zi is divided into ivory, red sandalwood, boxwood and mahogany.
The head, chord groove and chisel should be evenly matched.
From the appearance of pipa, the size of the head, the radian of the chord groove, the inclination of the four hammers, and the length and thickness are mainly based on the aesthetic fit of the uniform lining. The grinder should be fine and the paint color should be elegant. The neck (six phases) of pipa should not be too thick and too wide, nor should it be too thick and too wide than the top grade. If it is too thick and wide, the left hand will feel very tired when pressing the tone, which is not conducive to the pressing action of the left hand, especially for women with short fingers and more effort.
Carefully observe whether the phase is close to the distance between the left outer end of the first string and the outer end of the fourth string stone of the first fret. It is common that the distance between the first string and the left outer end of the first fret is short, while the distance between the fourth string and the right outer end of the first fret is long. When playing "Yin" and "Wan" on the chord, it is easy to make the string slide out of the production end without music. This is a defect in production. Most of the reasons for the formation are that the compound hand is not stuck to the center of the lower abdomen of the panel, or because the chord of Yamaguchi is left or uneven.
The surface of the hand should be horizontal.
The surface of the back of the hand should be horizontal, not semi-arc. One is related to pronunciation, and the other is half-bending. When the string body is pulled up, the string body at the back of the hand is concave, and the string body will easily break here.
The first string is the thinnest, the highest pitch, and is used more. Because of this, the first string is the easiest to break, and it is often necessary to change strings. Generally, a wire slot is sawed under the hole of the composite bracelet, and the strings can be changed through this wire slot, which can save the time for changing strings. However, some producers only see a very thin wire slot, and they can't use this wire slot to change strings when actually changing strings, which makes this wire slot useless.
Therefore, this trunking should be wider, and the inner sides of the hands at the trunking should be removed more, so that the strings can be easily replaced through this trunking.
Products and stage equipment can not be ignored.
Pin and phase are phoneme devices on the pipa, and the position of each pin must be accurate. Between each product, from top to bottom, from wide to narrow, the arrangement is very uniform. In particular, it depends on the distance from the upper end of the eighteenth grade to the chord, which should be 0.4 to 0.5 cm; If the distance exceeds 0.6 cm, pressing the button will make you feel very tired. Therefore, the products with the distance between the string body and the upper end of the eighteen products exceeding 0.6 cm belong to production defects and should be replaced.
Step 2: Listen.
Pipa with loud and strong volume and rich stone timbre is the primary choice target of buyers. A pipa with good acoustics will make you fondle it when you play it. The more you play, the more you love to play. It can be said that you can never get tired of playing. Therefore, you must play the pipa first and listen to its sound effects.
Pipa's timbre is sharp, elegant, scattered, brittle and explosive. The older generation of musicians once listed five timbres: sharp, tangy, scattered, crisp and explosive, requiring all five timbres on a pipa. "Sharp" means that the high notes on the lower handle are very bright, "Tang" means that the sounds in the upper and lower bass areas are very rich, and "loose" means that the pronunciation is very sensitive after playing the strings; "Crispy" means that the first, second and third timbres are crisp; "sonic boom" refers to the timbre that can make a stone sound. Sound has thickness and weight, and music can travel far away. Among them, there are great contradictions in the production of Tang, Song and Bao. For example, on the pipa that can emit the sound of the hall and the sound of pine and cypress, most of them can't hear the sound of blasting stones. On the solid pipa that gives off the sound of stone, most of them lose the acoustics of the hall and pine. How to make a pipa with high volume and sensitive response, and at the same time, it can have stone sound and strong timbre, which is the goal pursued by pipa makers and also a technical problem in production, so I won't introduce it in detail here.
Paulownia panels in Lankao are the best.
The production technology and texture of the panel are directly and closely related to the pronunciation of pipa. In the past, the panels in Zhejiang, Fujian and Anhui were made of sycamore. After many tests and comparisons, it is made of plane trees in Lankao, Henan. However, there are both advantages and disadvantages in Lankao Paulownia jigsaw puzzle. But on a high-quality paulownia tree in Lankao, there are only two best boards. Whether or not the best paulownia jigsaw puzzle can be selected is another knowledge when the production master selects materials.
The middle of the panel is better.
When buying pipa, you can only see whether the wood grain on the surface of the panel is straight; Whether the width between lines is appropriate, whether there is a knot scar on the panel, whether there is a gap in the center of the panel (the panel must be spliced and sawed in the center of the tree, and the part with hard texture and poor sound transmission in the center of the tree is removed or placed on both sides of the left stone). , and others, such as the depth and width of the sub-opening, the position and thickness of the beam, the width, position, size and shape of the sound column, the curvature and depth of the inner cavity, etc.
The timbre of water-containing glue panel is difficult to stabilize.
In the past, yellow croaker grease was used to attach panels, but now it is mixed with pigskin glue, which is a kind of water-containing glue. The volume and timbre of the pipa glued to the panel will change after playing for five or ten years. Because after a certain period of time, the water in the glue gradually evaporates, and the volume timbre will inevitably change. To this end, when buying, be sure to ask if you have used water-containing glue.
It is also very useful to use chemical glue when pasting panels now. There are many kinds of chemical adhesives, and some newly bonded panels have better sound effects. However, after years of practice and inspection, we can't draw a correct conclusion about whether the bonding fastness and sound have changed.
Sensitive volume and thick timbre are the best.
When choosing pipa and listening to music, people generally like pipa with large volume and wide range, but ignore the aspects of solid tone (strong explosive power) and rich stone sound. Through practice, we have proved that the pipa with large volume and wide sound mostly lacks the sound of stone and solid timbre. After playing for a period of time, although the volume is still very high, the sound gradually loses its "weight" and the timbre becomes "empty" or even "dull", making it difficult to hear clearly. This is because after a certain period of playing, the panel is constantly vibrating, and the moisture and mucus in the panel wood have gradually decreased. Therefore, when choosing a new pipa, we should not only rely on the loud volume and wide range, but also listen to whether there is a stone sound and whether the timbre is weighty and solid. Generally speaking, it is better to choose the one with the loudest volume but sensitive response and thick timbre.
Pay attention to the local climate characteristics.
Pick the pipa, listen and pay attention to the area. Whether it is the pipa made in the humid areas in the south or the pipa made in the arid areas in the north. In the south, the tone is not "empty" because of its loud voice and sensitive response, but it will become "empty" and "wooden" when the climate is dry for five days or ten days. This is because the moisture and mucus in the panel are quickly evaporated. Therefore, when selecting pipa in southern musical instrument factories, we should not only look at the local pronunciation effect, but also consider the changes that have taken place after being brought to dry areas. Therefore, when choosing pipa in the south, it is best to choose the one with the lowest volume and solid timbre. Even if the pipa made in the arid area in the north is not immediately used for playing, it is best to choose the one with solid timbre (explosive power) and a certain weight.
Therefore, those who choose pipa must learn to listen and distinguish various timbres, such as "sharp", "hall", "loose", "brittle" and "explosive", so as to distinguish whether the above five timbres are available on four strings in different positions and tastes in the audition and buy an ideal pipa with long service life.