LANDTOM Musical Chinese Erhu 2 Stringed Chinese Rosewood Violin Fiddle Instrument Chinese 2 Stringed Instrument with Free Accessories for Beginner Entry Level (A)

They also sell a more expensive Erhu in case you want something more higher end. But, with that said, this was a surprisingly beautiful instrument on multiple counts and a wonderful place for anyone to begin their Erhu journey. The Build: The build itself is solidly and beautiful built with rosewood. There are no blemishes or jagged edges. The cuts are very even and balanced (no deformities). It uses actual snake skin (of which they have already gone through the proper customs processes before shipping to Amazon FBA). The wood finish is also very nice and smooth. Also, the tuning pegs are nice and snug. You can tune with them easily...in fact, I don't even use the fine tuners at all. They hold their place even with the most minute rotation. Outside of metal pegs at the base to hook the strings and the metal strings themselves, the instrument is completely "natural" with no mechanical/metal parts. Accessories: The company has been quite generous about their included accessories. They give you an additional set of strings, a multi-note pitch pipe for tuning purposes (which I prefer over electronic tuners anyway), rosin which seems to be just as good as the one I use for my viola, two bridges, two felt pads, a set of fine-tuners if you prefer to use those (as stated before, I personally do not since I like the tone better without it), and a Beijing-style bow (which is a lot easier to set up with the erhu than a Shanghai-style one). My bow came with a 2cm chip at one end of it, but nothing major and still totally sturdy to get the job done. Also, it obviously comes with a case. The case is good but basic. In terms of hardness, it's pretty much the tough hard foam lined with a kind of felt material incased in a nylon zip-up case. It's light, sturdy enough, and allows for fair protection of the instrument. I would still keep it at the top of my stack of instruments for gigs, though. It also has one small compartment to hold your accessories in. Tone Quality: As a beginner, yeah, you'll sound like a dying cat at first. But as I began to get more and more proficient with it (understanding the effects of various bow pressure, string placement, etc.), I've been getting very solid tones out of it. It sounds beautiful to me. It does have a brighter quality to it, though, than what I'm used to hearing with erhus, but that's not a bad thing actually. Environment factors: One thing I've come to learn in purchasing ethnic instruments (both online and while in the native country of the respective instrument) is that my home environment can be a factor in harming an instrument. I've actually had another instrument split because of a drastic difference from whence it came from. But this erhu has not shown any wear and tear at all. Where I'm from, we have temperatures that can drop to the 70's and then suddenly become really warm. We also have dry weather here...and on top of that, the occasional need for a heater. This instrument has withstood it all. All in All: This is a wonderful place to begin your music journey in traditional Chinese instruments. It has a good build, generous amount of accessories, and a nice tone (once you become fairly proficient). You know how if a company does a haphazard job on an instrument, that can discourage you to keep at it? Well, this is an instrument that actually encourages me to play it and practice because of how well it's built. My only one quip is the lack of beginner reading material. But there is a book you can get (in English) on amazon, and several helpful online resources and teachers.

I'm blown away at the quality of this Erhu as well as the fantastic protective case that came with it. It's hand made, with free shipping - how are they making any money from this? I considered ordering an Erhu from a well known seller (Eight Tones) but the shipping alone was as much as this one; and the truth is I'm a beginner that wouldn't appreciate the finer details gone into the expensive instruments just yet. I researched a lot before choosing this Erhu based on many criteria, but the overall bang for the buck was just right. After just one week I'm already playing music that gets me excited. Oh, and the (real) Python skin is just beautiful. I'm sure in another 6 months during it's break-in period it will sound even better. I'm not sure why people are complaining about the bow, after I applied the rosin properly with the aid of some youtube videos I've got a beautiful sound that no longer sounds like a dying goose. My purchase also included an English Lesson book and CD that looks to be an excellent resource during my musical journey. Please do yourself a favor and pick up this inexpensive instrument that NEEDS to be apart of western music! I LOVE IT! UPDATE 3/16/23: The fine tuners work great! Mine didn't work out of the box because they screwed them together in a non-working way so they wouldn't ship loose. You need to screw it together so the fine adjustment gear pushes the screw against the string (sharp or flat), and make sure you put the string inside the little screw slot (see photo). Now I'm tuning PERFECTLY using a Korg TM-60 Tuner.

The fiddle is a solid 7/10 for beginners. Obviously won’t be up to par with “fine” erhus, as this is a starter instrument, but it’s a lovely starter erhu at that. The wood and skin is beautiful. The skin has a nice shiny luster to each scale and looks hydrated, not dried out like in other starter grade erhus. The bow is much lower quality probably 4 or 5/10. I’d recommend buying a nice one separately, $20-40 will get you a nice one. Quite a few plastic parts on the bow. No plastic from what I see on the fiddle itself. The accessories are more of a “value add” than actually functional. The pitch pipe is wildly out of tune, unusable. The fine tuners are also low quality, very finicky and the strings pop off the screw regularly. Not recommended. I’d use spare qianjin (not included) if you have any and fine tune the traditional way. The pegs are good. They hold tune and I’ve had no problems. I’d definitely recommend this for a first time/want to try erhu players.

I did a lot of research on Amazon and elsewhere to find the best erhu at a reasonable price. This one appeared to have the best quality construction in the "entry level" class of instruments. Most reviews were positive, so I gave it a try. I'm glad that I did. In the interest of full disclosure, this is the first erhu I have ever held in my hands. However, I spend a lot of time building and repairing music instruments and I know quality when I see it. The construction quality is very good, with significant attention to detail. It has the look and feel of a quality instrument. and it is certainly worth what I paid for it. The tone is sweet. I'm sure it doesn't sound like a top quality orchestral erhu, but I never expected that anyway. Additional observations: (1) The case is simple fabric-covered, molded styrofoam. It is designed to give the erhu a safe place to sleep. It is NOT a road case and should not be used as such. If you enjoy banging your instruments around, the erhu is probably not a good choice for you anyway. (2) The tuners were a bit dry and creaky, but a few violin peg drops solved the problem and now they're silky smooth. (3) The strings included in the package are inexpensive, basic quality. Better quality silver plated strings are widely available and will deliver better tone. (4) When I bought my erhu a month ago, the seller's description said it was made of rosewood. Now the same page says it's made from redwood, but the pictures have not changed. Whichever it is, the wood is of good quality and makes a nice sound. (5) The bow is adequate, although I'm sure better bows are available. (6) The accessories (pitch pipe, fine tuners, rosin) are all of good quality. (7) The snake skin resonator appear to be authentic. The seller says it is certified as non-wild python. Synthetic would be fine with me.

While this Erhu came with a plethora of items to begin playing, it's certainly not for the faint of heart. The instructional videos and book are abysmal at best, both of which don't even teach you how to set up your Erhu. The sound quality on most of these may be grand, but I certainly could not get mine to make one, solid note after several days of attempting. Overall, I'm not giving it a terrible review, because some people may have a good experience with this, and I definitely believe they should, but this is absolutely not good for brand new beginners.

Tuning peg arrived completely broken off. Case was in perfect condition along with the shipping box so it was packed broken.

This product arrived on time and undamaged. Why We Bought It & What We Discovered: My wife and I are hobbies musicians and my wife has always loved the sound of the Erhu. Since she wanted something to practice and learn on, this product appeared to be perfect solution for her needs. The setup was mostly straight forward, but we would suggest looking at different youtube videos on this exact Erhu which definitely helped to confirm proper installation of all parts. After we secured a constant tuning and once the bow was properly rosined, my wife started practicing. Since she is a classically trained flutist, this stringed instrument comes with a unique learning curve for her; however, I was able to play it immediately since it is very comparable to cellos and guitars (2 instruments I am well versed in). After a few practice sessions, my wife is now doing wonderful. The hardest technique to learn is the bowing, everything else is quite logical. This product has a very nice tone. It is obviously not the best, but for the price, it really sounds much better than what we expected. It is a beautiful design and very lightweight. The snakeskin head appears to be real and the fine tuners are a wonderful surprise component. I utilize fine tuners on my cello and my one custom guitar all the time so to have these on the Erhu is a welcomed component. The ONLY thing we were very disappointed with was the included rosin. It is a cheap brittle rosin that arrived very cracked/shattered and honestly unusable unless we wanted to risk damaging the bow hairs. That being stated, we merely utilized my rosin (Andrea solo violin rosin by Cremona In America, llc.... which I bought on Amazon) and it worked perfectly. I am sure most rosins will be function for this Erhu, but a first time user should review online bow rosining videos to understand the proper technique and length of time to properly rosin a bow for the first time. Lastly, since the bow hairs glide between the 2 strings, the user must remember to rosin both sides of the bow hairs. This in different from a cello, violin, and/or viola since they only require one side rosined. In conclusion, this is an amazing instrument for the price. If you want a nice sounding Erhu to learn on, this is it. With the use of youtube videos, you can view the proper installation of this instrument and the proper methodology of rosining the bow. The only thing that we would suggest is buying a better rosin for the bow since the one that is included was cheap and shattered upon arrival. We hope this review helps.

Honestly, if you're looking to actually learn and practice erhu, skip this and go with a beginner one from somewhere like Eason or Eight Tones. Yes, you'll have to pay another hundred bucks to have it imported. Yes, it will be worth it instead of this piece of junk. It was good to be able to get a feel for the physical instrument and go through the motions, but that's about it. It doesn't sound good, and won't play higher notes at all no matter what you do. It comes with the cheapest of the cheap bow and rosin, on the same quality level as the base instrument. One of the strings came detached and I had to restring it myself.