Electric Mongolian Horsehead Fiddle or ELECTRIC MORIN KHUUR (Tsakhilgaan Morin Khuur) and some Pseudo-Tibetan Artilcles <This is a tentative site. Look forward to the real stuff to come soon!!>

NEW Pseudo Tibetan Article Pages Up
Sound Samples UP
Newest Mori Khuur with Wooden Top
but TOO many the images have made
those pages INTOLERABLY heavy,
so, think well before you step into 'em.

And other junk stuff, too.
Still more.....

Anyway, although fake, every one of my Tibetan Tools has distinctive atmosphere of tradditional Tibet, whether its REAL counterpart exists out there or it is simply romanced out of my imagination.

In these recent years, I found musical instruments to be the most sophisticated tools without serviceable objectives. (Nope, you can't ride on 'em or cook with em!) Musical instruments carry on their traditional looks, and are passive, hence mechanically useless, functional and interactive because they make sounds when played-- perfectly matching my ideal toy!

I once saw a Tibetan boy, accompanied with his toddling little brother, carry and play a small banjo-like instrument as they strolled into a local restaurant of Lhasa. He played a half music, half noise sort of song for money at the table where I was eating. Even after more than a decade, the sound and shape of their instrument-- along with their snivel-stained faces-- remain in my heart.

So, my interest had gradually migrated to musical instrument. And finally when I decided to make one, though my last and biggest (and of course, most stupid) project of another Tibetan fake tool "Prostration Tread Mill" was still untouched, I chose the one as the model-- the little one the Lhasa boy was strumming. (photo left)

Morin Khuur
As for Morin Khuur (horsehead fiddle), Electric Morin Khuur is of Mongolian musical instruments (kind of...) , and the second in this Mongolian line after the "Oumasan Morin Khuur" , only ten of which were produced and released under authorization of the Throat-Singing Society in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Mr. Haruhiko SAGA, a friend of mine, of the society encouraged me to manufacture a limited number of Morin Khuur. But as usual, they were not quite authentic, though acoustic, because of their heads' design was taken from a cartoon he drew as the mascot of his own society. Meanwhile the electric one is an offspring of the Oumasan. I really needed something more outrageous-looking and furious-sounding. (photo right: Oumasan, the predecessor of Elec Morin Khuur)

Mr. Saga, by the way, runs the society not only to promote throat singing and morin khuur of Mongolia but also to extend his music to the state of crossover of multilateral cultures along with Irish, Japanese, Tuvan traditional folk songs and even pop music of today.

I am no music critic but would like to suggest those who are interested in Mr. Saga's music to visit his web site, Throat-Singing Society. The site has nicely taken photos, some interesting sound files and, wow! English pages, too. Those are REAL stuff, unlike my fake tools.

Electrocuted
Putting aside the throat singing, let's get back to my Elec Morin Khuur. This electric version has no acoustic body, so the vibrations of the strings have to be electrically amplified-- it is something like that of an electric guitar, or more accurately, that of a "silent" violin which uses piezo elements as the pickup. My Elec Morin Khuur has a twin-head pickup placed directly under the lower bridge to ensure the sharp sound collection from the two strings above. It's purely electric.

Details and appearance of Elec Morin Khuur may be seen in the next Spec section and in the Photos of the Japanese section respectively. If you are interested in the musical instrument or want to place an order, please read the Question/Reservation/Order section and e-mail me to communicate before you actually make up your mind.

Though Mr. Saga advised me to put some images of my Electric Morin Khuur on view to public by means of the web, I had hesitated at the beginning for various reasons. Instead, I started sending out to my friends e-mail massages with photos attached to show off what I made. Some of the friends responded with positive inquiries or even confirmed orders. This was really encouraging; I have finally started to edit an html file to be up to the web-- ending up with such a messy home page. But I hope this will do the trick (as long as there's someone reading this stuff, like YOU). Thanks!

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