蕉叶古琴 Banana Leaf shaped Guqins from TaoBao.com

If you have been hoping to buy a banana leaf shaped guqin, but balk at its prohibitive prices, fret not! You can buy them directly from China. Taobao.com merchants only accept credit cards that are registered with a China address, so you'd need to use your local area TaoBao agent to purchase, track and ship it from China to your country. For example, if you live in Singapore, you can use SgShop.com.sg who can ship even furniture and other bulky items via sea-freight (takes about 2 weeks from China to Singapore). Important: Please remember to purchase a hard foam case from the Taobao merchant and ask the merchant to construct a little wooden crate-like structure so that your guqin would not get crushed during sea-freight!

I used these keywords "蕉叶古琴" on Taobao.com

Click on this link to see banana leaf shaped guqins available at TaoBao.com

In my humble personal opinion, as long as the guqin sounds loud with nylon-metal strings (most makers in China would ship guqins with nylon-metal strings), it would sound great with silk strings. Silk strings do not have any jarring metallic noises, as there is no metal in silk strings, and so unlike nylon-metal strings, there would be no aural fatigue from listening to silk strings when you play the guqin. For more info on how to buy silk strings from China, click here.

Further, metal-nylon strings can damage the lacquered fingerboard of your guqin, but silk strings would not, as silk strings are gentle.