Sheng

Sheng, mouth organ. The brass reed chamber has an integral metal grille at the base. There are seventeen bamboo pipes, arranged in a circle with a gap between them on the player's right. Three of them are silent. The sounding length of each of the fourteen speaking pipes is determined by a slot-shaped vent hole cut in the upper part of the tube. A strip of bamboo holds the pipes together. Each of the speaking pipes has a fingerhole bushed with a brass ring, twelve on the outside of the circle and two on the inside. All the pipes are mounted on wooden cones which are cut in half around a third of the way down their length, and are slotted into holes in the reed chamber. Fourteen of them are fitted with brass plates which have three-sided free reeds cut into their centres. The plates are fixed in place with black wax, and the reeds are tuned with small dabs of red wax. One of the two tallest pipes has a label with Chinese characters. The reed chamber bears an inscription in Chinese characters on the top face.