Beginner's Shamisen Purchase Questions

Store/Sales
#1

So I’ll try to keep this short and to the point (two things I’m kind of bad at but…) and please, if this has all been asked before, please point me there and I’ll happily delete this post to not clutter up the forum. Anyway:

  1. Was looking at getting the Beginner’s Shamisen with a synthetic skin. When reading the “Important: Please read before purchase.” note, it talks about it not being insured. There is no way to insure the item I assume?

  2. This also talks about the Kawa (membrane) as being a natural material but from what I’ve seen, I’d want to get a Hibiki (synthetic) skin anyway, is this anywhere near as likely to break during shipping?

  3. None of the accessories I’ve found seem to even offer the possibility to get a Tenjin cover (sorry, not sure what the cover on top of a Tenjin is named, basically I mean the equivalent of a Doukake for the head of the Shamisen). Am I missing it because I don’t know the name?

  4. This might be related to a page I can’t access, specifically https://bachido.com/overview/care-and-handling doesn’t work @Kyle_Abbott (just an FYI) but anyway:
    I would primarily never take the Shamisen anywhere. Aside from removing the Koma, would it be fine to just set it on a stand at home between practice sessions? Since it’ll be in a room that’s always between 65-75 Fahrenheit, would that mean I’d not need to use a Fukuro?

  5. If I can use a stand, is any normal guitar stand that would allow for the base with the Neo on it work?

  6. If I plan to practice 30-60 minutes a day, how fast am I going to go through strings?

Once again, sorry for the very exhaustive post but I’m just trying to make sure I order/plan accordingly since it’s a lot of stuff and I’m just trying to learn it all and I have no one around me who would offer assistance.

Thanks a ton anyone who can help with any of this.

#2

Howdy @FrankyHollywood! Excellent questions you wrote. I’m sure they’ll be useful for others, so let’s keep it up here. :slight_smile:

  1. Hmm, where specifically do you see that the shamisen isn’t insured? I can’t seem to find it, but if I missed it, it’s something I should correct as my partner does insure the shamisen. :slight_smile:

  2. Ah, the part about not being responsible for broken skins is just for caution. Of the 400+ natural skinned shamisen we’ve sold, so far no skins have broken in shipping. :slight_smile:

  3. Aah, sorry for the lack of clarification about the tenjin cover. (I believe it’s “Tenjinkake”?) It’s actually included with all our shamisen. :slight_smile:

  4. Whoops! Thanks for letting me know that the link is broken! I’ll fix it. In the meantime, here’s the page it refers to - Caring for your Shamisen

Yeah, it’s totally fine to leave the shamisen on a stand inside, as you said, as long as the koma is off. :slight_smile:
Other than keeping dust off the instrument, there’s no real practical need for a fukuro if it’s kept inside.

  1. It should work, although I have to forcibly bend the two cushioned rods on the bottom of the stand closer together, as it’s sometimes a bit wide to rest under the dou.

  2. It really depends on how aggressive you’d be as a player, and your bachi technique. When played with the right fundamentals, one can get very crisp snappy tones with very little force (but that can take a while to get the feeling of), and thus make the same set of strings last for months. You’ll just have to play and see how it goes. And with that said, it never hurts to have extras. :slight_smile:

Nothing you need to apologize for! I’m always grateful when folks spend time to research and ask questions so they start their shamisen journey with confidence!

Cheers!
Kyle

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#3

Sorry, I’m referring to the The Beginner's Shamisen — Bachido Store

In it, it states the following:

Skin May Break in Shipping: The skin on Beginner’s Shamisen is a natural material, and thus is naturally affected by environmental change. Durable skin is used on the Beginner’s Shamisen, but there’s always a risk of the skin rupturing during shipping, or upon arrival in your country. We cannot guarantee the longevity of the skin, nor are we held responsible if the skin does break.

Note: This case happens very rarely, but please understand that it’s a natural risk when shipping shamisen, and a factor we are not responsible for.

I was asking about this, as it doesn’t seem to imply anything about it being insured: " a factor we are not responsible for"

Also the line about the skin being a “natural material” was confusing in regards to the hibiki skin as I thought it was purely synthetic and was asking about its likelihood of breaking versus the natural skin option as this isn’t mentioned. Maybe this was written before that skin type was an option?

That’s great to hear no skins have ever broken though so I guess in the end this is a moot point as those are odds I’d be happy to take at the end of the day.

I just can’t find anything about it being insured in any way so based on the lack of info and that statement about the skins and not being responsible for them, I just assumed they wouldn’t be. Any clarification would be cool either here or on the store page.

#4

Thanks for checking that! Aaaaah, now I’m remembering what was going through my head when writing it. Yes, at that time Hibiki wasn’t made yet, so natural material was only referring to shamisen with natural skin. Because we hadn’t shipped out any shamisen at the time of writing it, I might’ve been extra cautious as I didn’t know what to expect, and never occurred to me to update it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Anywho, I’ll update the return policy text later on, but just to state for now - yes indeed, all shamisen are insured, and if the skin did happen to rupture, we would take care of it. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#5

Well, thanks for clearing all this up Kyle. Sorry to “Karen” all this up with my “asking for the manager” and such, but I really do appreciate your response (I was really only tagging you for clarification on the “caring for your…” part of the question, I promise!).

I have everything I need to go forward (I think). Thanks so much! :smile:

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#6

Haha! No worries at all, Frank! I do want to more active on the forum but get so busy in the workshop and with administrative things. In any case, I very much appreciate when folks will tag me (as you did) to get clarification on things. :slight_smile: Don’t ever hesitate to ask!

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