Bought a fixer-upper.

Building/Repair
#1

Greetings, everyone!

This past year I’ve been learning to play the Erhu, and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. In 2013, I’m going to attempt to learn the Shamisen! So, I just scored a little fixer-upper on Ebay for $100. It’s just the body and the neck. No skin, no strings, no arm rest, nothing. I think the nut is even missing. But it looks decent, so I figured why not.

So, with that said, I have some questions. First things first. Skinning!

A little bit of reading this site has shown me that there are three different options. Dog skin, FiberSen, or the alternative Calf Skin. I think I can rule out the dog skin simply because of the price. I hear it can be expensive. The synthetic FiberSen actually sounded pretty great on the youtube video. It had a long sustain and really cut through, and $300 isn’t going to break the bank. The calf skin sounded the warmest, which may work best for the type of music I do (Americana, folk-ish bluegrass stuff with banjos and fiddles and mandolins, but definitely want to include the odd world instruments.) and the price is right for the calf skin, for sure. The only thing I worry about there is that it might sound too much like a banjo and not as much like a shamisen. Anyone care to weigh in? I’d want to send it in to get skinned as soon as it arrives at my doorstep.

I guess the next big thing is the arm rest (Doukake). Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the flowery silk patterns. Where can I find the most basic, cheapest doukake which I could cover with my own material? Even a used one that has lost its original fabric would suffice.

Other stuff like strings and bridge are pretty self explanatory, I suppose. Getting the nut replaced might require some advice, though. And I’d want to electrify it eventually, but I need to learn to play it before I delve into amplification.

Thanks for any help!
Blessings,
Kyle

#2

P.S. Here is the instrument http://goo.gl/0pCl1

#3

Hello Kyle you have a nagauta shamisen. The calf skin sounds just fine for this type. It still buzzes and sounds like a shamisen. You can actually just contact Kyle Abbott he is the owner of the site and can get you all the things you need from the bachido store.

I am actually the one that does the calf skins. I have a nagauta and it has calf skins. I like the sound just fine.

1 Like
#4

just last night I was looking at that listing on ebay! haha :slight_smile:
I am new new new to this whole thing and don’t have a lot of time for ‘projects’.
I look forward to hearing how that project shamisen works out for you, best of luck…!

#5

Hey I was bidding on that one too! It shouldn’t take too much effort to fix it up nice.

#6

Ha! I had to fight for it. Had 4 tabs open and said I’d let it go if it went over $100, but bid an extra $5 at the last minute. I figure if I can get it working for under $500 total, that would be perfect.

I did a little research on the nagauta shamisen and see that it’s apparently different from the tsugaru veriety, but I’m really not sure what the differences are besides the style of music (as I understand it, tsugaru for classical Japanese music, and nagauta for kibuki theater accompaniment. That’s pretty cool.) As a fiddle player by default, the type of music intended for an instrument is a non issue. :wink:

Jessica, I see that you’re in Ohio, which means my turnaround time would probably be significantly shorter. However, As a total noob at all of this, i’d love to hear some testimony from others who have had a calfskin on their shamisen, and what the purists in the house have to say. Also, you don’t happen to reskin Erhu, do you?

#7

Yeah I bid $100 on it but I wouldn’t go any higher since I just won another nagauta shamisen on eBay and still have two tsugaru to worry about. Oh well at least it went to another Bachido member ;).

You should definitely be able to get it restored for under $500.

#8

So the shamisen can become addictive, I see. :wink:

I just realized that my posts show up on the main forum page as Kyle A. I also just realized Kyle Abbott’s posts do, too! O_o Sorry if that causes any confusion. And apparently there must be an unwritten code that says anyone named Kyle A.must be a coffee geek. :smiley:

#9

XD welcome to the forum
that looks a really nice shamisen there, will come up a treat

#10

Hey Kyle, welcome to Bachido.

I play jiuta shamisen which would be considered a “pure” classical style. For this cat is the accepted standard although dog is common due to cost. Every type of skin and every reskinning will sound a little different. Since it doesn’t seem like you are trying to achieve a specific sound, calf skin should work fine and be cheaper and more durable. I have not used Jessica’s services but she is recommended on this site. Considering the time and effort to make just the equipment to skin a shamisen, I think her price is good. Besides, she already has experience with this and will do a good job with a faster turn around.

As Jessica mentioned, you can get the nut from Bachido. The proper nut will be needed to achieve the sawari. With this it will sound like a shamisen not a banjo.

We would love to hear some of your music if you have anything recorded.

#11

Hey, all! Sorry I had to wait to reply to this. For some reason, the forum causes my browser to crash on mobile (which is all I had access to the last few days.)

I think the calfskin would probably be just fine. If it’s more durable, that would probably be good since I tend to be hard on instruments (My guitar almost looks like Willie Nelson’s ‘Trigger’. hehe.)

As for music, I don’t really have any of my own music up since I’m not a solo artist, but you can check out some very early stuff from a new musical venture I’m getting into with a couple of good friends.

Here are two recordings we did just before Christmas. The first is a half finished track that still needs some attention from a few more instruments (drums, bass and hammered dulcimer.) Erika singing lead, Madeline on harmony (and lead on the bridge) and me on acoustic guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo, fiddles, and harmony. The second is a sort of candid recording we did around a couple of mics just to get something on tape, and we thought it was good enough to throw out to the internet (obviously with the intent to re-record it to be album-ready later.) Madeline singing and playing guitar, Erika on harmony, and me on tenor banjo and harmony.

And for Christmas, we did a very quick (if not a little rushed due to our schedules) version of O, Come, Emmanuel, to help raise money for a homeless newspaper here in Nashville called the Contributor. Madeline singing lead, Erika on harmony, me on acoustic guitar, bass, 8-string ukulele, Erhu and harmony. The other two Christmas songs are from several years ago and were some of the first songs I ever recorded in Nashville (my crash course in Pro-tools.) They were featured on a local indie/Americana Christmas record called Holiday Noise (No.1 and No.2.)

And for good measure (and since social media is my duty in the band):
Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/mercychildband
Twitter and Instagram. @mercychildband

And long before we were a band, I also produced a little record for Erika (all recorded in a bedroom. lol)

Enjoy!

#12

awesome thanks to your marketing efforts I have liked your band on facebook (which I don’t check that often though) and also that last link playlist has been a very enjoyable background music as I am answering facebook christmas messages . . . :slight_smile:

#13

I’m not happy about another Kyle (with the last initial ‘A.’ no less!) on the forum, but I guess it had to happen. :wink: And a coffee geek no less! :slight_smile:

Welcome to the Bachido Forum!

Soca time!

#14

Thanks for the welcome, Kyle! I’ll be contacting you soon for help with parts for this thing once I get a skin on it. Looking forward to learning how to play!

Sokka…time?

#15

Sokka time!

Haha too funny Kyle!

#16

Hey that band sounds great Kyle! I’m a bit interested. Everyone that I meet IRL calls the shamisen “banjo”. Did you get interested in it due to that you had that feeling as well, considering that you play the banjo?

Also, Welcome!

PS. I actually went and bought that Erika Chambers album because her singing was beautiful and the music was really nice too. Great job!

#17

Hello, Karl!

Thanks for the compliments and the CD purchase! We had a lot of fun making that record, and we’re looking forward to the new music.

As for the banjo/shamisen association, I’ve actually known what a shamisen is for a long time, but only took an interest in it recently after I started learning the erhu and gained some knowledge of Asian music in general. It really had nothing to do with the banjo, which I only play very little of, to be honest. I’m not any good at the five string banjo, but I don’t really have a hard time finding my way around the Tenor banjo since it’s tuned in fifths like a mandolin or violin.

But I can certainly see how people get them confused. I’m amazed at how many people confused the mandolin for ukulele. :slight_smile:

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