I read in kyle’s crown jewel ‘shamisen of japan’ that they sell faux bekko bachi that are a cheap alternative to the real thing. the bachido store DOES seem to have faux bekko [edited] but in hopes of a bargain i turned to ebay, where most bachi seem to be plastic:
can anyone tell if the above lot is the faux bekko material im looking for? the price is confusing to me, since most plastic bachi go for much less than that. if not, can anyone link me to a store or ebay for faux bekko? thanks!
Hey Chris if you look under the bachi section in the Bachido store the first listing is for a faux bekko bachi. The link you posted is for a standard plastic bachi for a nagauta shamisen not the faux bekko you are looking for.
I believe that the faux bekko material is a specialty Acrylic compound similar to Tortiloid pick-guards but it is most likely designed for greater impact resistance and flex.
Oh and even though I’m a little late welcome to the forum.
thanks gwyn! glad to be here.
edited my first post, i was a bit confused at first. assuming there are no reliable ways of getting such a bachi (used or secondhand) would anyone happen to know where to get the material? i think id be up to fitting it on one of my very bad wooden bachi and hoping for the best at this point. (kyle was right. ‘ice scraper’ has been the best analogy so far)
UPDATE: the material used in most guitar picks is called delrin, developed to replace tortoiseshell in 1973
Hi Chris!
Man, if I knew where to get the material… I’d… be getting the material! 
(I guess I had nothing really to add to that)
I’ve heard tell that synthetic keratin (which is what tortoise shell is made from) is being developed. I’m not sure if it’s in a state which bekkou-like bachi could be made, but it’s definitely promising for the future. Especially with all this 3D printing going on! I heard they recently printed an human ear! (to attach to a person who was missing one) If they’re able to print organic material already, man, in 5-10 years, being able to print bekkou for bachi is really not out of the question. (In a decade, the price of those machines should certainly lower, as they already are)
im strongly considering making my own bachi at this point. ive found several other types of turtle shell that are legal and have read up on how its processed.
some prices and types:
http://www.americanheadhunters.com/reptiles.html
basic pictorial of how its made:
http://www.taiyougakki.co.jp/syamisen-dekirumade/dekirumade-bekkou.html
i will let bachido know how it goes if i do!
i investigated bachi materials a while back, can’t remember all the different types, there was one american company that were specialising in making faux tortoiseshell but they never replied to my several emails
i’ll see if i can dig out any info later
I recently found a bachi made of some space age material at the dollar store, of all places. Strangely, they keep them in the automotive section!
Ha yeah I recently thought about maybe finding an icescraper that actually comes in close enough to an actual bachi form . . . would that dollar store ship internationally?
I don’t like the prospect of using an all wood selfmade (or bought) bachi and also the simple plastic ones I could afford somehow seem to be larger than they would need to be for tsugaru or am I wrong about this?
so I was thinking about this too the first idea was to maybe add one or the other or a row of guitar picks to a wooden handle but I now also found a local source (arts supply store) that offers custom cut acryl sheets and that does bend and is more flexible than wood so I will likely get an acryl piece for the top of a selfmade bachi with a wodden handle . . .
or I might even use the acryl provided by the taxi driver id holder we have in use for a couple of months now especially since full time taxi driving in a way that makes sense to me is over for me . . .
(central dispatch is giving up their one and only last car to only focus on call center and dispatch services in the future effective July 1 so I shall really look for alternatives as for jobs only wanting to drive part time if at all in the future cause there is not much money in the taxi business and general circumstances are not that great neither driving directly for the “big” central dispatch company that got considerably more money behind their operations than a small taxi operator that is actually a customer of central dispatch was an exception as for certain details about the job)
on the good side this means vacation I plan to take at least for a couple of weeks in July so it looks good as for getting my shamisen ready for playing in July too (including some bachi 
Gerry, how did it sound? It actually looks like it might play well. 
Maybe thinned down a little bit…
BH: Does acrylic really bend? The clear acrylic bachi have almost zero flex. :-S
i already ordered some laminate sheets of the derlin used in guitar picks and plan on cutting out two bachi head shapes then glueing them onto the end of my broken wooden one. if it works ill let you guys know.
ive also been designing (in CAD) a handle that you can insert a guitar pick into the corner of. if it works i could 3d print it for anyone to use. i may make a separate post about that soon if all goes well asking for community help in testing it
oh my count on me as a volunteer for community testing seriously a 3d printed bachi or any part of bachi would surely deserve another thread
Kyle: well the rather thin acryl sheet (also the taxi id holder “sheet”) does bend under finger pressure which seemed at least better than what wood would do I guess also as for wood in bachi form so I thought I will give that a try . . . couldn’t say yet how relevant that flexibility will come into play when the resistance is only “soft” strings sure rather unflexible but again I thought better than wood probably . . .
Kyle, It doesn’t really work, because the edge is, as you said, too thick. It’s also brittle, and I think if you were to shave it down it would just snap on the first strike. It’s OK for one time stunt playing (like using a beer bottle to play slide guitar) but it wouldn’t hold up to day to day playing at all. I posted the pic mainly because people always say that the bachi looks like a windshield scraper, and this one REALLY looks like a bachi.
Chris, a replaceable edge is an interesting idea, but one thing to consider is that while only the one corner is used to hit the strings, the entire flat edge of the bachi is used against the skin very often, so a guitar pick might not be the way to go with this.
BH: Check out the newly stickied thread! Chris has started the next big Bachiventure!
Gerry: Ah, I see. Man, you’re right though! It would be a really cool looking one! It gives ideas for future designs.
Chris: You dudes with your CAD! Man, I sure wish I had the mental capacity for it. Those 3D printers are so dreamy. To be able to design/create literally anything
And reading that they printed a human ear recently, being able to print/spray the same cellular structure as bekkou is not inconceivable.
I have a wooden bachi that my dog chewed the end off. I found some starboard material that I am shaping to put on the wooden bachi. This material has a lot of flex. Will let you know if it works.
Didn’t realize this thread was so old. Might not get read.
yeah sorry, i have since abandoned this project.
there was someone else who tried to find a suitable replacement after this post and may have had more luck, wish i knew who it was offhand but you can find it with a bit of searching im sure.
Two online sites (one a luthier, the other for guitar instruction) offered some insightful info on flatpicks and tortoiseshell replacements.
http://hubguitar.com/articles/best-guitar-picks-to-buy
http://www.lutherie.net/picks.html
To test bachi, I got some inexpensive Dunlop. The used, faux bekko bachi I got recently measures about 1.0mm at the thin edge. So I bought thumbpicks with similar thickness, and Dunlop Ultex 1.0mm felt the best of the three I purchased. Faux bekko flexes about 2 inches from the tip then is mostly rigid. Thinking that many start off with wood or plastic bachi, I took a used wood bachi and modified it.
It’s not the prettiest thing I’ve hacked, but it does work better than a hard wood tip. I would say this is like a weekend project, possible to accomplish but does require some effort. Fabrication and machinery would add precision, but this is possible DIY at home. Now if I were to put my business hat on and personal opinion, I would put bachi at the top of needing some change. In that sense, guitar flatpicks will have a thousand more options, partly because of their small size and the guitar market. So the idea of a bachi handle that would accommodate something like guitar picks (swap/replace tips) could be revolutionary.
My try at replacing the two wood tips with flatpick material. I made an error not measuring the second wood dowel, which was thicker so split the oak wood; so to correct and reinforce, I used a Formica patch. This reinforced but took away some flexibility (Formica is flexible, but a layer of contact cement glue and Formica plastic adds thickness). Well, my post is long enough, so here are the photos!
Before: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qlh0p9f2rpfdp3j/flatpick_01.jpg?dl=0
After: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zxri93nb8k1l05u/flatpick_35.jpg?dl=0
I would guess that a wedge-type bachi handle, flex tips with holes, then setting screws to keep it all in place might work. Change tips by removing screws to release. Quick concept using a laundry clothespin, just to show you what I mean.
Wedge concept:
