Hello, I’m new to the community and this is my first post. I’m interested in purchasing my first shamisen. I have chosen to buy one in the electric verity because of the sound I am hoping to attain later. These are the two that are in my budget:
or
The type of sound I’m looking for is more err… hard and heavy? Which one would be able to deliver that, and what accessorizes would be even more of an aid? Or are both of them crap? Thanks guys!
Hi Alice. I may be wrong, but the second one is sold at the Rakuten page for less than 300 $ !
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/westmusic/item/10008259/
or
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/westmusic/10008259
Welcome in this community
Whoa really!? That’s great, it would have been horrible if I ended up paying more then double the price! Thanks a bunch.
Well,I checked again and it seems that the page that I have seen concerns a shamisen that is not electric. But I really think that with the help of everyone here, you’ll be able to electrify it for an amount smaller than 700 $ !!! A lot of topics here talks about the electrification ! Sorry for the false joy… Ah, and I think I saw a topic concerning the first shamisen here in bachido, but I can’t find it right now. You can make a try…
Here it is :
Well it doesn’t seem that difficult! I think I’ll try doing that
Wait, scratch that. In the forum post you linked me they are talking about the shamisen on the first link, so should I get that one? Thank you!
I’m not really concerned with questions of electricfication, but many members here have ideas about it … I think you can find advices in the different discussions…
Awesome! Hm my generalized guess is you will need a guitar distortion effects pedal for truly heavy sounds no matter what and on the other hand with such a thing whatever concept should be good enough to provide a good enough signal be it a mobile pick up or you installing something larger made by yourself or of course a complete ready to go electric shamisen would certainly be convenient and looking good 
actually that said I don’t know about the magnitude of superior sound quality or built in options as for an electric shamisen you buy compared to improvised solutions since I only know a bit about the latter but again from that I can say with a pedal you should get some heavy sound from whatever setup is plugged into it
Hi Alice! Welcome to Bachido!
That’s great that you want to start rocking an electric shamisen. Buying an electric shamisen online is a tricky business. As far as I know of, the only two electric shamisen that are reputable is the Mugen21 by Shamisen Katoh (Shamisen Katoh » Electric Shamisen) or the full electric Beniya (ág®z[y[WâGbNO¡üEV¼). As far as I know, shamisen made by Suzuki tend to be student-level quality. Because electrifying a shamisen is really challenging (due to the body) so I’d be wary of the sound quality of those shamisen, especially at such a high price.
A lot of folks in the Bachido Community have successfully amplified their shamisen with pickups and such (like BH). If you like a bit of DIY, I would recommend getting a Beginner’s Shamisen (http://bachido.com/store/beginner-shamisen) and playing around with electronics on that.
Have fun!
Kyle
Hey thanks everybody! The more i think about it, don’t think electrifying a shamisen is a good idea for me because i’m horrible with electronics OTL
I think i should probably go with the fully electric shamisen, just for ease for first time use.
Also, the pedal B H was talking about seems like a pretty good deal, how does that work?
Well even with a regular electric guitar and at least with the cheap smaller amplifiers I know I found it did not offer heavy distortion plus also it is a common thing for pro players using big amps to also use effect pedals so there is no shame in using one of those . . . you just plug one in between the shamisen and the amplifier so you will need 2 guitar cables and there are various effect pedals available including those for getting more overall and more adjustable distortion than what an amplifier provides . . . I bought a behringer ultra metal um300 for 25 bucks quickly to try out the concept and it’s alright but I wanna buy a marshall jackhammer soon as I had one earlier for e guitar and it was awesome . . . should both be on amazon.com and those are the only 2 distortion effect pedals I know from own experience …
I have a few distortion pedals for guitar and so far none of them seems perfect for the shamisen. It is more difficult than I anticipated. Perhaps due to the percussive nature of the sound? I continue my search and will let you know if I find one that works great. Much luck finding your shamisen!
I have a few distortion pedals for guitar and so far none of them seems perfect for the shamisen. It is more difficult than I anticipated. Perhaps due to the percussive nature of the sound?
Interesting notion, does the best electric setup depend on one’s reference playing style, eg. tsugaru vs nagauta (less percussion, but still some even when electric)?
I think it is the nature of the strings themselves. The metal strings on a guitar resonate for a long time giving the distortion a chance to develop, whereas the silk and nylon strings of a shamisen have a sharp peak of sound and then a fast decay. Maybe distortion pedals designed for heavy metal music would be more appropriate as that style is also somewhat percussive in nature, but I don’t own any.
Also, since the shamisen is hollow, I am having a hard time turning the pedal gain up without the instrument feeding back. I imagine that well made electric shamisens have largely dealt with this problem.
I am sure there are other members who have better advice to give since I have just begun my experiments.
I was curious as one of the Bachido minis shamisens were going to be electric according to the products page so I found the Suzuki set and website and wondered if people did sound sample comparisons. I will not buy… just nosy about the student grade quality compared to my Shamibuddy version 1 and my favorite first juita shami from erstwhile Kotos and More…
There’s a sound sample from a good player on website so sounds good to my beginners ear.