I found what appears to be a nice Tsugaru style shamisen on ebay.
Here’s the link:
I’m not too experienced with shamisen, so if anyone could give it a look and let me know what you think of it, I’d greatly appreciate it.
Not a tsugaru but still nice. Gonna need a new skin of course. Youll have to pay for that or buy kyles book and step off the edge…tomorrow I actually throw a skin on…nervous!
Hard to figure out the length of sao from the angle of the photo, but to me it looks a little short. Could be hanzao-shamisen? Maybe better check?
They have the length listed as 94cm, which is about 5cm shorter than the others I’ve seen on ebay. I wonder what would account for that difference. Maybe the length that the bottom end of the sao sticks out from the dou? It seems like it may be shorter in that area than on others. It looks like there’s just enough room on the end for the neo to loop around it. If that’s the case, it probably wouldn’t affect how it plays.
Not 100% sure but I would say that this shamisen is like mine. Even though it is not a Tsugaru shamisen, I bought it because it was a good quality for a used one and I don’t have any regret until now.
I love the sound of my instrument made of the same wood than the one you’re looking for.
The angle at the bottom of the sao is an important detail too. Since the sao ends close from the dou, this shamisen sao is long enought to be able to play tsugaru pieces on it.
I would say, if you’re willing to reskin it, you should buy it. (And if you’re still not convinced after all of this, you can always sell it.)