Hi! New to shamisen and currently looking for a /very/ affordable one, and this one caught my eye. It looks to me like it’s tsugaru, and the same instrument on the Japanese amazon says tsugaru, but in the Q&A for the product one person says it’s nagauta. As I’d prefer to get my footing on a beginner’s tsugaru shamisen, is that what this is?
Item: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DCK4L4/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=
Hmm… Doesn’t look like a tsugaru. A tsugaru will look like this.
http://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/u82226944
Bigger pegs, skin stretched to the edges are longer
Hello Ian,
Unfortunately, I think the listing shows pictures of two different products. The first two look like one of Suzuki’s Nagauta Shamisen whereas the remaining 4 seem to be a Suzuki Tsugaru Shamisen. I’ve seen both on Rakuten; the price is that of the Tsguaru Shamisen, but I cannot confirm this completely. I contacted the seller and will let you know if I get any feedback!
Thank you both for your input! I found out from my own research that the one that I had linked is in fact nagauta, the Nichiwa SN-1 model. Found the ST-1 model, which IS their tsugaru, on Ebay. It’s a bit pricier, so I’ll have to see about it. Thank you!
Ian,
Glad to hear! Hope you can find a great instrument! ^^