This is what I did to my beautiful nagauta shamisen wanting to increase sawari by digging the notch. I put some pulp wood to try to retrieve it, but it’s still disastrous, and still very little buzz (position 0) as I explained in another topic (that I started talking about fujaku). Ideas to get me out of sadness ? Go ahead you can laugh at my awkwardness…
:*****
ganbatte kudasai…
I assume you’ve moved the ichi-no-ito out of position to take the picture, right?
Of course, Jamie. I started with a very small notch and I enlarged enlarged until this bad result
I am not laughing as you suggested your post made me feel (a bit) less stupid for polishing all edges of the 3 sao pieces with steel wool so I have clearly visible gaps now where those sao pieces meet argh 
obviously I can’t chip in advice as for your own mishap . . .
Well the problem is resolved : dead shamisen … to its left side. So right off the kamigoma and forced to play right or change shamisen. I choose the first option because I really want to keep it. So I pay my clumsiness but I breathe now. The shamisen-ya san did a very nice cosmetic work to hide my little silliness. Everything is fine now. Thank you all for your help.
Now now, Patrick, there’s nothing to laugh at. It’s all a learning process, as BH know for himself too. We learn from these things. And fortunately, we can all take a sigh of relief, as it’s not that bad. You can fill the notch/hole with a combination of fine sawdust and glue.
Or, you can put a drop of superglue in the notch and then sprinkle a layer of sawdust. After it dries, put another drop of superglue and another layer of sawdust. Repeat until you have filled the notch, and then you can try again!
So nothing to worry about, Patrick! Unlike crashing a computer or device, it’s so easy to fix a wood project if you make a mistake.
Anyway, Kyle I gave up, the shamisen-ya san did some nice work to hide the mistake and I decided to play right handed with the shamisen like it was when I bought it. Nice sound, sao ok and just a little more work for me. I see that like a sign… Everything is ok now. Thanks for your advice.