So, bachido seems to have a good bit of information comparing the differences between bekkou and zouge koma, but what about differences in height and shape? I have three different koma now, of varying heights and size at the base, and they make for pretty significant differences in tone and feel of the instrument (physically). Also, why are tsugaru koma typically bamboo at the base? Some of the other styles seem to have full ivory or bone construction. Thanks.
Well,you should watch bachido blogscast number 4,it shows plety of komas,and maybe you are talking about different style shamisen komas? like gidayu koma or nagauta koma
Whoa! What timing!! Yesterday I started updating the details on those koma! 
Last week, Masahiro gave me more details on the height and sound quality of each koma, and I’ve finally gotten around to putting in the info.
It should be updated by the end of the week, if not tomorrow.
Teaser: We’re almost-now offering snakewood koma and shitan koma!
I’ve seen the blogcast episode, and while it does a nice job comparing materials, it doesn’t really go into size and shape. Not all tsugaru koma are identical. Sounds like my questions will soon be answered though. By the way, is there an appreciable difference between bone and ivory?
AAhhh Sorry!!! I’m wrong its bachido logscast number 6, It features Carlo Chung,who shows many types of koma
blogscast* --’
I love the way the jiuta komas look, the ones that are made from water buffalo horn. Kyle, Please let me know if you get any so I can buy it and stare at it all day. Plus it looks like it would make a deep sound, would love to try it with Tsugaru playing as long as it didn’t make the action too high.
If you can understand Japanese, Kameya has a lot of good information on their store website. The dimensions are giving in Japanese units too.
http://www.e-kameya.com/product/accessory/koma.html
According to this the Tsugaru and jiuta koma are basically the same height so it should be fine. However the horn koma are expensive, ~$80-100.
Fyi, I have updated the koma page on the 'puter, but am having trouble uploading it to the interwebz. Luke will take a crack at it soon. 
Thanks Micheal, I ordered my bachi from E-Kameya, they are really nice! I would buy one but if I had the money to spare, I’m sure I
sorry…will get one eventually, I guess I’m just waiting for a cheaper one to appear 
How does the height in millimeters translate into what I assume is the traditional way of measuring? That comes out to something like 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, etc.
A bu(分) is 3.03mm. A rin (厘) is 0.303 mm. Therefore the 2.6 (二分六厘) koma is ~7.9 mm.
Weight wise (the horn koma are weighted with lead) the base unit is the momme (匁). One momme is 3.75g. Therefore a 1匁 1分 koma weights ~4.12 grams.
I believe Masahiro measured it with a metric ruler. Realistically, .1mm either way wouldn’t make much noticeable difference, and most players probably haven’t learned about sun rin and bu, so using measurements in mm would be close enough.
However, traditional measurements are pretty cool. Perhaps I should include both?
Liam: I’ll look into carrying nagauta bridges such as that!
Tomorrow, Luke and I are going to have a business (or as I say, “bid’ness”) meeting about arranging the store to carry items for all three styles while still looking rather clean.
By the way, if anyone can’t read Japanese and was wondering what the Kameya site says, here’s a translation of what they say in the Tsugaru koma section:
“Shorter koma make playing easier, but taller koma produce a bigger sound.”
Further down in the kouta koma section they have a note that says, “Shorter koma make playing easier, but taller koma produce a higher quality, louder sound” (emphasis mine). I don’t know if this also applies in the case of Tsugaru, though. Anyone know?
I think it’d be cool if you had the traditional measurements up as well, just for comparison’s sake. I only know what mine are in the traditional measurement system.
My taller koma makes it louder for sure, and I haven’t tried to do a direct comparison, but I’m pretty sure it puts more emphasis on the treble. Hard for me to call it higher quality offhand.
Jamie - it might not be a direct comparison but my the joint at the bottom of the sao (I think its called the “nakago”, I’m at work so I can’t check kyles book :P) came apart on my shamisen, I glued it back but it wasnt quite straight so it raised the action of the strings by about 1cm, when I finally sorted this out so that it was straight enough to be flush, the tone was better because the strings where closer to the neck. I think it may be true that its louder, but its very sharp when the action is that high. Higher quality sound is definately an opinion, but it is alot easier with a lower action, I had to use so much effort to hit the skin when the action was high. I think a shorter one is probably better for your wrist when you are playing with the force needed for Tsugaru shamisen. I can’t emphasis enough how much of a difference it made when I fixed it properly, interestingly enough it came apart again last night, hope I can fix it again 
Kyle - nice one! I hope you enjoy your bid’ness meeting
I like my koma higher up personally. Sharper the better.