About the wood and skin,not about strings. How much time does a :
Karin shamisen stays in good condition?
Shitan?
Maybe Kouki?
This question is based on a distant relative’s shamisen. He has a 60 year old Kouki shamisen,with ayasugi and kin-guchi mitsuori Sao. He used to play it every week and the skin only has a yellow color,plus the Sao never break.
thanks
More one thing,how many time does a silk string last before breaking? Because in eBay I saw a silk string set of 10 San no Ito 2 ni no ito and 1 Ichi no Ito,is it a good deal?
Shamisen still exist from the Edo period! If a shamisen is taken care of, it can last a very long time without many problems.
If its 60 years old, the skin has probably been replaced many times, and if it is yellow, you should probably get it replaced if you want to get the best sound. However for the wood, you don’t have to worry about it being bad or rotten because it is old. ^^ The older Kouki is, the darker it gets, so it might appear more black than red, that’s it. If it has been played a lot, then maybe some points on the sao have been worn down a little bit, but this happens to every shamisen and it’s not a big repair if you want to fix it, right Kyle?
Spot on, Joseph! 
Thanks,well he told me that he already replaced the skin 2-5 times and he’s going to replace it soon,since there are some professional shamisen makers in brazil. (I still prefer the shamisen from Japan.)
I have a Karin Tsugaru Shamisen that’s around 10 years old I believe (maybe older), and it has pretty obvious wear and tear on the sao on the “3”,“4”, and “18” spot where most of the hajiki is done. It is a high end student model, so I’d say it’s done quite well for itself. And I’m sure it can be refurbished a couple more times.
As I understand it, Kouki is stronger, and so is a bit less susceptible to that kind of wear and tear as long as you handle the instrument with care.
And… Enter the Norm…
Ok
What has been said so far stands strong
But its safe to say that Kouki will degrade a lot slower than Karin
Skin:
it depends on what you get put on and believe it or not, the tightness
I just had this chat with ‘R’ the other day. He said that the tighter the skin, the louder and more crisp the sound. However, with that comes a fast break.
He said that one day he got a new skin on, and it was for the purpose of a performance. During the performance, the shamisen sounded incredible, and was so loud they had to move the mic back! But… the skin was found broken the next morning…
reversely, a skin not put on as tight has a chance of lasting much longer~
And from the kind of the silk ni-no-ito, I bring you this advice:
It really depends on how often and how properly you play.
When I played like crap, my silk ni-no-ito lasted me a good 8 months!
But then I broke it, and within 2 months broke the next
After that about a month later a broke another, and I must be either playing a lot or getting a hell of a lot better, because I go through 2-3 a month now.
‘R’ tells me that he avoids using silk for performances, because with the way he plays, he can snap a brand new silk ni-no-ito within minutes!!
I dont think any of us have to worry about snapping a new string in minutes, but the more, and harder you play, the more they will break.
He laughs at me and says “you only break 2-3 a month?”
I assume it will only get worse lol.
But overall, a shamisen is a surprisingly resilient instrument.
I give you the same advice my buddies gave me when I bought my car:
Just push it to the limits, and then push it more. Without exceeding somethings limits we can never truly understand it.
Cheers
Gahh… Why did I start my Bachido rounds 30 minutes before bedtime…
Wow… that must have been a very, very tight skin! I guess it was especially tight for the performance. Masahiro’s shamisen sounds like a dream, but at the time, I actually never even imagined that he got it replaced often. Perhaps once a month? (assuming it doesn’t break first)
Ito: Yeah, I imagine you are striking the ito harder than before, and getting the authentic badass- err, tsugaru sound. 
I think it partially depends on the circumstance. I mean, if you have a company paying for new kawahari, bachi and strings, it’s almost without thought to get the tightest skin and the most flexible bachi. But for those of us who aren’t sponsored yet ( ), I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being gentler for the sake of our pocketbook. I mean, I’m sure Chikuzan and other impoverished shamisen players weren’t busting ass on their kawa.
Just push it to the limits, and then push it more. Without exceeding somethings limits we can never truly understand it.
True! Failure to do that kept me from doing a good kawahari or getting beans dark enough. However, I did do that at the JKA Honbu last year, and succeeded in vomiting after the last training.
Anywho, in all seriousness (not saying that the above statement wasn’t true), I completely agree. Taichi san tells me I need to break one skin just to know the limits. Except for physical exertion, I tend to be afraid about overdoing things: Overroasting, overstretching, striking too hard, etc. Gotta keep pushing…
And with that in mind, pushing on to the next thread! (It’s almost comical how some of us are struggling to stay on top of Bachido threads )
As for the OP: the most common problem with the wood on a shamisen is the kanberi or worn spots on the heavily used fingering spots. Karin is soft, so this kind of problem will develop relatively quickly. The solution is to plane down the surface to make it flat again. However, this makes the sao thinner, and after several of these treatments, it will be too thin. Another problem, especially for shamisens left a long time in storage, is warping of the sao. Again, the quality of the wood is a factor. I once bought a kouki shamisen that seemed to have been stored in the mitsuori case for decades, but there was no warping. The less severe cases of warping might be fixable. For these reasons, antique dealers don’t want to mess with used shamisens. They are considered to be junk. Some shamisen shops might have used ones, but it is unusual.
Kawahari is a different story. Serious professionals will have them redone every six months or every year, just to maintain the best sound. The first shamisen I bought (through my teacher) was karin with dog skin. The skin was still intact 20 years later when I donated the shami to a needy student. (Sound was not so great)