Making a gottan/shabo

Building/Repair
#1

Hey guys, I usually do a lot of tinkering and repairworks on different kinds of instruments and since my Shabo came a few weeks I was quite fascinated by the minimalist design and simplicity of it. I did a bit of research on gottan and kankara and since I had to stay at home for a week and fast, I thought I could as well use that time and build one myself, out of a wooden tea-box and materials that are naturally found around my town.

I got a log of beech and some elderwood (sambucus) that were drying in my basement, collected some nuts and berries and got my woodworking skills on. I am not that much of a craftsman (except for some turning, carving and soldering), but I tried to make this whole thing without electrical tools and this is how it turned out: https://imgur.com/a/WJP9u

The whole sao is made from beech and darkened with some woodstain out of elderberries, potash and wallnut hulls.
The itomaki are carved from elderwood and I did make tuning pegs before (for a sitar) but making stuff like this with only a knife does really a number on your hands.
Everthing that’s not supposed to move is glued together with rice glue.

It turned out better than I expected, but it sounds a bit dull, since the box doesn’t really revibrate, so I thought about cutting a little soundhole into one of the lower corners. I have seen this on some gottan I saw, but not on too many. Or maybe it’s because of the classic guitar strings.

So, what’s is your opinion on the thing I did there and should I carve the soundhole?

#2

although I cannot give any advice about how to possibly proceed I do like that third image with the cat :wink:

#3

ooo nice!!

#4

Wow impressive!
I am not an expert, just thinking out loud.

You are wondering whether to cut a hole. If the box is not resonating the strings, then cutting a hole wouldn’t make a different. It seems the material are very thick, i.e. compare to a guitar. The thickness might have eaten away the resonance. On the other hand, the bridge is pretty bulky and would also makes it harder to transfer energy from strings to the body.

#5

That looks awesome :smiley: I know next to nothing about making gottan, but that’s really cool!

#6

Actually, the box itself is very sturdy but the lid isn’t. So it is rather silent since only the lid does reverberate when the strings are plucked.

I adjusted the neck a little more, filled it up a little and connected it to the lid, so that the sound is vibrations are carried directly along the neck, parallel to the strumming sounds. The sound still was dull, but slightly better and so I did carve the holes in the lower right and upper right corner and it got a little brighter.

As you said, Chung Wan Choi, the materials are originally not cut and refinished for instrument building ( beech is very hard and the elderwood is a very soft component in comparison) und so the sound isn’t that great, but it’s alright for playing indoors.

One thing I noticed too is that the strings really make a difference, I started out with nylon acoustic guitar strings (G,b,e) and (pardon me) they sound like shite. I switched from those to Guqin-Strings (Silk) and that alone makes a difference of up to 15 dB in emitted sound pressure (currently around 45-55 db)

Also I have to recarve the Itomaki a little, since they keep slipping from time to time.
But I think my next try will be better.

© 2020 Kyle Abbott