awesome awesome awesome (okay I elaborated a bit below) but here are a couple of pictures . . .
http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/s1.jpg
http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/s2.jpg
http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/s11.jpg
http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/s6.jpg
http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/s10.jpg
so far 
and of course thanks to everyone as mentioned in that somewhat lengthy post below . . .
( http://freecarvers.com/sem/ )
OKAY I thought given the occasion I could organize some pictures and text in the form of a webpage then I thought I could round this out to be an extended profile page and then I came up with a name too . . . The BH Site . . .
anyway of course the occasion is that I got a SHAMISEN!!!
and what a beauty (even more so after about 10 hours into cleaning and polishing the thing) but I love doing that and am strangely even looking forward to making itomaki even though I am not a woodworker per se . . .
also the tenjin got a crack I need to make a koma and cover the dou somehow after installing electric pickups . . .
so I thought I could share a couple of pictures about what I am doing as best I can to restore it and make it shiny and playable again . . .
again also a lot of thanks to Yuriko san, Shirley and last but not least Kyle . . .
(what can I say some time ago I came up with the idea of using an actual shamisen sao for my next stick with strings . . . a while later Kyle wrote that a friend of his might have a sao piece and then Shirley and Kyle visited Yuriko san in the course of the cherry blossom festival in San Francisco and I got a surprise package)
. . . awesome I couldnât be happier about this and the cool nice way I got it domo arigato . . .
a couple of additional pictures are on my site and you can view them there also in larger size . . .
(unfortunately I did not get to commenting on the pictures so far but I will do so on all pictures there)
and of course as for any future major developments I will happily post about them right here . . .
Cheers and Happy Shamisen Life ! (thanks Li-Hao)
(The BH Site is in the works also at http://freecarvers.com/sem)
(click on Bachi On there)
Wow! Wow! Wow!
Oh my oh my (^ ^) When can we see the completed one? Look forward to it!!!
Yeah!
I hope to see the completed one sometime too . . .
only on weekends I get some hours of work in so this will take a while I should get to the fun stuff soon though . . . canât say when it will be finished I guess sometime in July or so . . .
as for the website that is just for fun of course and I like fooling around with webpages a bit so this is a fun way for me to get some essential stuff about those topics organized in this form . . . (donât bother to check out the site on cell phone btw does hardly work at this time and I might not bother to work on that)
oh I used one team bachido photo that kyle shared on facebook without permission and hope that is okay I donât plan on including any further pictures from others without asking permission . . . as for the way I like to embed a couple of favorite clips from others I hope that along with a link to the original uploaderâs youtube clip page right below the clip in the description that is okay too . . . Kevin?
anyway should anyone anytime find anything disagreeable on that site by all means let me know and I shall be happy to change that thanks . . .
Yep, so BH had written me a few months ago, asking how much a mitsuori sao would cost, in hopes of being able to make an even larger, badassier sem. Unfortunately, the price was gonna be over $500 for just the sao, so it seemed impossible.
Because thereâs just that something special about BH, I knew that somehow, some way I had to find him a sao. A month later, koto extraordinaire Shirley and I were working together to send him an unused kamizao (the top sao piece). But then! On the day of the Cherry Blossom Festival, we popped into a mutual friendâs æ„æŹăźç© shop âSharakuâ. She knew Iâm dabbling in shamisen, and so pulled out several broken shamisen which she wasnât using. Feeling bad, I said, âAre you sure you donât need these???â âEeh? Why would I need them?? Take them!â was her reply.
Yes, that plastic bag took the words right out of my mouth.
Among the nagauta shamisen parts in my presence, I discovered a simply beautiful kouki sao. With a super-deep color that I just stared into for minutes, I knew that this was the right one.
So, with a bag of Bachido coffee, off it went to Austria! With dou and all!
So yeah! I look forward to seeing what you do with it, bro! And feel free to use them images and clips!
Note: As for the other dou (one of which is tsugaru size) and sao, I will make a Bachido raffle thing for those interested in repairing one for personal use.
Bachi on!
http://static.travelmuse.com/docs/artwork/wcities/10765.jpg
I found just those pictures on the net is that the store?
I wish I would be taxi driving in san francisco and offer her a or a couple of free rides . . . and yes that wood looked special at first sight super hard stuff like no wood I had ever had in my hands before especially noticable also at the joints and indeed I thought could it even be kouki before I asked you for confirmation . . . again thanks very much and for thinking of me and I hope I can share a glamour shot of all the wood parts done shiny this weekend I canât wait to continue working especially after I didnât get anything done last weekend and then the constructive work can begin glueing stuff together and further things yeah this will take some time for it to be finished but I enjoy not rushing things and instead making it as good as I can and even though I am not a woodworker the working on that is enjoyable too . . .
A raffle?!?!? Now Iâm interested!
BH: Thatâs the shop!! 
Man, driving in SF or LA, youâd surely have no worries of a boring job. 
Itâs always a nightmare driving in the city.
Bryan: Check it out!
I shall include an advertisement on my site . . .
and good luck bryan!
. . . surely special aspects about taxi driving in certain other cities on the other hand Graz is cool for a regular city to drive around in . . .
cleaning and mechanical polishing (with fine steelwool mostly) done . . .
http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/sc1.jpg
http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/sc3.jpg
Great,BH!! Beautifully polished and looks as good as new.
Beautiful!
Hoo!!! Look at you, BH!! Just as Kyoko said, looks good as new!!
Stuff the shamisen as a musical instrument. That would make a badass walking cane! 
. . . gah . . . argh . . . or is that your way of trying to cheer me up before I have even dared to mention that MOST STUPID mistake I made . . . all shiny yeah the hours were worth it and itâs beautiful but there is a big but unfortunately too . . .
well with the seperate pieces at hand all I thought was clean and polish and do so thoroughly all well intentioned and all and what did I fool do? using the finest steel wool to thoroughly clean and polish everything every corner and e.d.g.e and that worked out beautifully in general but that included well all of them and now I have quite or should I say absolutely visible and feelable gaps where the sao pieces join . . .
ăăăăăăăă
I admit I noticed that it looked like you rounded the joints and was about to write something, but realized âMeh, itâs already happened and pointing it out wouldnât be nice.â
Rookie mistake, bro! Something which Iâve done many times. Well, not with the mitsuori sao, but similar cases of excitedly working and later realizing I screwed something up. But as Papa often tells me, itâs all good as you now have a learning experience.
Anyhow, though the joints are clearly noticeable, it shouldnât interfere with your playing experience too much. (I mean, itâs better than no shamisen! ) If it does, we can figure something out.
No worries, BH. It could be worse!
BH : It is perfectly beautiful from any side 360degrees even when it is being taken apart. Viewers at the art museum 500 years later will think the craftsman is really honest and earnest.
The tenjin on that is GORGEOUS! Is it ebony?
BH : It is perfectly beautiful from any side 360degrees even when it is being taken apart. Viewers at the art museum 500 years later will think the craftsman is really honest and earnest.
. . . at least when itâs taken apart I would say . . . anyway you are very generous as always Kyoko thank you
I wouldnât know and couldnât say for sure as for the tenjin wood or whether it is the original / initial one or a later replaced one . . .
definitely I did steel wool the sao considerably more than the tenjin and the sao did get lighter in color in general and revealed more of beautiful wood grain especially as for the top part that meets the tenjin even though I am sure I did not steel wool that part more than the other sao parts so I guess this could also just be a matter of some original finish oil making it darker and some of that left in the wood of the tenjin . . .
as for the uh âholesâ for the itomaki there was only one âpairâ of well intact fittings for one itomaki so I removed the other fittings . . .
anyway yeah I mean I do not expect this to turn out equal to a new tsugaru or ko shamisen with fibersen which would be the thing I would like to play sometime and most of all in case I need to say that I hope no one else is expecting me to be able to restore this to great nagauta shamisen form after all I donât even have all parts and have never called myself a woodworker and canât attach a standard skin . . .
anyway that being said I am sure whatever comes out of this will get me a cool step closer to an actual shamisen playing experience and the only thing I feel about this whole thing is that I appreciate and enjoy all about this . . . ! ! !
although I am in the first week of holiday I did not feel like doing much I plan some work for this weekend though and TODAY a LITTLE but KEY and COOL looking step already done . . .
http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/jackshine.jpg
(when I ordered the jack a week ago at a local music store I also ordered that pickup below I happened to see in their supplierâs catalogue (a no brainer considering the price) . . . so I have this to fool around with also I guess for potential integration in a koma (of course itâs too long as itâs originally meant for a guitar) the main plan though is to install some creation using regular piezo DISC(s) and I will use cable connectors as for the jack cables (just like I saw inside the mugen! so I can easily try out different creations at least without having a hassle as for connecting a different pickup creation to the jack . . .)