My first Shamisen and a Related Site . . .

Building/Repair
#41

Bro, even as a “total amateur”, I think you did a great job with it! I definitely know how it feels wanting to repair something perfectly without glue spots or whatever, but it happens and superficial ‘blemishes’ don’t decrease the sound quality. In fact, it can potentially make the look of your shamisen more interesting than before! :slight_smile:

yeah I should just shed off that idea of taking it too seriously like feeling obliged a bit to restore this to a regular and seriously playable and sounding nagauta shamisen and I would be fine … :slight_smile:

Truth be told, I was hoping you’d do something wild with it like add an extra string or something. :wink:

Your work looks glorious, BH! Especially with the pickup attachment. It inspires me to try it again (I removed the Shamisen Pickup I got because it set the Xray scanner off at the airport so much). That’s a shame about the nakago length, I guess they were two separate shamisen! However, it shouldn’t be a problem at all. Check out my last post in this thread, it could be your solution to extending the nakagosaki.

Matt: Great great! :smiley:

#42

(ah thanks Kyle) I’m not posting this expecting a reply or anything but when I filed around a bit this evening I thought how BEAUTIFUL that red dust looks . . . am I falling in love with woodworking? . . . nah and for proof Kyle stay tuned for a picture of my short nakago solution . . . avoiding woodworking wherever I can I guess . . . :slight_smile:

http://freecarvers.com/sem/DSC_0261.jpg

http://freecarvers.com/sem/DSC_0259.jpg

#43

Awesome B H !
This just might call for another “New” song to continue the Austrian Taxi Driver theme!

#44

Well, Kouki is a very luxurious wood to work with. I mean, I like woodworking anyway, but when I was repairing Aki’s kouki tenjin, somehow it was even more fun. It’s a very hard, ruby red wood that polishes super easily, what’s not to like? :wink:

Kevin! You know I’m currently on a recording kick right now. When you come to SC next year, we’re gonna have to make a studio version of The Austrian Taxi Driver, and a sequel for how he gets a shamisen!

“BH! Repairing a kouki shamisen. BH! Better than anything at Rakuten. BH!”
“He’ll tataki…with his bachi…he’ll tataki…with his bachi…he’ll tataki…in his bachi…he’ll tataku… IN HIS CAR!”
(I was gonna say “with his kakku”, but figured better to keep it family friendly, as Liam Morgan reminded me :wink: )

#45

HA! Greetings in style straight from the cab! Brothas!

#46

Oh, almost lost words to imagine both to hear the song and see the craftsman’s sophisticated art, shamisen (^ ^) Just hard to wait!!!

#47

and Kyoko your posts are among the funniest on this forum . . . :slight_smile:

ah Kyle feel free to feature the occasional (okay one time) good looking and unclothed customer who never called again . . . what a bittersweet sort of business . . .

on the good side a light colored chip of wood settled on the dark sao this evening and I thought how wonderful that looked! Just when I reached for the camera to share this with all of you a slight gust of wind blew the chip away and I thought that’s fine too . . .

http://freecarvers.com/sem/DSC_0275.jpg

#48

I’m not posting this expecting a reply or anything but when I filed around a bit this evening I thought how BEAUTIFUL that red dust looks … am I falling in love with woodworking? …

I know what you mean. I have a bucket that I save all my exotic wood chips in – they are just too pretty to throw away! Meh I’ll find something to use them for :slight_smile:

http://imgur.com/zY6CDkO.jpg

What are those pieces of wood you are carving? Are you making new itomaki?

Like Kyoko said, I can’t wait to hear it when it’s done!

#49

yeah that was what I was thinking even before Kevin’s reply that I should come up with the next taxi tune performed on THE my shamisen on the other hand I would never want to stop Kyle and Kevin obviously Kyle seems more creative in the lyrics department and a studio version of the taxi song or even a follow up who could not want that and to think that all of that could be happening OMG :slight_smile:

. . . speaking of which what a great bucket of wood chips . . . seriously and even though I am sipping on wodka orange as we speak the earlier mentioned appreciation of red dust and wood chips all occured to me completely sober there might be some overall good mood developing here who knows . . . LIFE IS GREAT . . . yeah okay :slight_smile:

and yeah although I am not sure whether I should take this as a serious question or an insult but indeed those pieces of light colored wood (beech now we’ll see if that will hold) I was carving earlier this evening are actually on their way to becoming itomakis I got a little bit further even already just sanding to be done for the fine fitting that is I hope they will be fitting good enough to be of use . . . :slight_smile:

and now everyone check out Cody’s cool thread and two completely different clips below . . .

shamisen in the sun . . . :slight_smile:

#50

Haha no insult intended BH, just admiring your handiwork! :slight_smile:

It looks like those itomaki should hold nicely.

#51

Haha! Naked Taxi was pretty hilarious! Also thanks for posting this old clip. Taken in L.A. By Mike Penny many years ago. Man! Time flies…

#52

. . . oookay . . . well first strikes today . . . so I call it the GoSem for a couple of reasons of course technically also cause the itomakis tend to go somewhere on their own . . .

http://freecarvers.com/sem/pics/gosem.jpg

. . . a mixture of feelings first I thought oh seeing it as a whole seemed to make it worth the effort why did I rush things at the end? although of course I just wanted to get it completed to play a bit and the taxi calendar skin is definitely supposed to be a temporary solution . . . and then though some details emerged quickly that made me wonder whether I could EVER seriously play this . . . so string action is too high at the ass which seems slightly enhanced by a slightly coming in high sao although a truly low koma could neutralize this . . . of course the whole world could look cooler just after working on making itomakis that are less slippy although the whole tenjin while the cracks so far hold up the holes for the itomakis are hard to get shaped perfectly and the wood is already so worn out thin that not to mention with the cracks also as a weak spot a local luthier thought this would be risky to shape with a reamer tool that could get the angles right too . . .

so I will fool around with the current version a bit until a very likely frustration overwhelms the being fed up with wood working and I shall make new itomakis and koma (and kamigoma) sometime . . . :slight_smile:

anyway I guess looking on the good side I already have a somewhat and in part cool looking thing standing around and I guess I will even get more out of it than a definite assurance that I want to play shamisen and get one of those KoShamisen sometime you know and a brand new one no less . . . :slight_smile:

so and anyway and without further ado check out the further pictures I posted on my site if you like and there is a sound sample too . . .

cheers and thanks for the support and cheers everyone . . . :slight_smile:

http://freecarvers.com/sem/shamisem.html

#53

Congratulations, my friend! All things considered, I’d say it was a successful project. Things can always be adjusted over time. No rush! :slight_smile:

When will we get to see a video? :slight_smile:

#54

you know I recorded that sound sample of the very first time trying to play half naked indoors at 40+ degrees celsius and after I put it away I sadly thought this won’t be good for serious or any playing for that matter but on a second attempt the itomakis did hold a WEE bit better even at higher string tension and that was enough of a kick I gotta say because I found it exciting enough to find some notes and finger them at authentic sao spacings (I mean OMG talk about a stretch compared to the spacings on my whatever sized selfmade instruments) so I definitely want to redo the itomaki and experienced a fresh hope that I might and in case I could get the itomakis to work this could be fun overall :slight_smile:

and video of course well let me battle with my trying to avoid that again when this will at least hold a tuning and I could play at least something anything on top of holding the thing to the camera and striking a string a few times . . . sure enough I will post it right here once I got a video to share . . .

:slight_smile:

#55

It looks really awesome in the pictures! Wow! Thanks for sharing those images!

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