I started building my first shamisen over the summer but unfortunately going back to school slowed my progress a bit. I am currently working on carving out the dou.
Also, has anyone ever made a shamisen out of African makore? The lumberyard by my house didn’t have any decent sized pieces of padauk so I just used a big chunk of makore. I am concerned that the wood is somewhat softer than padauk but I’m not sure how that will affect the instrument.
Sorry I don’t know much about African makore but I do want to say your work looks excellent! Its awesome that you are going for the mitsuori! Great photos! Thanks for sharing Cody!
that wood looks beautiful, can’t wait to see more
Awesome! I feel the pain of school interfering, my project is going at a snails pace because of school and work…
Thanks for the kind words. I will be sure to update once I make some more progress. I really can’t wait to give the wood a proper polish and bring out the beautiful grain.
Hey Cody!! Welcome to the Forum! Glad you brought your shamisen pics. 
I’m impressed! That’s awesome that your dou pieces have the bulleye pattern. Extra legit. 
How do you find the Makore to work with? Though it’s a bit softer, if skinned well, I think it should sound very pleasant.
Another thought is that with the experience you get from this one, you can make one out of Jatoba or Bloodwood!
Thanks Kyle! 
As for the Makore I think I read somewhere that the Janka hardness is about 1110 and the grain pattern looks halfway between paduak and mahogany. The price is the same as paduak and it is a joy to work with. After working with it tho I feel I must warn my fellow shamisen makers not to breathe in the dust when sanding because it’s like breathing in pepper spray COUGH COUGH.
I am also entertaining the idea of making a matching horn/makore bachi and piercing it with the Bachido mon
Great pictures! You are inspiring me to try and pick back up on my long-lost dream of building one myself.
After working with it tho I feel I must warn my fellow shamisen makers not to breathe in the dust when sanding because it’s like breathing in pepper spray COUGH COUGH.
Oh man, the first day I tried sanding padauk with the belt sander, I noticed that quite a bit of dust comes out. I have a tendancy to shrug it off, thinking “I’m only gonna be sanding for a few minutes.” But I went and got a proper dust mask anyway (one that really seals against the face). After I finished, the whole area was covered in cups and cups of dust (which sticks to everything), there was dust covering my mask (and a bit inside too). Whew, certainly not good to have in the lungs.
I am also entertaining the idea of making a matching horn/makore bachi and piercing it with the Bachido mon
Oooh!! That would be blogworthy!
I did some work on my shamisen today before going to work. It is actually starting to look like a sanshin lol
I have finished carving out my dou pieces and I am getting ready to glue them together. Unfortunately one of those pesky 45 degree corners isn’t quite lining up. It has about a 1/8 inch gap on the inside edge.
Does anyone have any suggestions to get the corners cleaned up a bit better? If I can’t figure anything out then I may just glue them together as is and fill any gaps in with glue or filler.
Ah, the part I love most about making dou - getting the shape perfect and finding out that there’s a sizable gap.
Simply put, the surface of one of those pieces (or both) have to be shaved so they fit closer. Of course, when you change one corner, all the other corners get affected when tightened together.
There’s good news and bad news, and they’re both the same. There’s no secret trick, you just have to simply shave down the problem areas until they all fit closer. Work slowly and carefully. Very little wood actually needs to be removed, but it does need to be removed in such a way where all the corners line up. It’s just a matter of working slowly and observing/thinking how shaving one corner will affect the rest.
The closer the pieces, the more solid the joint will be. However, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Above all, do the best you can. After you give it all you’ve got, whether achieving flush joints or back to where you started, you can go from there.
Currently, I think that gap is a little too big to use filler, but if you manage to get them a bit closer, it could be doable.
I don’t really care about it being perfect since it is my first shamisen and all. My main concern is that it doesn’t have enough contact for the glue to have a strong hold.
I have been slowly filing the corners down little by little and it appears that I have made some progress. It seems like the smaller the amount of wood you are trying to remove the longer it takes.
Cody,
the grain of your dou is very nice and is somehow similar to padauk.
You are doing an amazing work, I hope you can fix the 45 degree dou problem. Gambatte!!
Well Makore and Padauk are both tropical hardwoods and they both come from the same region of Africa so its not too surprising that they look alike.
I finally got around to making a 45 degree angle jig to check my angles. After many, many hours of using a rasp to shave down the angles they are slowly lining up. It is apparent that I still have a LOT of filing to do to get some good contact.
Ganbatte indeed Paco lol
I’ve been working on my angles again. After much blood, sweat, and tears they are finally starting to look a little better. I’m not sure if I want to finally glue them yet or try to get them a little more perfect.
Since I carved each of the pieces individually the outside curves don’t perfectly match up at the corners but I am planning on sanding those down after I glue them.
OK so I finally got the dou assembled and drilled the maruana. Now I go on to the most exciting part of making the shamisen… carving the tenjin!
Just finished carving my tenjin and itokura today. The Itokura was a pain since I didn’t have a keyhole saw, and the curved piece of wood didn’t fit in my vice. I used an electric jigsaw for a while until I realized I accidentally cut way past the line in two places.
Finally I stopped crying, bought a proper keyhole saw, and sharpened my chisel. The rest was cake. Luckily those stray cuts evened out too. Unfortunately I also forgot to carve the tsukigata (oops, no half moon shape for me).
Now that everything has been put together I suppose all that I have left is the itomaki, kawahari, and a little tung oil.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFfffffffffff…
I’m glad those cuts evened out!! I had something similar happen. When I started drilling the first hole (to fit in the saw), the bit tore away some wood past the top of the itogura.
It feels so depressing at the time, but by the end, it either evens out or you just forget about it.
Ooh! If you want to try something fun, turn the tsukigata into horns. First steps into a metal shamisen! 
(at least, visually)
Happy lacquering! That’s the most pleasing part, methinks.