I’ve used the Level 1 shamisen a few times, and have also played similar shamisen with plastic skin.
The benefit of a three piece sao is that it can be dismantled to fit in a smaller case. However, one piece or three piece, neither affects the sound.
Yes, all three can change the sound/tone on your shamisen.
Hmmm… if it’s the edge of the skin that’s been glued back, it shouldn’t have affected the skin tension, methinks.
Question - Kyle (Doesn’t one of your friend play the Jiuta Shamisen or he now has a Tsugaru Shamisen. (he same person who went to Japan with you. Not Kevin K.
There was another person in your video. (the trip to Japan)
Grant Reimer? We went to Japan together. He’s only played tsugaru shamisen.
Kevin, just took a look at both your video and the eBay pics. Judging by the shot of the neck in your video at the ~15 second mark, and also by one of the pics on eBay, your shamisen would seem to be a chuuzao/jiuta one, even tho’ the vendor called it a nagauta instrument. (The chuuzao sao comes to an “edge” very near the box, as does the Tsugaru one, whereas a nagauta neck has a gradual, rounded “slope” towards the neck instead (see nagauta neck pic here - http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/i-a-b-m/cabinet/00771998/img55956186.jpg). Your shamisen seems to have come with a nagauta bachi. As for the koma, it doesn’t seem to be a jiuta one, and also don’t think it’s a nagauta one, but I can’t see the koma clearly enough to say more than that…
Re: the skin, it does look synthetic, but neither the eBay pics nor your video was a clear enough shot to say for sure. It is definitely not cat. If your skin were natural/dog, you should be able to see some areas where the dog’s hair had been removed, although you won’t necessarily see that all over the entire skin. With synthetic skin, you won’t see any such marks - it’ll be “smooth”, or at least uniform, as Kyle said.
By the way, in your video, it looks like you’re playing left-handed - yes? Just curious.
(Linda C.) - On the top of my Shamisen (it doesn’t cut-off sharply) it smoothly curved. Is it possible that that the neck on the bottom was made incorrectly.
Oh I play with my right hand (striking the bachi with my right hand)
Maybe my eyes are just tired(?! - up too late last night! 
) Somehow, the playing looked reversed/mirror image…? Oh well, sorry if I saw it wrong.
Don’t worry, I don’t think your shamisen was “made incorrectly”. It seems to play just fine, that’s the main thing.
actually I just remember (my camera does reverse the view) I remember I saw that when I recorded something before the shamisen video
