Greetings!
Although I have the first part of beginners hosozao shamisen purchased and delivered (the accessory kit, and I am waiting on the koma & bachi to be delivered), I will be buying the shamisen after selling one of my guitars (12-string Danelectro).
I’ve played guitar for a number of years, I started ukulele a year ago. Probably the thing that drew me to shamisen was the sawari.
I live in Oakland so if there are local groups please point me in that direction.
Many thanks! 
Welcome to Bachido! 
Starting as a guitar player is going to make things quite a bit easier (though my introduction to playing guitar was after shamisen, it certainly was made easier by shamisen lol), the sansagari tuning is even the same intervals as the E, A, and D strings!
Always glad to see new people!
As luck would have it, I didn’t have to sell my 12-string.
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Nice to hear that. I will have to sell one of my guitars to get a shamisen so I know how hard is to get rid of one of your instruments to get another one, but a shamisen is something so unique… glad you made it without selling your guitar.
I received my shamisen last Thursday
Congrats!! That’s always so exciting haha
Also curious, what model Danelectro is that? I haven’t seen one that looks anything like that before lol
It’s a D59 Vintage. I’ve had it 2 years.
Thanks! I really like the color on that, plus I love lipstick pickups. Recently got a danelectro made Silvertone 1457 but I don’t have a 12 string yet, might look into that model some day!
Is that print on the pickguard a custom job? It kinds of look japanese too with the cherry flowers on it. I love the color too, looks like the surf green finish on some Fender models.
BTW, congrats for your new shamisen
Thank you!
For an entry model, it’s pretty awesome. No 60-cycle hum from the pick-ups at all, and had a built-in treble bleed circuit. That I pleasantly discovered when I went to install the mod on all of my guitars.
Danelectro list this color as Dark Aqua. Not rare but also not common.
The Sakura stickers I bought separately on Etsy with a couple different colors available. I had to Xacto knife the edges off to fit. Purple is one of my favorites besides surf green.
(^o^)v
Fixed my wall. Less guitars so I wanted to fix the spacing and spackle the previous holes. It was a good indoor activity since my work was closed for air health reasons.
I have a case for my shamisen now (from Bachido store) but the hook is nice if I just need to hang for a day or 2.