Until now I used reindeer skin parchment for my nagauta shamisen. The colour of it is a bit too gray. Lappish shamans in Lapland (Northernmost part of Finland) use reindeer skin for magical drums.
From now I’ll try goat skin which I bought 2 weeks ago.
nice work dude
Then I bought hard ware (koma, zagane, kamigoma etc) for the koto and shamisen.
So, if you also bought hardware for koto, does that mean you’ve already made one, or will koto be a future project? (If you can make a koto as beautifully as you made your shamisen, I’d love to see the results!)
Hi Anderson! Welcome to Bachido!
Thank you! It’s nice to hear your opinion of my shamisen.
Linda,
Yes, I’ve made one koto. I’ll send some pictures of it soon. Maybe tomorrow. Thank you for your kind words about the shamisen I’ve made.
Btw, I think the "trails"on the neck joint look great. Do u feel any difference having them, like do u have to tune the shamisen less than shamisen without it? Hope u got my point. Cheers
Hi Linda,
The koto I made has been stored for a long time. Now I noticed that some zaganes (座金) have loosened. I’ll repair them later. Here are two photos of my Yamada koto (山田筝)
Hi Linda,
The koto I made has been stored for a long time. Now I noticed that some zaganes (座金) have loosened. I’ll repair them later. Here are two photos of my Yamada koto (山田筝)
http://i.imgur.com/OyDEZHB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Mxge738.jpg
Hi Anderson!
Thank you for the feedback. Yes, the neck with one groove or two grooves-joint is very firm indeed compared with a neck without groove or grooves. Usually the neck of the shamisen for training (practice) has no groove-joint.
Here is a photo of two kind of necks. A neck with 2 grooves (I made this) and a neck without groove(s) (I bought this kouta shamisen at Ebay for about USD120 and re-skinned it).
Anderson,
when tuning the shamisen, I think there is no difference if the neck has groove(s) or not. The plain-joint neck = sao (棹) without groove(s) will warp easily during some years. Loosening the strings when not playing will help a bit.
Here are two photos of my Yamada koto (山田筝)
If you hadn’t said you made it, I would have believed it was made in Japan. :-). Nice job! Did you also do the stringing yourself, or did you take it to a kotoya to have them do it?
Linda, thank you! Yes, I did the stringing myself. I’ve done it several times.
Actually I wanted to make the koto of Paulownia wood (in Japanese kiri), but there aren’t any paulownia wood (Latin name: Paulownia tomentosa) suppliers here. Instead of kiri wood I made it of pine and veneer + rosewood.
Thanks for the explanations Nick. Koto looks great too!
Oh Linda, you live in Toronto? I was there 6 years ago. Nice city and the CN-tower! I slept on the glass floor more than 300 meters above ground.
Well, actually I did not sleep. But anyway it was a nice experience.
Yes, that glass floor in the CN Tower is fun! (Some people love it, but some are terrified to look through it… 
)
Linda,
my sister lives in Sault Ste Marie in Canada. Her Summer House is at the Lake Superior.
I think that might “qualify” you as an honourary Canadian. 
Linda, thanks for kind words!
