Hello folks,
I just wanted to share some of my adventures making and repairing bachi. Long story short, I started playing last year using a faux bekkou bachi and its tips eventually broke off completely. Spending that much money on a new bachi at that point would be reasonably painful, so I started my task of making my own bachi. The first iteration was a 3D printed/laser cut bachi that sandwiched some acrylic plates. I also tried a couple polycarbonate plates but overall acrylic and polycarbonate were too flexible or didn’t sound as sharp as the faux bekkou did.
Then, it dawned upon me that I had a useless bachi handle laying in my drawer (the broken faux bekkou one), so I could try a couple different materials using that handle. I ordered some faux tortoiseshell sheets and after a lot of cutting and sanding this was what I got:
The shape needs some work, as well as adjusting the thickness/flex, but I was pretty satisfied with it. The tortoiseshell pattern is completely random so that was a surprise. What made me the happiest was the sharp, snappy sound that I got from it. I’ll be testing it for durability and adjusting along the way.