The other most recent post is kinda similar, funny coincidence. I recently purchased a used nagauta shamisen on ebay for cheap. The reason it was cheap was because one the skin on the string side(I don’t know the terminology) is ripped. I want to be able to play it so I want to get the skin replaced, but I don’t have a lot of money, as I am 15, but I don’t know how to replace it myself. I see that bachido will replace the skin, they can replace one side for like 100$, I was wondering if it would affect the sound significantly if I replaced just the ripped side with synthetic skin?(I think the other side is real skin) Or should I just spend the extra 100$ for both sides? This is my first shamisen, and I don’t know much, sorry about that, if you need any clarification, please ask. Thank you.
Hey there. Welcome.
The side of the body (or dou 胴) that you play on is called the omotegawa ( 表皮)、the reverse side is the uragawa (裏皮) - but we generally just refer to them as the front and back here ;p.
- If you want to play the instrument, it’s very important to have the front properly skinned.
There are patchwork options that you can look into to save money, but they will tend to create odd, uncharacteristic sounds.
- You do not need to have the back skinned to play.
The back skin does effect the sound and is necessary for proper tone and volume but one could get by without it.
- You do not need to skin the front and back with the same material or quality.
Here in Japan, most shops charge less to skin the reverse side as less pristine or less ideal skins can be used without worry. It is not uncommon to find instruments with extremely old, perhaps shabby, back skins and practically perfect front skins. It is furthermore not uncommon for even the most persnickety to save money by dumping their funds into the front (say on a cat skin for the non-tsugaru players) and going with the cheapest dog skin on the back side. Particularly frugal beginners will often opt to use a 裏皮 skin on the front side, blemishes and all!
In your situation, I would recommend fixing the front the skin with whatever option is within your budget. I would not worry overmuch about the back skin until it breaks.
Cheers.
*edit: corrected kanji reading~ Hyouhi is a little bit different ;p