Hi, I’ve bought this shamisen 4 years ago, not from bachido, but from an Etsy seller. One month ago, I think, I noticed the synthetic skin started to peel away and weaken on this side. I wonder what can I do avoid a worse situation. Have you got any suggestions?
Have you had any extreme weather lately? Or has anything changed in the storage or the enviroment you store it in?
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Also if you want a quick answer i would advice to go to the discord channel. There are people that know more then me and they react faster.
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Hello @Salix
I would say getting 4 years out of a generic skin is a pretty good run.
Was there any impact, or excess heat to this side of the skin? Or the shamisen as a whole?
I would not consider the rest of the skin as safe from peeling, so the situation is likely to get worse and widespread,
My advice is to replace that side of the skin (ideally both sides) with Hibiki on the Bachido store.
As for a temporary fix, you can add some superglue to the side, being careful with your fingers and working on a ventilated area.
But it’s going to be temporary. In my experience, once the peeling starts, it will invariably continue.
No skin lasts forever, though the Hibiki skin is known to last well over 5 years.
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It looks like the material is shrinking from the heat. The skin looks good on the top, so just glue the skin back to wood somehow to stop it from spreading.
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Recently it touched 31°C but my shamisen has survived hotter and more humid weathers in the last years.
To be honest I don’t store it in any Hardcase or nagabukuro, the first because I don’t have one and the second because when I used to have silk string they kept broking. Maybe I’ve better to buy a case. I usually put it on my shelf, I wonder if maybe a charging cable got hot in the area where the skin shrinked….
I didn’t know there was a discord channel, I’ll join, thank you
I’m always very cautious when moving around with the shamisen, so the dou has never got hit. About heat, the place in Italy were I live can be quite humid but the the temperature usually stay around 31-35°C, but I usually use a dehumidifier and air conditioning.
I don’t store it anywhere, I’ve got a nagabukuro but I don’t use it very much because it happened to break the silk string, but now that I have nylon ones I guess it won’t happen…
I usually put it on my shelf lied down. I usually have a phone charger around the dou, I wonder if it may be caused by a overheated cable.
Anyway, I will apply super glue and hope it will last long enough until I manage to save up enough money to afford the shipment. I read that shipping to the US may cost 70 only for sending, and another 70 euros for getting it back…
My mind sais “I could buy a new better shamisen if I save up more” but I must remember that one must keep good care of their instrument. And Japanese people are really good at preserving what they already have. At least I think there is no actual point to buy a new and more expensive shamisen. What do you think?
Thank you for helping me!
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Bachido also has a manufacturing and development center in Japan.
It is likely that shipping to Japan is cheaper.
I know shipping back to Europe is cheap just for a Dou, around 30 Euro.
When placing the reskinning order with Kyle, please tell him you want it skinned in Japan.
Since I will be doing the reskinning, I’ll coordinate with him.
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