Skin care in dry areas

Building/Repair
#1

Hello everyone,
Hope you are doing great!

I would like to ask you, specially the ones living in desertic or dry areas, if you have a way for keeping the shamisen skin safe.

Although Mexico City is less humid than Japan, there was no problem with my instrument when moving there from Japan.
The problem was when I recently moved from Mexico City to a considerably more dry city…
The skin tore in about 4 months of living here…

I just got my instrument reskined, but I am really worried about that happening again.

I began to use a room humidifier in the place I keep my shamisen, but I would like to hear some other advices if you happen to know something.

Thank you!
Gracias!

#2

Hello Jorge,
I dont know any tip about that situation but, the most important thing i can tell you is that everytime you finish playing your shamisen put it in your case with the fukuro so it can rest safely.

Try not to leave the shamisen outside the case for a long time and you will be ok, i think is the best way to take care of your instrument :slight_smile:

#3

This might seem a bit far fetched and I wouldn’t recommend to try it yourself, but I know that percussionists in Africa, especially players of djembe, darbuka amd davul, use unprocessed Shea Butter or line seed oil to keep the skin from breaking due to the dry climate and it even repels humidity to some extent.

Sadly I can’t try it myself atm, since I am not at home. But I’m going to see if this works, when I am back.

#4

Not saying it won’t work (I know nothing about skincare for instruments haha) but I get nervous just putting on a bachigawa, applying oil would give me a heart attack in case it stains or something :stuck_out_tongue:

#5

Jose Luque, Jan Bari, thank you for your advice, I really appreciate them.

I always keep my instrument in its case, with the washibukuro and the cloth one, so I will continue this practice.

Jan Bari, you are right, here we have traditional percussion instruments with cow or goat skin and the players do spread some kind of oil to them to give some elasticity and prevent from breaking or over drying.
The thing is that on most cases the skin is not glued to the instrument, as in the case of the shamisen, so I would also be worrying that with the oil or butter the rice glue came off…

If you happen to try it please let me know the results and what kind of material you used.

Regards

© 2020 Kyle Abbott