I was planning on getting some calfskin from mid-east.com for when I cover my dou and I noticed that they have calfskin available in thin, medium, and thick. Which thickness would be best for tsugaru shamisen? Does it even matter?
I asked Kyle about this when I made my first shamisen; he said the thick calfskin should sound best. I ordered the CF12-TK Calfskin, 12", Thick.
Thanks 
Yeah, thicker is better, especially for calf skin. skin for tsugaru shamisen needs to be stretched tight as possible. Thicker skin will allow you to stretch it tighter without breaking.
Note: Carnivore skin can be stretched far tighter as the skin is denser. Just letting you know in case you can obtain it (legally!) Coyote skin would fall under that category, methinks.
Yeah, thicker is better, especially for calf skin. skin for tsugaru shamisen needs to be stretched tight as possible. Thicker skin will allow you to stretch it tighter without breaking.
Note: Carnivore skin can be stretched far tighter as the skin is denser. Just letting you know in case you can obtain it (legally!) Coyote skin would fall under that category, methinks.
Kyle, I heard that you used calf skin on your first and second shamisen. Do you still use them or did you get some real dog skin to use? (because it sounds extremely legit)
And i had an idea,why dont you get some fibersen to skin your shamisen,since its not prohibited.
Haha for some reason I was thinking a thinner skin would sound better. I’m glad I asked before buying anything 
Carnivore skin can be stretched far tighter as the skin is denser. Just letting you know in case you can obtain it (legally!) Coyote skin would fall under that category, methinks.
That’s good to know. There are a lot of coyotes around here and I have heard of people in the area actually hunting them, so someone might have a skin or two laying around.
I actually made a practice dou and covered it in vellum paper. The vellum had a nice look and feel but unfortunately it had absolutely no stretch to it so the end result sounded kind of “thick”.
And i had an idea,why dont you get some fibersen to skin your shamisen,since its not prohibited.
Shinji, I wanted to use fibersen for this project but I’m on such a tight budget I can’t really afford it this time. I am saving up to get a pro grade shamisen in the future and it is definitely going to be covered in fibersen.
Haha for some reason I was thinking a thinner skin would sound better. I’m glad I asked before buying anything
That’s exactly what I used to think for long time! I figured that thinner skin would emit a cleaner sound. After many experiments, I found it’s really the tightness that makes the sharper sound.
That’s good to know. There are a lot of coyotes around here and I have heard of people in the area actually hunting them, so someone might have a skin or two laying around.
Awesome!! Yeah, livestock owners are good people to ask, because they constantly have to defend their animals from coyote. Same is true in CA.
I actually made a practice dou and covered it in vellum paper. The vellum had a nice look and feel but unfortunately it had absolutely no stretch to it so the end result sounded kind of “thick”.
Interesting. How thick is vellum paper? It actually might work if it’s tight enough. Taichi san told me about a kawahari method where the skin is very lightly moistened. Light moistening means it is harder to stretch, but that means you can get a tighter/sharper sound quicker without stretching it as far as if it were moistened deeper.
About FiberSen, currently the raw material instead available for sale. :-S
Vellum paper is extremely thin and translucent, about the same as tracing paper. When I used it I doubled it up because I was afraid of the koma tearing through (which I later found out was unnecessary because vellum is extremely tear resistant.)
Maybe I can try to re-skin it using only one layer of vellum and stretch/moisten it to see if i can get a better sound out of it. It would be really awesome if I could use that because it’s only $2 for a 4’ sheet and the stuff is pretty durable (not to mention being able to save an animal’s skin, literally).