So I am getting to the point of building a skin stretcher, and I have one problem revolving around the skin. I don’t have the noriko glue, so I am not expecting to be able to stretch it as tight as other tsugaru shamisen. To anyone who has been in the same boat as me (or maybe a nagauta shamisen would work for this too), can you please record tapping the skin on the front and back dou so I can see the frequency I should aim for on the front and the back. Thanks in advance!! =D
good luck 
I seem to remember having heard some tapping here and there or maybe it was just in the clip below . . . and I think Kevin also tapped around a bit in a clip about the fibersen . . .
also of interest to me so I can compare that with the sounds of unsophisticated alternative covers I personally plan on trying out already the clip above I find interesting enough to get a general idea about how a skin sounds when tapped on . . .
Here is how my shamisen sounds. I skinned it with my homemade skin stretcher with medium thickness goatskin from Mid-east.com.
I was paranoid that the skin was going to pop off before I did the sides but the mochiko turned out to be pretty strong.
The backside of my dou sounds much nicer than the front. I skinned the back first and screwed up, and since I only had two skins I just wiped the mochiko off, re soaked it, and re stretched it. I think the extra soaking and stretching may have made it more “relaxed” the second time around. That being said, the front is supposed to be tighter than the back.
Good luck skinning!
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B H: thanks for the find! Best of luck with your construction!!!
Cody: Thank you for the upload! I was worried about the mochiko too, and now worries are being relieved =)
I just looked at the blueprint for the bachi in Kyle’s book, and the bachi I play with seems to be about the same size as the one for spreading the mochiko >.< I’m sure half my playing habits (and the bachi itself) are going to have to change!
Cody - I have reskinned both sides with kisen once and the backside is definitely tighter, even when I just used rope to tie two skins together before I had the kisen, the back was ALWAYS tighter. Damn!
Your front skin sounds really good in that video though, good job!!!
Excellent job, Cody! That sounds very nice!
I think the extra soaking and stretching may have made it more “relaxed” the second time around.
Good observation! When Taichi san was talking to me about kawahari, he noted that one trick is to stretch the skin, take it off and then stretch it again as it could be stretched even tighter the second time.
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