What are the advantages/disadvantages of different skins (cat, dog, calf, fiber-sen, plastic, vellum) when you’re using either a Tsugaru or Chuzao shamisen? I’m particularly interested in the differences along the lines of durability and sound quality.
Thanks!
would the fibersen skin already be the next best tsugaru sounding thing after dog skin? I mean it sounded way better than plastic but I wondered how it compares to calf skin or goat skin or whatever else other than dog skin . . .
Cat And dog are the most traditional.
Calf was not mass used,but its a good and legal substitute to dog and calf.
Fibersen is the best,since its durable,high quality sound,and legal.
Plastic is the worst of these,since it has no sound quality. It’s only durable.
The only one I have used before is vellum. The advantage to using vellum is that it is cheap, durable, and there are a lot of places that sell it. The disadvantage is that it is much more see through than the traditional skins and it doesn’t have quite the same sound quality due to it being much thinner.
Cody, have you tried Vellum processed calf skin? Just curious. I used it years ago, but didn’t notice it exceptionally different from regular calf skin.
No calf, I just used some blueprint quality rag vellum. I am thinking about ordering a sheet of deer or sheep parchment from pergamina.net for my current shamisen-in-progress. If I do decide to give it a try then I will be sure to let you know how it works.
I am really interested in fibersen, because of animal reasons, and if it is more durable than animal ones I think it is a very good thing.
the sound its the only thing I think its worst than animal skin, but I didnt hear it too much so I cant tell a thing about it.