Building my first shamisen, I’ve had to cut some corners here and there, but the thing that may be the biggest problem is skins.
I have a few options, African drum skins from the music store, or deer pelts from my uncle, who is a hunter.Would one of those two options work better than the other? What type of glue should I use too?
Hey Spencer. I have no experience with those skin types but send a private message to Kyle. The most active people on the forum have been in Japan now so that’s why no one has replied most likely. There are some users that have tried various skins.
Deer is too thick and at the same time too bouncy, I think - makes a nice large drum head, but not thin or brittle enough to really ring and twang for shamisen.
Don’t know what your African drum heads are made of, so hard to say. I’m sure there are many drum/banjo heads out there that would work well.
There are several threads in construction on this topic - poke around and you will will find good stuff:
for example.