Gather around Bachido gang, this is gonna be a long one. My shamisen instructor moved recently and came across an instrument she purchased on Ebay years ago. I’ve never seen anything like it before (nor had she) and I would best describe it as a tsugaru sanshin. It’s got real snake skin and the dou is the size of a normal sanshin, but the neck is way longer than my tsugaru shamisen. I’m wondering if it’s a bass sanshin? I haven’t tightened up the tuning too much, but it’s got a nice deep sound to it. Does anyone have any knowledge of such an instrument? It’s pretty awesome.
Some notable features are the shape of the tenjin and how the strings are aligned at the sao. It has a wooden neo and it’s made of two types of wood. It’s light compared to my tsugaru shamisen. I haven’t tried taking it apart or adjusted it much yet. The action is really high, but that might just be a sanshin thing.
My instructor is letting me hang on to it for now to find out more info and look into repairing the back skin which has a small hole in it. After Kyle re-headed my shamisen, the entire minyo group I play with compliment the sound and the way it looks. They’re very impressed with the work and compare sound of the goat skin to somewhere between dog and cat. So now my shamisen instructor wants to know if Kyle has any knowledge of re-heading sanshin with real or fake skin or other materials to make it playable again.
Please share knowledge, comments and questions about it. I’m enamored with this instrument and can’t wait to figure out what it is and try to play it. I’m assuming it would be played with a sanshin pick and not bachi because of the snake skin. What a treasure.
Gallery can be found here.
I hope you find the necessary information to learn it!