Tsugaru Shamisen Build - Part II

Building/Repair
#1

School is over, and I return to the workshop (garage)!!! Actually, I’ve been out for quite a while, and I just kept forgetting to take pictures. I also gathered more materials for later in the process, but accidentally bought non glutenous rice flour…whoops. Nevertheless, have some updates!!!


Had to re-glue a portion of the dou. Ratchet straps work wonders.


The itomaki are now in hexagon form, and can now be gripped.


The saruo is by far the most beautiful thing to behold after it was made.


Needed some random ingenuity for gluing my broken Tenjin =) .

After this, some wood putty and stain will clear things up.
Also went ahead and got some doukake material from some Memorial Day sales

After gluing, my friend David and I were at a loss for what to do. Luckily he brought a shakuhachi and shinobue. First day with it, and I actually managed something, I was pleasantly surprised…

#2

great! I w( c )ould never ever build a shamisen myself :slight_smile:

#3

Wow, first day on a fue?? That’s amazing, most of the people in our group can’t even get sound out of it. And you bend notes too! Excellent!

#4

Thanks!!! I had a little help; I’ve played brass instruments for about a decade, and I had been playing the shakuhachi for about a week before this.

#5

Ah, very cool! Sprucing up the original!
Every so often, I thought of refining my first one (which has a partially square sao near the bottom), but never did. Something about keeping the innocence of the first attempt.

Excellent tooting on your first day! Heh, if you can play shakuhachi, then you could probably play any wind instrument! (expect for the nay, which seems of a field all it’s own.)

#6

The funny part is, I’m pretty bad with a legitimate shakuhachi. After David bought one, we started making our own using it as a template. I can play pretty well on one of the ones we made, which has a smaller diameter where the utaguchi is. It’s a bit harder to hit the lower parts of otsu, but kan is a breeze on it.

Today (hopefully) I will be using wood putty for a couple glue joints and then I’m going to stain it, so it looks a bit more like it was made with legitimate shamisen woods =)

#7

Oh snap!

Not to toot my family’s horn, but you may be interested in my dad’s book, Blowing Zen. :slight_smile: - http://toneway.com/products/blowing-zen
(I based the layout of SoJ from his book)

Cool beans! Hopefully you can find a deeply penetrating thin stain so it won’t be rubbed off the fingerboard from wear.

#8

As far as that is concerned, should I apply spray lacquer to the sao? I don’t know for sure how it will affect the playing surface. I was considering applying some to the dou, since it is basswood and gets dented oh so easily, but then it may be very shiny in comparison to the sao…

#9

Let’s see. A softwood… Well, lacquer is quite soft as well, and would wear down too.

Oh, here’s one solution! Some sao for tsugaru shamisen have an ebony fingerboard over it. Nitta san brought one to Santa Cruz in 2007. Take a look!

So, shaving 5mm off the sao topside and gluing down a 5mm strip of ebony might solve your problem, and look snazzy as well! :slight_smile:

#10

Not that I am in need of fixing my sao, but just had to say I really like the fingerboard solution!

#11

I do too, if I had the money for it…
Either way, I tested the stain on a piece, and here’s a comparison between normal cherry and the darker stained piece

it looks really nice, in my opinion =) I’ve put the first layer of stain on the dou and sao. Now I just wait for it to dry and then do some touch-up spots.

#12

Hmm…ebony finger board…that would be epic! I’d love doing that to mine. My sao is low grade so there are very small natural gaps/pits in the wood that sometimes catch the strings and cause “less-than-desirable” intonation.

Unfortunately I don’t live in an space that accommodates the correct tooling.

Not trying to hijack a thread, but would anyone have any estimate how much a job like that might cost (parts+labor) ?

#13

Ebony fingerboard blanks (and other suitable woods, like maple) are available from many luthier supply shops, online, from around $25 to $38 ($US). I’ve dealt with StewMac in the past, but there are other reputable firms, as well, for example:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_necks,_wood/Acoustic_guitar_fingerboards/Unslotted_Fingerboard_for_Guitar.html

http://www.usacustomguitars.com/diy.html

http://www.allenguitar.com/ftbd_blnk_eb.htm

http://www.allparts.com/LT-4963-0E0-Ebony-Fretboard-Blank-Guitar_p_2232.html

Some shops will cut fingerboards to a requested size, but most supply them in “standard guitar and electric bass sizes,” which could be trimmed to fit your needs.
It wouldn’t be an expensive upgrade, but it would look sharp, I’m sure, and would improve the sound and playability of a cheaper neck.
Good luck!
Brett

#14

More questions lead to more answers, so there’s only good to be found from it!
Hmm…looking at those prices, it isn’t that bad. I can’t do it yet, but it is definitely a viable option in the future. Thanks for the info!

#15

Well… the stain got on the part where the itomaki go, and now they won’t stay. That was managable, but then my koma shattered into about 10 pieces…I think, at this point, I’m just gonna hope on the nagauta raffle…

#16

UPDATE!?!?!?

The internet access where I live is a usb card limited to 5Gb per month, so I’ve not been very active on shamisen updates lately - apologies! I’ve got the itomaki in the shape I want now, and the first coat of stain turned out rather well.

I was wondering what color to make the itomaki, but after looking at it put back together, I decided to keep the color as is and just do a clear stain. I also had issues remembering which itomaki was which, so now they have 上、中、and 下 marked on them, which I will probably make permanent (it looks pretty cool!)

I’m not enough of an expert to make a functioning koma (I don’t have wood that is durable enough anyway), so i broke down and bought a koma from the Bachido store… and I am in love! The makeshift one I was using before was twice as tall, making the action so high I couldn’t actually press the strings against the clipboard.

I have yet to skin the shamisen since I have yet to make a skin stretcher. Just have to re-stain a few areas and take care of the skin…I’m getting so close!!!

As far as the stain, I used Rust-oleum ultimate wood stain (black cherry). I’ve played it for about an hour, and purposefully tried to wear down the color with the strings, but it still looks exactly as it did when I started. It’s not very much wear on it, but the fact that none of it shows is a bit promising!

NOTE: Since I only have Mochiko to work with, I will probably only be able to stretch it to nagauta tightness, can someone upload a video or something of the like tapping on the skin on the front and back, so I have a general idea of how much to stretch it? Any help would be greatly appeciated!

© 2020 Kyle Abbott