Stretching a Skin on a Shamisen

http://shamisenofjapan.com/ - Do you like shamisen? You wanna play shamisen? You wanna make your own shamisen? You gotta get Shamisen of Japan! Go to http://shamisenofjapan.com/

Ever wanted your "loose as a goose" skinned shamisen head to be replaced with super-tight skin but cringed at the ridiculous $200+ (per side!) price? Well, it's very easy to do yourself (just a little mind-numbing making 18 clamps. . . but pretend you didn't hear that). Follow this guide and you can get the same results as the pro-stretchers.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• shamisen
• skin
• stretch
• traditional
• japanese

[motimenow]

Awesome,

I need to replace the skins on a shamisen. How and where can I purchase the skins please?

Thanks!

[fiddlefella]

@motimenow You can get thick calf skin at mid-east . com. :-)

[darthlol2]

@fiddlefella Hey man, I've been looking at your videos about how you make these shamisen and I must say: it looks pretty neat!

Now I've decided to do my school project on making a shamisen, but now I've got a question: I read your answer about where you get those calf skin and I looked on mid-east . com... but I wonder if they also ship to Europe. But I can't find an answer to that. Thought maybe you would know ... ?

Thanks if you have time to answer this question. You rock ^^

[fiddlefella]

@darthlol2 Hi. Thanks! I'm glad you like the videos! :-)

Yes, they ship to Europe, and many other countries. To find out, I just added one to the shopping cart, checked out, and saw there's a wide country selection when filling out the address page. So it should all be fine. :-)

Good luck on making the shamisen! It'll be an impressive school project! :-)

[sekiryu]

I have two 3 questions: first, what size calf skin is needed? Second, what kind of glue do you use? Third, are there any pre-made clamps that I can buy? I'm not a woodworker and don't have any tools to make the clamps anyway.

[fiddlefella]

@sekiryu A 12" Diameter calf skin will cover one side. I make glue from sticky rice flour and water (heated and stirred until it's very gummy). Unfortunately, I don't know any places to buy them.

[motimenow]

@fiddlefella Thanks for the quick response!

[ascomate]

@fiddlefella thanks man, i'd been searching and i had found some usefull information....

[sekiryu]

@fiddlefella Is there a method other than using the above shown clamps? Such as standard clamps from a hardware store?

[100FATGORONS]

@fiddlefella what type of wood would you recommend for any shamisen? , i already checked online yes, but i would like to hear from your personal view. thank you soo much for the advise, i will try these sites.