Written on
December 23, 2005.
So, we were playing on the mall as The Abbott Family Band (Charity Edition). We made quite a bit of good money. $125 in about an hour. Plus, Billy and Sarah passed by and they played a few songs with us. Somebody gave us two pounds of chocolate. Probably since the lady knew that any money she threw in would go to charity and she wanted to give something for us, she put in chocolate which we couldn’t send. . . That’s what Luke said anyway.
This girly threw in a napkin which said, “Hey Cutie! Give me a call at ———– and yadayada (I didn’t read it, Luke told it to me and I was half-paying attention). P.S Your mandolin is damn sexy!” Oh, and she didn’t throw in any money! I don’t know how or why she can expect me to call her if she doesn’t throw in any money. You know, something to make it worth my trouble. I mean how about a buck or something? I mean what’s in it for me? Cheapskate.
Written on
December 22, 2005.
I got the Bachi today. It is a bit more cracked than I thought it’d be. There’s quite a fracture on one of the ends on the pick. I taped it up but I’ll do something better later on. Since the handle is long and thin (the traditional kind. Well, it’s from the 1800s), I might try cutting off the end, putting on a shorter and thicker handle like the Tsugaru kind.
Written on
December 20, 2005.
We went to several stores to look for several things. First, well, we went to the money store (also known as the bank) to drop off a few bucks. After that, we went to Ross – Dress For Less to get a Mandolin (a cutting kinda thing for accuratelly cutting potatoes ‘n stuff). Chefworks first sold it for $30 and then they bumped it up to $100+ but at Ross, we got it for $5. Of course, the kind of mandolin at Chefworks is the high quality super duper kind but we don’t need that. Now, we can make real baked chips.
After that, we went to San Lorenzo Lumber to look at the maple wood for the Shamisen. I guess it’s usually made from Red Sandel wood, Kashin, etc but all we need is a real hard wood and maple will do just fine. After seeing the price and specs, we went back home to take some measurements to see how much we need (since it’s $7 per square foot).
After I made the banjo, I wished I took pictures of the proccess ’cause it’s always neat to see the before-after sorta thing. This time with the Shamisen, I’m gonna take pictures of every step.
Over the course of the construction, I’ll put all (or most) of the step-by-step pictures for everyone to see and enjoy.
When you are viewing the pictures of the process, you can also head over to the donations page and support the blog.
Written on
December 19, 2005.
I was drawing out a design for the Tsugaru shamisen I’m gonna make. I was thinking about how I was gonna make the bachi (also called a plectrum [also called a pick]). I would really want to make a tortoise shell bachi ’cause tortoise shell is the best for picks ’cause the harder the pick, the better. The problem is, tortoise shell bachis can run up to $300 or even higher than $1000 so that’s a little out of my budget. For fun, I went to google and typed in ‘tortoise shell bachi.’ The first thing that popped up was this place called Shogun’s Gallery. It’s a antiquey kind of store in Oregon. They had a lot of stuff like mirrors, cabinets, scrolls and other decorative stuff. Anyway, in the instrument section, I saw they had kotos for $250! Not only that, I saw a bachi from the late Edo period (1800s) completely made out of tortoise shell for only $50! Since the wood bachis are the same price, I wrote them and asked them if there was a typo is the price. The guy (who’s name is also Kyle) wrote back and said it was indeed $50 but it had a chip and crack in the middle. He sent me a close up picture of it but it was fine. It’s not often that there’s a bachi like that for half a’ hundred!
When I saw it on the site, I wasn’t sure if they still had it ’cause the site was last updated in January 2005 but they did have it. I ordered it.
Written on
December 18, 2005.
Boy, it was very windy and rainy today. We got 4 inches of rain! During the night, our neighbor’s giant birch tree fell down. Fortunetly, It fell of the shed. Well, the shed was right by the tree so it kinda leaned on it. I’m glad it didn’t fall any other direction ’cause any other direction would have done a bit more damage.
After that whole day of rain, stopped around 8:00pm. It’s supposed to start again on Tuesday. Lookin’ forward to it!