Written on
July 11, 2006.
I went down to Rhythm Fusion to get some goat skin. A friend of mine who lives in Japan sent me some dog skin (more traditional) but I’m gonna save that for my next, more pro Shamisen.
After that, I made some special clamps that’ll be tied down with rope ‘n wedges.
I thought I had everything together so I soaked the skin and got ready to stretch. I thought since it was 6:00PM, I’d have plenty of time to stretch it before dark (I wanted there to be lots of light ’cause I was filming all of this).
So, I was soaking the skin. Then, I realized that I forgot to make the rice glue! I kinda forgot the exact proportion so I tried several different measurements. Soon, it was 7:30 and I didn’t know how long the stretching would take and I didn’t want to be rushed so I took the skins out of the water and just decided to do it tomorrow.
Written on
July 10, 2006.
I reamed out the holes and stuck the pegs in. It was a VERY tight fit but the wood didn’t squeak or squeal when I turned the pegs. So, it was really good.
Unfortunately, I put lemon oil in the holes and on the pegs which expanded the wood. After it dried, I tried putting the pegs in the holes and not only could it not fit in all the way, it creaked, groaned ‘n moaned and snored when turned! Ah!
In any case, I noticed that when I put the lemon oil on, the oil took away the graphite that was on the pegs (which lubricates it) which would account for more friction. So, I lightly sanded the pegs and put graphite on. That’s working pretty good for now. It still has this woody sound when turned (it shouldn’t make any sound at all ’cause when I’m tuning it up, I don’t want to hear “brkbrkbrkbrkgrkgrkgr” coming from the friction pegs) and I’ll try putting some door grease on it so it’ll turn smoothly.
On regular shamisens, there is metal inside the holes which. . . I don’t know what it does I guess. Maybe it’s to prevent the wood from wearing down. But it’s on the inside. That’s gonna be pretty hard to make. Not because it goes on the inside but because on the edge, the metal curls out to make a ring. I don’t know how I’m gonna do that. Fortunately, my neighbor is a jeweler (MartyMagic) so maybe I can find out some tips from her. She makes jewelry for Prince.
I got the holes drilled into the Shamisen and reamed out.
Well, I got all three pegs done and they look rather beautiful (if I do say so myself).
Now to drill the holes into the Tenjin and ream ‘em out!
Whoohoo! I finished the tuning pegs and I drilled the holes into the Tenjin and reamed (tapered) ‘em out with the reamer tool. They fit soooo much better then they ever did on the test piece.
Unfortunately, Luke went to the Bluegarss festival in Hollister and he took the good digital camera (the one that can take indoor shots) so I wasn’t able to get any shots of the final pegs being fitted into the holes but instead, I’ll indulge you with some pictures of one of the pegs being made.
It was hard in the beginning to make a tuning peg but now that I’ve made 7 (four of them were tests), I could whip ‘em out at 1 peg/5 hours!
