Tsugaru Shamisen

thingiverse

Here it is, a labor of love...maybe. This is a Tsugaru Shamisen, designed from the book Shamisen of Japan by Kyle Abbott. If you want to make a traditional shamisen in a traditional manner, PLEASE buy this book, it is amazing, and teaches construction, posture and positioning. Very thorough with templates! I used the dimensions mentioned in his book to design this as closely as I could to an actual shamisen. It took me about 5 hours a night for 6 nights to get this designed. My wife is happy it is done. All parts will fit nicely on an Anycubic Chiron or similar build plate size (15 inch, yes I used inches!) Now, you may be asking "What is a shamisen?" It is a 3 stringed Japanese banjo essentially. Every part of this is 3D printed except the neo (tail piece) and the ito (strings). The Bachi model included is from CK247 - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2053512. For assembly, you will need to use 5/8 inch dowels. I am not sure how many you will need, but plan on at least 3 based on the length of the dowels. You may need to use some white grease to slide the parts on. This was done for strength and prevent splitting when the strings are attached and tightened.You will need to glue the parts together once they are on the dowels. The base has one side that is very this (0.4mm) and this is where the striking of the strings is done. Print 3 itomaki (pegs) for the strings. The sao (neck) is split into 4 parts. The short, oddly shaped part connects to the dou (base) and the rest fit in which ever order you want. The Tenjin may need to be fiddled with when putting the itomaki in, they should fit though. The neo needs to be tied and a video can be found on YouTube, just look for Kyle Abbott neo and you should find it. And if you want to see some shamisen action, check out Ki and Ki on YouTube as Shamisen Girls Ki&Ki: https://youtu.be/RcqO0zkyQRo I have not made this yet. If you find any issues and things need tweaking, please leave a comment below. I will update this with pictures of the one I print, when it is done.