Hi folks,long time no posts...
I was very very busy during the last 5 months due to business activities. Some weeks ago I've read something about Cajòns - a percussion instrument which is extremely flexible regarding the creation of different sounds: creating bass drum, snare drum, conga sounds is no problem for the box.
Some of you might have noticed that I like to build things by myself (see my guitar project from 2005 or my isolation box for recording purposes). Last weekend, I've decided to build my first Cajòn.
I've used multiplexed shelves from a birch tree (16 mm), ply wood (6 mm for the resonance board behind and 4 mm for the front plate) and some lumber for fixing the snare drum carpet. You can also use guitar strings instead in order to create a snare drum sound.
The first step is cutting the boards (300 x 300 mm for the bottom and the top shelve, 300 x 490 mm for both sides). I've used express glue in order to fix the frame of the box in a short time.
The next step is to fix the snare drum carpet (first I've used two guitar strings, A 5th) for a very cool sound. After this, I've build the gap on the rear side of the box (6 mm resonance board). I've cut out 150 mm in diameter for the sound hole and fixed the board using the express glue. Then, I've fixed the front board (4 mm) using some screws.
Now it's time to grind down the box and especially the edges. I've used natural polish for the finish and that's it!
See also my photo stream at Flickr.
Cajòn sound check by Stephan Schwenk
Here's a small video showing the used equipment for the demo recording.
Check out my soundcoud for some more sound examples.
Have fun!
Stephan
