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Written by Casey
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Friday, August 14 2009 14:43 |
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Page 1 of 12
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Last update: February 13th, 2010 - readers respond section
This article documents the design and creation of a cajon. Hopefully it can help you to make a cajon yourself. Use the "Article Index" over there on the right side of the screen to read this article.
I wanted to build a cajon and found a lack of material online to support that endeavor, so I have put together this article. Comments/corrections welcome (see form below). This is a great project for musical people that are interested in instrument design but aren't quite ready to jump into something like a guitar.
It is properly spelled "cajón", but in case search engines don't pick up the word correctly, "cajon" is used here. The plural is "cajones", which is distinct from the better-known "cojones".
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You can watch this cajon in action in the video below -- "Give You a Word" from the album g-g-g-ghosts?. (The cajon is featured especially during the instrumental part starting at 4:35 and lasting to the end, but you can't seek ahead until the video is loaded.) I believe that the cajon in the video did not have the newer/better snare system described later in this article, but it still sounds OK. ( Laptop users: use headphones or you won't hear the kick sound...)
To watch the video on this page you'll need to enable Flash objects.
I know.
Alternately, you might need to update your Flash plugin.
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Use the navigation bar on the right to read this article.
See the cajon links section for many other resources that may be useful to you.
Here are the plans for the cajon depicted on this article, in various formats: pdf| png| jpeg| illustrator
This article owes the biggest thanks to Germán Ocaña who provided most of the information required. Check out his webpage, he makes professional-level cajones and other instruments. He has two main PDFs that I saw regarding the cajon. The english in the first is pretty rough, and the second is in Spanish, but even for non-speakers they are invaluable nonetheless.
This article will assume that you have read these documents. This article is intended as a supplement.
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Last Updated on Sunday, October 17 2010 11:15 |
Your directions and self-critique are thoughtful and amazingly clear. Thanks for your efforts.
I have been doing some experimenting with aspects of the design as well, and I'm looking forward to updating this site in the next month or two with a lot more data on the physics/resonance issues (tapa, air chamber) and mic'ing samples that I've made over the last couple/few years. I've been threatening a site update for a year, but i swear it's coming. :-)
You could send an email to anything at caseyconnor.org and it'll get to me (as long as it's not a spammy address like sales@ or something), so feel free.
Thanks,
-c
I have been building cajon from allsorts of bits and pieces including old wooden speakers. The snare i have built using everything from bottle caps to guitar strings. I have had some success with micing up a cajon. I simply put a old mic head inside the cajon, I dont want to give the game away as it has taken me months to get a good working prototype. but if your interested i can send you an mp3 of the mic in the cajon and then details on how i did it?
cheers
andy
ps brilliant webpage, i like the phantom power checker a lot - i have one which plays a tune!
As for the door, someone else posted alternate ideas on doors to have the bottom open so that the weight of the player created the seal needed. I liked that idea, but then you would need to have a latch system. If you built the door in the top (cut the top board in halves or a 1/3 and 2/3 split, then the front half or third could be attached creating the rigidity needed while the back half or two-thirds could open as an access hatch. That way once you sit on it you create the seal.
We'll see how my first cajon turns out, and thanks in advance for all the ideas/inspiration!
If you're going to have a snare inside, though, and if you don't have some kind of fancy adjustment system you can access when it's done, then I do recommend some way of getting inside... maybe instead of glue for the back panel, a bunch of screws (like every few inches) if it comes to that (though if using plywood you'd want the frame pieces to screw in to if you're going that route, because screwing into the edge of plywood isn't the best). The door is a pain, and the next one I build may not have it, but I would always want some way of taking it apart (with the tapa still on).
-c
I love the rich tones especially when mic'd
The only change I am going to make is to add resting block , made of scrap wood and rug, for when I disengage the snares.
Thanks again
Faria
@ched - thanks!
-c
-About how much does this cost?
...hmmm, maybe around $30, if you build the one I've shown here? That's a very rough estimate. If you salvage a crate or some plywood from somewhere (or use a speaker cabinet from Goodwill, etc), make your own snares (though i don't recommend it, really), don't spend any money on finish or sandpaper, etc, then you could do it for almost nothing but the cost of screws and glue.
-Can I have two Tapa's one on the front for bass, one on the side for snares, which will be supported by frames much like the ones you use?
I think you should try it. The argument against it might be that the bass sound would suffer with less of a rigid enclosure backing it up, but it's worth a shot.
-Can I do this myself? I haven't really built like this before, (dont worry I'm an adult, as well as a general contractor, i do repairs on houses, with guidance).
Well, not knowing you personally, I can only say that generally it's one of the easiest instrument projects there are. Basically, build a box with a thin front and a hole in the back. I made the page to help people do it themselves. :-)
-how many days does this take?
I think two, minimum, since you have to wait for glue to dry a couple times. It took me maybe 4 to 6 hours each session, but i was moving slow and taking pictures and so forth.
Good luck,
-Casey
First of before my questions and what not, this web page is particularly inspiring. I, though inexperienced, have ideas for different things I could do, which I will mention.
Here are my questions...
-About how much does this cost?
-Can I have two Tapa's one on the front for bass, one on the side for snares, which will be supported by frames much like the ones you use?
-Can I do this myself? I haven't really built like this before, (dont worry I'm an adult, as well as a general contractor, i do repairs on houses, with guidance).
-how many days does this take?
Thank you for taking the time to make this website :) God bless you, I love you song btw is it on Itunes?
Or maybe what you meant is that one end of the snare is not in contact with the tapa?
Most "real"-snare setups do that: one end is off the tapa and the snare is angled toward the tapa with a little tension to press the snares against the tapa. In other words, it doesn't sit, tensioned, on the tapa like a snare on a snare drum would. The angle that it hits the tapa at and the tension with which it is held both dramatically affect the sound of the snare (as would the length of the snares, i assume), which is why i would urge you to build in some kind of adjustability into the system until you have it perfected. As long as you have a hole in the cajon you can reach a hand in there and tweak.
-c
thank you for the reply, i am still contemplating what snare system to use, for i am not going to be tweaking it.
thank you
That looks good to me. Can I use that image on this site? The only reason I wouldn't do it that way is for adjustability... especially if you don't have a door in the cajon for more access. But if you like the sound it results in, then go for it. It's a simple and effective way of getting the snares in place (though i'd probably put them slightly more towards the corners to help with kick/snare separation). Do you think that your snares are long enough? They look like they might be on the short side and thus give kind of a short "bark" of a snare, but I don't have much experience yet tweaking with real snares.
Personally I tweak so much with the snare that the next system I make will probably have a couple movable blocks with wingnuts and bolts, etc, to allow easy but stable positioning. My current "snare on a length of stiff wire" is kind of silly, obviously, from a stability standpoint, but it does allow for infinite adjustment, which is nice.
Glad the site was useful. I'm hoping to update/overhaul it in the next couple months... stay tuned.
-c
anyway, i have not made my cajon yet but was wondering, since the main problem seems to be the snare, how affective is the idea bellow??
(if you can't see it it's just half of the snare on each side, fixed there by a simple corner block on the top)
Thank you all for all the really helpful stuff, seriously :p
http://www.framedrums.net/wp-content/uploads/cajon-flamenco-snare.jpg
-c
@Christian - Thanks for asking, I should have made that clearer. Yes, the tapa screws into the frame, and the idea is that the tapa rests right against the frame. It's OK if it touches the edges of the sides of the box as well (everything flush), but the frame is there to be a surface against which the tapa attaches. I'm not sure how crucial this would be if you were using solid wood sides, but plywood isn't great at holding screws that go in through the edges (parallel to the lamination). I think that's the main reason for the frame in this case, but maybe they do it with solid-wood-sided cajons also, for some reason of bass resonance. As described in the article, the frame should be well glued to the sides, so that there is no air gap.
-Casey
Thanks
drkirkwellness@gmail.com
Look for the line that says "Here are the plans for the cajon depicted on this article, in various formats".
You will find all measurements in the plans.
best wishes for you
If you were to switch the locations of the eyes/hooks, then the hooks would be pulling the door closed, rather than pulling it to the side of the box.
It sounds like you are happy enough with what you have that there won't be a version 2, but that seemed a simple adjustment that I thought I would mention.
Now I need to go start cutting some wood... :)
Please see page 7, "snares": http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=6
I don't think that the strings sound good, so I don't use them. Maybe in a cajon where the strings are longer, or maybe if you want a more traditional sound, they might be OK, I don't know. For me, the true snares (not strings) sound much better.
Re: the strings, Ocana says that it's a balance. They touch the tapa, there is no real space, and he even recommends trying a piece of tape in the center, if you're having trouble. But they shouldn't be too tight. You do not tighten them like guitar strings, as far as I know.
-c
Some do run wires vertically: see this link: http://caseyconnor.org/cajonstuff/cajon-munster-english.doc
(that link is on Page 10 of this article, "Other Links": http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=9 ). Not my cup of tea, really, since it couples the bass/snare.
I don't know exactly what you mean by "placing it up vertically on the tapa". If it's still in the corners, I'd be happy, because I like to keep separate the snare and the bass sounds. If it's in the middle of the tapa, vertically, especially if you're talking about laying the entirety of the length of the snare against the tapa, then it will always be ringing, thus turning the cajon into a big, bassy, pseudo snare drum. I like the variety of sounds the cajon can make, so I put my clipped-off snares with their ends against the corners. Running wires along the face of the cajon may be the more traditional way to do it, and most "real" cajons I hear either have very short, barky snare sounds, and/or have wires that run the entire face of the cajon and always sound when you play the instrument, neither of which was my goal.
For lots of other snare images and ideas, see the "readers respond" page: http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=10
Re: solid wood for the other surfaces: sure, see for example http://tonecajon.com/?page=available
As long as it's strong and dense and won't split, I think anything is fair game, there.
Good luck,
-c
Re: wood, see page 3, called, cleverly, "Wood and Frame": http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=2 -- As far as species of wood are concerned, I doubt it makes much difference, since we're talking about laminate plywood here.
Re: Ocana, see the intro page, "Germán Ocaña".
Hi -
For the tapa, see page 3, called, cleverly, "wood and frame": http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=2
For the snares, see page 7, called, cleverly, "snares": http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=6
Good luck,
-Casey
@Job - see http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=3 for info about the hole size issues. The size doesn't seem to matter so much, in my experience. The function of the hole is to "let the bass out", in a simple sense; the cajon "kick" sound is making a "thud" wavefront. Without the hole, the thud hangs out inside the box and doesn't come across as loudly. My personal conviction (as explained at that link) is that the hole isn't part of a "Helmholtz" model, where it "tunes" an air spring, so much as it just prevents the air pressure of the internal space from preventing the tapa from moving and allows the thud wavefront to escape. If the tapa vibrated like a traditional drum head membrane, then the hole might be relevant, as when playing a djembe you can insert or remove a fist in the hole to change the pitch of the drum.
Gluing/nailing: see http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=4 -- nailing or screwing into the edge of standard laminate plywood doesn't really work, so you basically need to glue. Ocana also recommends this for the sake of a good air seal via the glue. The exception, sometimes, is the tapa, which you screw into the frame (the frame is in turn glued to the inside of the plywood). Some people also glue the tapa, but i prefer to leave mine removable.
@Richard - Yeah, generally the back panel is the same as the sides, with 12mm or thicker plywood (glued all around). It's important that the cajon be sturdy/rigid. Regarding the snares, see http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=6 ... I agree that the string-snares are not satisfying. There are a number of other ideas on that page, as well as links.
Glad the site is helpful,
-Casey
My original design borrowed your first snare idea, but across one corner only thinking that I could have a 'slap + snare' corner plus a 'slap only' corner. The snares were not very successful: if given a lot of tension they produced a distracting sort of hum. Now I have them slack and with a few loose wires wrapped around which is OK played lightly but I am working on alternatives and will post here if I have a breakthrough.
I did find that there was a nasty resonance from the back panel even though it was well screwed on, and cured that by using frameseal (the stuff that goes around window frames) applied from the inside (with the Tapa removed). I also glued a chunk of MDF to the inside of the back panel to deaden it. The bass seemed more solid after that.
Just for fun, we put an ordinary cheap PC mic inside it and played it through a computer sound card: if you want to hear that, and see the cajon, go to youtube.com/expertanswers.
Even without a microphone I am amazed at the range of sounds and dynamics you can extract from what is just a box.
Thanks
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I am thinking about building my own canjon and your experience will be very helpful I think! Can't you create a blog or something like that and share your experience? I'm sure there is many people that will appreciate!
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Yeah same here!
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-Casey
Like i said am not a pro or anything else but love the sound of this instrument.
The one i built is 18 inches tall by 12 inches wide. i did not install any type of resonating devices in it, just pure sound from what the tapa (face) would make.
I use it for the first time today at church, like i said am not a pro, but i got good results.
Thank you for all the vital information you have share with everybody else.
Thanks