|
Still working on the snares |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Richard Cowling
|
|
Thursday, July 15 2010 08:32 |
|
I built a Cajon 3 weeks ago, using plywood I had around. 12mm for sides, top and bottom, 3.6 mm for tapa and back panel, but the back panel was doubled up. really just a trial and will buy some better quality faced ply one day. I took some ideas from this site so thank you: I though I would respond with what I discovered.
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.
|