See page 3 of this article, cleverly titled "Hole": http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon?start=3

...with a couple amendments that I haven't updated the article with:

- now that my door is better sealed, hole size does indeed matter. Smaller = deeper resonant pitch of kick sound, as you'd expect; too small = too deep.

- i'd put it in the back, maybe lower back actually, contrary to what the article says, but upper back seems to be the collective wisdom, so maybe that's right.

As far as overall impact on the sound that hole location has, ignoring the placement of the instrument against walls and so forth, I can't say; haven't done enough experimentation. I'd be surprised if it made a big difference.

-c

Hi Kevin - glad you like the site.

I don't have any experience with Masonite, really... my impression is that there'd be a lot of internal damping and it'd be kind of floppy, so it's probably not the first thing i'd reach for, but who knows... maybe it would have a nice dull thud without non-harmonic overtones, etc. I think we need more experimentation with cajon tapas, so hey, give it a shot and report back. :-) The birch plywood i used for mine seemed awful floppy as well before it was screwed down on the frame, so maybe masonite would be ok. As long as you don't glue it, it should be easy to try a couple or even several different materials for the tapa.

Good luck,
-c

Hi Tim - That PDF looks great. Can't wait to digest it.

I've been promising an update to this site for a year now, but i swear to god it's coming, hopefully this winter. I did a bunch of home-spun research on the resonance issues with the kick sound / tapa / helmholtz chamber / etc and can't wait to compare notes with that PDF. I also installed a couple pickups in my cajon and will share info about that.

I mention somewhere in this article that the hole size doesn't seem to affect the kick pitch, but I think that was due to my door. More later, but suffice to say that it does, now that I've made some modifications.

Regarding your comments:

- yeah, it's amazing how much better a home-made cajon can sound than a store-bought cajon.
- snare wise, my vote is still for clipped snares (one end free) angled up in to the corners. The trouble is the mounting system, but if you sort that out it's the best separation i've found. It takes a lot of careful adjustment though, for sure. I spend probably an hour tweaking with it when i first set it up... has to lie just right with the right tension or it "slaps" as you say. My new snare uses a very thick electrical cable (gauge 10 i think... underground feeder cable for a 100 amp panel).
- in terms of two compartments... i've never played a 2-compartment cajon i liked, but i haven't played many (1 or 2). Seems like you'd be undercutting whatever vibration the kick was going to have... i.e. why not just make two drums, at that point. I've also found that playing technique can eventually help with the separation, once you get to know your cajon.
- I saw somewhere on the internet a kick pedal for cajon... it turns 180 degrees so you can play it normally and it kicks towards you. I think it was expensive. I have a regular pedal and might try modifying it some day, but not soon. :-) If someone finds that, let me know, and i'll link to it.

-c

dear everyone,

i just change my blog name. it is now become

http://isdcajon.blogspot.com/

visit us

thank you

Looks good... you're making them quickly. :-)

Blockboard - had to look that up. It worked well? Strong enough, etc?

I think maybe you have misunderstood "ocana". Germán Ocaña is a person -- a cajon builder who provided a lot of the data I used to make my cajon (see info, above.) As far as I'm aware, it's not a part of the cajon.

Glad your design is coming along.

hi everyone! i want to share my cajon sound here. and i do really need comment to improve it. here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA7TdAAPIR4

thank you

You know, regarding size issues: since you hit the tapa more or less towards the top and in the corners (traditionally, anyway), I don't think a 160cm person would have any trouble with a cajon the size in my plans. I can't guarantee that, but that's my guess. If you had to hit it in the middle, etc, it might be more of an issue, but it's usually played closer to the the top.

I don't think MDF would sound any different than plywood, and it might be harder to work with (e.g. screwing the tapa on might split it?) I don't have much experience with it. Other than that, I don't think using it would hurt anything. But I would concentrate on the size, the tapa, and the snare type/placement: that's where the sound is really decided. After that, the sound seal, the way the tapa is screwed (how many screws, how it sits on the internal frame, where the screws are), and maybe the orientation of the tapa grain (?). I have found that the hole size is almost irrelevant, and I am guessing that the material used in the sides is pretty unimportant. A comment below stated: "The choice of materials that you use will decide the tone of the cajon. The harder the wood, the more cutting the sound will be. The softer the wood the more warm it will be. You don't want to go too far either way, look for a wood that will have a nice balance. One of my favorite choices for the shell of a cajon is poplar."

I did see your blog. Very pretty. :-)

oh i see, so that might be the matter.
i make it smaller since in my country, indonesia, the average people height is only about 170 cm and i'm only 160 cm.
what do you think about using 12 mm MDF to replace the body?
did you see my blog already?

http://insaintdesign.blogspot.com/

Oh -- the other thing I would note is that your cajon is a lot smaller than the one I built. I like them bigger... almost all the small ones I've played sound weak to me. Maybe a solid-wood tapa would help a smaller cajon, I don't know (see the page on this site about tapas).

Hi - if you're talking about adjusting the existing cajon, after you have made it, my guess would be that changing the snare or the tapa would be the most effective (hopefully you didn't glue the tapa). You can make sure that the air seal is good (Ocana recommends extra glue along all the seams), but once the thing is built it's built. Don't bother trying to change the size of the hole, it won't make much, or any, difference.

What do you mean by "snappy" snare?

How thick is your tapa? Is it plywood also?

Thanks, glad you like it.

Keep in mind that the layers (plies) of wood that constitute plywood are typically oriented at 90 degrees to each other, so I would guess that orienting a plywood tapa with the visible outside grain horizontally wouldn't have a big impact, but I suppose it would depend on how many layers your plywood has, what orientation they all are, etc. I put the indicator of the grain direction in the plans because it made sense to me, but there was no especially profound reason for it, to be honest. :-) It just seemed like a predominantly vertical-grain tapa (mine is 3-ply, so the outer 2 plies are vertical) would flex more along the vertical axis (meaning, the predominant "crease" in the bending tapa runs vertically), giving the tapa a longer resonant period and thus lower sound, presuming that the cajon is taller than it is wide.

With a solid wood tapa, however, I would expect a difference. My instinct still says vertical grain, and I think that's what I've seen on expert-made instruments, but maybe you could check some pics on the internet to be sure.

If you don't glue your tapa, it's pretty easy to just make a couple and experiment.

This is a really great website and has tons of information. The choice of materials that you use will decide the tone of the cajon. The harder the wood, the more cutting the sound will be. The softer the wood the more warm it will be. You don't want to go too far either way, look for a wood that will have a nice balance. One of my favorite choices for the shell of a cajon is poplar.

Interesting... i'm not enough of an expert to really expound on this, but it sounds like the glue is loosening or something (I'm assuming you meant birch plywood). Since you're in the US as well I assume that the glue holding your plywood is probably pretty much the same as mine, but who knows. Of course maybe my cajon sounded better when new and I've just forgotten. I'm planning to play around with different tapas in the next while so maybe i'll more to offer you then.

I will say that my impression is that you could make a tapa with a variety of different materials. Not sure which to suggest, but e.g. plexiglass or some other synthetic would probably sound the same or better (my guess, here). I just don't think using wood is necessary in a cajon -- I mean, we're using plywood here, after all, it's not like it's a matched spruce top on a guitar or something.

And I'm assuming that there's nothing breaking down in terms of the air seal for you, which may affect the bass.

There's also "aircraft grade" plywood, which may behave differently... I believe the stuff I looked at had the sheets 45 degrees from each other instead of plywood's typical 90 (so they could steam and form it, I understand?) -- maybe it would hold up better (and maybe it would just dull the same way, eventually).

Let us know what you find out!

I like Kopf Percussion Cajons. The make a very nice Kids Cajon. - Thank you very much for this very instructive How to Build a Cajon webpage. Nicely done! http://www.musicforkids.com

I make Rockbox cajons, hence I own quite a few cajons and I play whatever I can get my hands on to test and compare.
Recently I made another rough recording in front of the workshop playing my foot hi-hat and pro rockbox combo, I'm more of a guitarist than a drummer but it sounds ok.
The recording was done with a zoom h2 field recorder with no post production/effects right on the road.... about 5 meters away.
http://www.cajon.com.au/images/soundfiles/rockboxpromodel.mp3

http://www.cajon.com.au/images/soundfiles/vibro%20darlo.mp3
This recording is really raw and unrehearsed, it me playing pro rockbox with pedal, slide guitar, blues harp and foot hi hat, the guitar is tuned in an open minor scale.
Hope you enjoy.

I've been looking a site like this for a few months since the cajon-build bug bit me. I was pleasantly surprised to note My chosen dimensions were the ones you used.

Your directions and self-critique are thoughtful and amazingly clear. Thanks for your efforts.

Hey Andy - thanks for the offer; yes, I'd love to know whatever you care to share regarding your techniques (and I won't post the info unless you want me to.)

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

@michael b wilkins - see the snare page of the article for some ideas on that. Good luck, -c

I like that door idea a lot. Whatever you decide on, I look forward to hearing about it when it's done. Good luck, -c

im jox this is good this is helpfuil

If I'm not going to put the door on the back and instead just have a solid piece of wood, do you still think I need to put framing in the back?

@tgf - awesome, glad it worked out for you. I too played a lot of store cajons and couldn't believe how bad they sounded. It's weird that something so simple wouldn't be easier to mass-produce well. I often wonder how many people consider getting in to playing the cajon, go the store to try a few, and decide against it.

@Tau - I didn't assemble the frame on the outside, I just kind of stacked it up to give people the idea in the photo. Those are just freestanding pieces of wood. Thanks for the note, though.

@ched - thanks!

-c

reminds me of "the river detectives"

I followed Germans instructions (in Spanish) to the best of my ability. Using a combination of inches & centimeters... The box went together. Used knurled nylon screws for tension on guitar strings. Spent the entire summer making cajones (most of them before looking at any website), but this one sounds better than any cajon i've played or heard yet.

Hey there its me again. The bongo cajon from speakers sounds ok I guess, I sort of like it and actually have a lot of fun with it. But now Ive made a big one. Well from my very short cajon building experience Id say that those strings on the cajon depicted here are just too short to produce some proper resonating sound. There seems to be nothing wrong with the placement. I put strings into mine in an opposite fashion, starting in the top corners, they end close to the centre of the bottom on a tunable thingie. They resonate very well but theres also traditional string sound, I mean guitar like. I dont know whether I should be happy or annoyed with it:D Any guess how to get rid of it? Thanks

my cajon sounds wickedsick! thanks so much for this website!~ keep hosting :) i didnn't do the door thing and haven't added a snare yet but it sounds just as good as a friends store bought one.

Do the strings actually touch the tapa. firmly,loosely. If not how far from tapa.

hey there, I found these old speakers and thought of making small bongo cajones out of thier cases, but they are made of chipwood. do you think it is appropriate to use such material for building a cajon?

Hi, I hope you can get back to me at you earliest convenience, I have a few questions and concerns.

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?

wasn't my idea, found it on the internet :p i haven't fully built it yet but was wondering how effective a simple idea like that would work, is was wondering if because the end of the snare is not located at the top, would it not give off much... snareness? ;p

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

This is all really helpful, like a lot!!!

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

All - sorry, I can't send personal email replies. If you would like to ask a question or make a comment, feel free to do so and to check back here later. That way we can share the info with others. Feel free to contact me personally in appropriate cases.

@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

Your information is nicely laid out. One suggestion would be to use black text on white/light background. The white text was hard to read for me. Also, why the hinged door? All other cajones I've seen were glued on three sides. Send me a reply at the email below if you don't mind.

Thanks
drkirkwellness@gmail.com

@Bram Schreuders: see the first page of the site at http://caseyconnor.org/cajon

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.

thanks for your information i finished my school project.
best wishes for you

i read through your section on snares but you never mention why you use guitar strings, is there a benefit/consequence to using guitar strings?

Nevermind. I forgot that your hole is in the side. I looked and the picture, read the description, had the thought, finished the article, came back and looked at the picture again, and still got it wrong.

@Job: as long as you're not effectively duplicating pages, I don't mind. This info is freely available on the internet already, i've just collected it / rephrased it (and taken lots of photos), so i don't claim ownership of much of it. As long as you're not making another version of the page (e.g. using copied images, lots of replicated paragraphs, etc.) Selective quotes, no problem. Thanks for asking, -c

put a piece of 2 by 2 acrossed the inside frame(otherside of the tappa) nail the clipped drum snare to it so they fold up against the tappa

Sir good job, i just like to ask is there a space between the string the plywood? or the string should stick the the plywood? many thank in advance.

i'm sorry if i wasn't clear. What I ment to ask was instead of having the snare drum snare go across the corner, if i would still make the right sound by placing it up vertically on the tappa. Also, for the back, sides, top, and bottom, instead of using thick plywood, can I use a different type of wood like maple or mahogany?

thanks for the instructions!I've been looking around for how to make this for quite some time. However, for the strings for the snare, is it possible to just use snare drum wires?

@Job:

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".

> what is the thickness for the tapa? im trying to build this cajon drum but im having problems making the snare thing.

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

Hi -

@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

I am designing and creating a cajon for a school project neccesarry to finish the school and get my diploma. what is the relation between the size of the cajon and the hole? is the function of the hole to amplify the sound or to add an other sound function?

Nate, i would like to use the same technique you used if you say that it is a better design. Let me know! Thanks

I was wondering if it wouldn't make more sense to do something with the hole similar to what someone would do when designing a speaker and tune the cajon with a port tube. This would make it more of a Helmholtz resonator. The air inside the port tube would resonate and provide a boost in low end frequency depending on the length and diameter of the port. For instance, if the interior volume of the cajon is roughly 1.9 cu. ft. then a 3" inside diameter port with a length of 8.5" would have a tuning frequency of 30 Hz. There would be a 12 decibel per octave roll off below that frequency. At those frequencies it would not matter where the port hole was located as the wavelengths are quite long at those frequencies. I do plan on building one to experiment with this summer. I will be sure to keep you informed of my progress.

Sorry, had an issue with the commenting system (fixed now). Here are two comments in response to "instead of using guitar stirngs or a snare":

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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

a different way of making your own cajon is too use small pieces of bamboo or just a bunch of wooden rods they should be a little more than a quarter of the length of your cajon and about the size of a instide of a bic pen(the part that hold the ink), basically you run them up and down which would be perpendicular from the bottom and top of your cajon. So you take your bamboo or wood sticks and line them up all nice on the inside of the front side, after you have them lined you want to glue them at the bottom of the sticks(the side closest to the ground)leave the top unglued so the bamboo has room to reverberate then you take a piece of wood that will connect to the front (basically this piece of wood is used to hold the bamboo in place it is placed parrallel to the floor a little less than half of the way up the bamboo sticks connect that piece to the frame you made that fits the front (where most directions tell you to connect the guitar strings). Another thing to keep in mind is that the front top of your cajon should have some play in it basically you should have screws that can adjust the front to get the snare sound. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND LOOKING?PLAYING A CAJON AT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC STORE (hopefully you are lucky enough to have a store that carries a cajon or two) Basically i built my first cajon following the instructions above plus a little extra except i used snare wires instead of guitar strings, then i had the pleasure of playing a cajon in dales drums and i examined the build of the ones there. Building my next cajon i had a much better design and got much better results. if you would like more exact instructions let me know i would be happy to help.