making a conga-cajon?

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Postby guarachon63 » Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:56 pm

The only cajones I have seen around here (NY) and in Cuba with sound holes are the big "cajas" that you sit on, never on the "conga style" cajones we are talking about here.

I would say don't bother making a sound hole at first. It's extra work and if you are satisfied with the way it sounds, well there you go. If not, you can always cut one later, smaller at first then getting bigger.

But I would say much more important than any soundhole is the type and thickness of wood you use for the top.

Also I wouldn't get too carried away on construction issues. Remember that basically they are just boxes, we aren't building concert violins here. If it makes a good thump and you know what to play and when to play it, that's really all that matters.

By the way, I posted on my blog recently an interview with Pedro Lopez of Los Chinitos which talks about the guy who invented that style of cajon. There are also some nice pictures of a cajon they use.

saludos
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Postby chris hansen » Tue Mar 06, 2007 8:49 pm

guarachon63 wrote:I would say don't bother making a sound hole at first. It's extra work and if you are satisfied with the way it sounds, well there you go. If not, you can always cut one later, smaller at first then getting bigger.

But I would say much more important than any soundhole is the type and thickness of wood you use for the top.

I'm going out to my father's tonight to make a 12 inch and a 14 inch and I think that's the approach I will try. No sound holes and put them on little legs to hold them an inch or two off the floor. I can always play with sound holes later if I have to.

I found some 1/8 inch luan that I was going to use for the head.
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Postby chris hansen » Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:02 pm

I got the sides cut out, projects always take longer than I expect.

Maybe it was a case of Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup or maybe I'm just not a good woodworker but it sure is hard to cut a good taper. Is it necessary to have a taper? I think it looks better but does it affect the sound?
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Postby guarachon63 » Wed Mar 07, 2007 5:02 pm

Tapers are hard, because there is also the beveled angle so the top will fit right. Gotta work on that geometry. (When I built mine I had an architect friend help me ;) )The taper may affect he sound slightly but it is primarily just for comfort, like the guy said in the interview.

Also I wouldn't mess around with feet either, the tilted position used when playing takes them off the floor (or the shorter ones, just holdingthem between your knees.


I thought Thomas' post was very good for this type of cajon.
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Postby chris hansen » Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:13 pm

guarachon63 wrote:Also I wouldn't mess around with feet either, the tilted position used when playing takes them off the floor (or the shorter ones, just holdingthem between your knees.

The reason I wanted to put feet on is so I could set up two or three to play together, otherwise I agree with you completly.
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Postby guarachon63 » Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:40 pm

ah, ok. Maybe you could try something like this:

http://www.cajon.ch/cajones.php#CajonYambu

(that stand seems a bit much, though...)
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Postby ozrivera » Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:58 pm

Saludos Hermanos

back in my days i built a lot of car audio boxes with sound holes and what we called ports. where on the box you place the port whole doesnt really matter. what did matter is how big and long the port size was. the port being almost like a plastic pvc pipe that would go inside the box on average about 3 inches, and flush with the wood on the outside. to figure out how big the port or sound whole would be depended on how many qubic inches the inside of the box was. unfortunately i dont remember what the formula was to figure the out the port size. but, im willing to bet that with some due dilligence that some should be able to find it online somewhere. just my 2 ports

Oz
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Postby chris hansen » Sun Mar 18, 2007 3:20 pm

I finally got around to putting the 12 inch conga-cajon together. I'm working on both a 12 inch and a 14 inch one.

I used 1/8 inch luan for the head and I think it might be a little thin. It feels like the head is not tight enough, if it were skin I'd want to tighten it. The open tone sounds ok but a little wimpy, the bass isn't really any better than my other one with a 1/4 inch head and the slaps are kind of hard to get. Overall I think I like the 1/4 head on the other one better.

It occured to me that a 12 inch square shape will have more surface area than a 12 inch circle or even an octagon, I wonder how much that affects it?

I think I might put the 14 inch one together and use 1/4 inch wood for the head and see how that goes.




Edited By chris hansen on 1174231337
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