Building cajon

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Re: Building cajon

Postby burke » Thu Feb 20, 2014 8:20 pm

Hey thanks!

Very basic hardware store stuff [Home Hardware ... don't think they are in the US].

It was two coats of their brand of rust paint [Fire red Rustcoat] which is Alkyd based and took a couple days to dry & three coats of a spray gloss urethane. Urethane first cause it drys pretty quick ... green painters tape to leave the space I wanted on top then the red paint.

Like I said pretty easy project and given the stores want 100 or more for the LP version ... worth it.

In another post someone asked about stacking cajons and I mentioned a guy in Argentina who makes these and other cajons. Have a look if you are interested ... I like his work ... he's got youtube videos of his stuff as well:

http://pepemensi.blogspot.ca/2013/11/co ... ilcom.html

Cheers
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Re: Building cajon

Postby smackdaddy » Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:56 pm

thanks to Burke, I now have started to use paint on my quintos like he did with his laptop congas. . . here they are:
Attachments
il_fullxfull.572352473_av1e.jpg
il_fullxfull.572355159_na3i.jpg
https://youtu.be/10wqmq94w5Q

Me on quinto with the rumberos of Kansas City!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/63rdstreetpercussion

Afro Cuban cajons for sale.
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Re: Building cajon

Postby smackdaddy » Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:59 pm

Here is my sweet georgia pine quinto cajon:
Attachments
il_fullxfull.572245336_gkno.jpg
https://youtu.be/10wqmq94w5Q

Me on quinto with the rumberos of Kansas City!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/63rdstreetpercussion

Afro Cuban cajons for sale.
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Re: Building cajon

Postby CongaTick » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:03 pm

Miko,

This is off-topic and directed at the sound samples link. Absolutely love your style and playing. Lay some more on us, especially any video.
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Re: Building cajon

Postby burke » Thu Mar 06, 2014 3:19 pm

Hey Miko,

That is cool!

I too like your playing. Spent a bit of time on your esty site ... also very cool.

Anyway to put sound samples on esty? I'm thinkin if was interested in buying, I'd like to hear them. Dude I mentioned in Argentina has a youtube page with demos ... maybe links to a page you cajons being demoed there?

Best

Darrell
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Re: Building cajon

Postby smackdaddy » Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:11 pm

congatick and burke; thank you for the wonderful praise! I will start immediately making videos of all my cajons with me playing them. I have a shire mic with usb, that I could plug into my computer and get good audio. . . I will start on this right away! haven't been to the forums lately, so sorry for the late reply.
https://youtu.be/10wqmq94w5Q

Me on quinto with the rumberos of Kansas City!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/63rdstreetpercussion

Afro Cuban cajons for sale.
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Re: Building cajon

Postby wooddrum » Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:55 am

burke wrote:Interesting! Have you made or played the traditional shaped ones we've been discussing besides your straight ones?

cause if there is no big difference between the two types sound wise ... yours would be a a lot simpler to make.

d


It´s been a while that you asked me that, but now i used the straight shaped Cajones in a song. Peace, Jo!

https://soundcloud.com/losvecinosband/tuve
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Re: Building cajon

Postby burke » Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:46 pm

Not a thing wrong with that sound.

My next project will be straight cajons.

Nice tune!!!
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Re: Building cajon

Postby wooddrum » Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:54 pm

burke wrote:
Nice tune!!!


Thank you, i appreciate it :-)
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Re: Building cajon

Postby Espresso » Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:49 am

p.a.dogs1 wrote:Hi smackdaddy, I built several cajones in the last years and I am still experimenting with measures and materials. There are some things I found out (maybe :| ):

1.Every single piece of wood has specific sounding properties. The birch plywood you buy today is different from what you´ll get one week later. I don´t know from where the wood comes in the USA, but here in Germany it comes either from Finnland or from Sibiria. The finnish quality is generally more white with a rather accurate surface, the sibirian quality is often more yellow and the surface sometimes a little splintery. Seen from the aspect of sound I prefer the sibirian quality for playing boards - as someone, who likes to work with wood, I prefer the finnish quality.

2. A cajon´s functionality is the same as other kinds of drums: one part is swinging (skin) and another part (shell) constitutes the counteracting force. Among drumset-builders there is a permanent discussion, if shells have to be thick or thin for better sounds. Beside the question of proportion you should decide, if you want to have a sound, where the sides are involved in producing it´s charakter, also depending how much contact the instrument has with your body (legs). Then you should choose a rather thin plywood (8mm or 9mm - maybe 6,5mm with supporting ledgers). If you prefer an independent sound, no matter if you have it between your legs or if it stands seperated, you should choose a thick plywood - 12mm, possibly 15mm (but birch would make the instrument very heavy).

3. The proportion. I found out that a cajon does not need to be such tall (29"). 25", 26" or 27" is enough, when you keep it up a few centimeters with your feet. Watching Daniel Aldama El Bonkoiro in the first of RitmoBoricua´s clips you see that tones are produced with a technique which is similar to how congaplayers produce muffled tones. The hands come from more above. I am rather sure, that I found out some rules for proportions with 9mm birch plywood and a tallness of 27".

Image

smackdaddy wrote:I am not interested in open tones or even the concept of it being "conga-like". I only want it to sound like the cajons I hear on many rumba recordings, with that long sustaining bass tone. That is my quest, and I have made several attem,pts at it, only to come up kinda short.

Almost open tones are produced by hitting the cajon very close to the edges of the playing board. You can say, that it is more or less the body below the playing board which makes the sound´s character (similar to accented muffled edge-tones on a macho). Therefore you can also think about taking a thick poplar plywood (15mm, 18mm) for the body, which is not as heavy as birch, but gives rather clear tones. The disadvance of poplar is it´s bad surface quality.

For a long sustaining bass you need a rather thin playing board (slow frequency) of plywood with a high specific weight and density (the more mass the higher the amplitude and the longer it swings). In Europe we have beech plywood in different qualities (more ore less heavy) and prices up to more than 50 euros per squaremeter. For open tones thicker playing boards of plywood with low specific weight and density (poplar) are often better. A width of 19" is really large. My favorite cajon is 36 cm (14,4") with 9mm birch plywood for the body and 2,5mm beech plywood (5 plies) as playing board.

I recommend reinforcement ledgers at the top edges of the cajon. This gives an additional stability and you can fix the playing board with some screws. Otherwise heavier bass hits can stress it too much by and by (especially when it is rather thin and the edges are possibly not perfectly plane to each other).

Image

p.a.dogs1


Hi p.a.dog1, thank You very much to all information You have posted on this forum !!!
I am going to built a cajon like Your drawings, 36 cm wide , with 2.5 mm beech plywood I have bought in Germany.
I would also add lateral task ( I do not know how is called) to play sharper slap .
Can You give me an advice about size and shape to this part?
What about have 2 different tone , on right and left ?
Should this comunicate with the inner of Cajon?
What kind of playing board I should use?

Thank You in advance , have a nice day !!!
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Re: Building cajon

Postby p.a.dogs1 » Sun Jul 16, 2017 7:42 pm

Hi Espresso,
excuse me, but I am not so often here anymore. Therefore I didn´t see your post. Could you explain what you mean with "lateral task"? I have no idea.

Regarding different tones: when I started building cajons I experimented a lot and added gimmicks (f. e. clap-corners) to my (peruvian-style-) cajons:

Image

Here is another example:



Pay attention to Markus´left hand slapping the upper region of the side panel - and also his right heel.

But there are so many possibilities to generate sounds with pure playing techniques, what - finally - became much more fascinating for me.

p.a.dogs1

Edit: Maybe you should go to the YouTube-site in order to have correctly synchronized sound?!
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Re: Building cajon

Postby Espresso » Mon Jul 17, 2017 4:34 pm

Hi p.a.dog1, I was speaking about something like this cajon from Los Chinitos , You can see lateral head to play higher tone or slap.
I am going to use Your poject and add this lateral head, may be I have to make some experiment to get best result and best position.
Thank You , have nice evening .....
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chinitos.cajon1.jpg
chinitos.cajon1.jpg (32.14 KiB) Viewed 38526 times
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Re: Building cajon

Postby p.a.dogs1 » Mon Jul 17, 2017 7:43 pm

Hi Espresso,
I would ask myself, if a soundhole into the cajon would make sense.
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Re: Building cajon

Postby smackdaddy » Thu May 03, 2018 12:59 am

I have been really getting jiggy with it....

il_570xN.1227318025_hqc2.jpg

il_570xN.920748429_75yk.jpg

il_570xN.920748429_75yk.jpg
Attachments
il_570xN.921019590_4jcc.jpg
https://youtu.be/10wqmq94w5Q

Me on quinto with the rumberos of Kansas City!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/63rdstreetpercussion

Afro Cuban cajons for sale.
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Re: Building cajon

Postby CampoSantaRosa » Sun Jun 24, 2018 8:33 pm

I recently received a supertumba cajon from 63rd St Percussion and can say that Miko really has the formula dialed in. Crisp slaps and a fantastic bass tone not to mention it’s beautiful. A pleasure to play.
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