I've never played one, but I'll tell you this, it looks Great
Just finished (well, almost done with it) this acoustic/electric cajon.
I wired it up inside with two homemade piezo pickups but I haven't drilled the holes for the instrument cable jack/volume knob yet. I want to try it out on the band's sound system before I do. If I don't like the way it sounds, I'll just remove the pickups and it will become a standard cajon.
The tapa is made from birch, and everything else from poplar. I discovered I don't like working with poplar at all. It doesn't take stain very well, and it's really difficult to find straight/true lumber. Oh well, not perfect, but definitely gig worthy.
The stain is red-mahogany, and the clear finish is tung oil. I was going for a rustic look on this one.
I also wood-burned the Texas flag on the front. It's hard to see from the pics but there are three shades of stain on the flag - trying to replicate the red, white, blue.
Fun project for sure. And cheap too.
Tex
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I've never played one, but I'll tell you this, it looks Great
Looks good.
A lady at an open mic plays a cajon and it works well for her.
I haven't had much luck with piezo microphones but a dynamic microphone cartridge might work well.
Cajons should look rustic ~ It's a rustic instrument ... a folk instrument ..originally made from old crates or whatever scrap wood a musician might find.
Sometimes I think all those factory-made models on the market look a little too elegant .. like pieces of furniture. Yours looks awesome.. I like the Lone Star decoration.
My concern with piezo pickups might be that you'd just be sending thumps or ticks to your amp, and it would really fall upon the amplifier itself to shape the signal into a pleasing sound. Give it a try and let us know how it sounds.
Nice Job!
Thanks everyone. I hear what y'all are saying about the piezo, which is exactly why I haven't drilled holes yet. My only thought is plugging it in, boosting the lows and turning down the highs/mids just to see if I can get a thump out of it. They work great for the cigar box guitars I build, but I'm pretty sure y'all are right about it not getting the results I want on the cajon.
Thanks again for the comments. I'm thinking the next one I build will be out of cedar fence boards.
Tex
Can you make me one? ....but with a maple leaf flanked by two dolphins.
Looks great
all the best...
Great job Tex! It turned out really nice. What's the correct pronunciation for this instrument? The ex-wife is Mexican and cajon as pronounced in Spanish: [kaˈxon] ka-HON, with the "j" having the "h" sound. How do folks in the great state of Texas pronounce it?
We tried it out on 3 different songs last night at practice. The piezo does not pick up the low end thump I was looking for, at all. But...they pick up the higher pitch/snare section very, very well. So, we ended up using two different channels on our board. The 1/4 instrument jack for the top/snare section, and then my kick drum mic for the low end.
Sounded unbelievably good. We had probably 12 people at practice last night and all of them commented on the sound. Of course most of that has to do with the board/sound system, but hey I'l take it.
Thanks again to everyone who commented. I really appreciate it!
Tex
This is very cool! I know Meinl makes some cajons with a built-in mic system of some sort but I've never gotten to play one of those.
That's what I was thinking. I have a couple of those 'stomp boxes'.. piezo transducer embedded into a small block of wood, supposed to approximate a bass drum when you stomp on it. Through my Fender bass amp w/ 15" speaker they sound ok. But through a smaller guitar amp it just sounds like tapping your finger on the plug at the end of the cable. Like the amplifier becomes the actual instrument, not the box.
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