On Monday, April 24, 2017 at 9:46:10 PM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 4/24/17 11:50 AM, Greg Guarino wrote:
Should anyone be interested, I did some more work on the Cajon, which
is now temporarily finished.

Cajons come in at least two major varieties: with snare and without.
The "snare" variety has either snare-drum snares or some guitar
strings stretched across the back of the striking surface to add a
"snare-drum'-like quality to the higher-pitched sound you get by
striking near the edge.

I made my Cajon with a set of snares that you can turn on or off.
They were mounted on a rod that can be turned so as to have the
snares contact the striking surface or not.

https://flic.kr/p/SSaL2y

(photo is shown with the striking surface - a piece of 1/8" plywood
- removed)

I got the idea for the switchable snare from a Woodworking for Mere
Mortals video and used his placement of the rod. But there was a
problem. The angle of the snares to the striking surface was too
great, the snares only touched near their tips and didn't produce
much sound.

I took a look at a couple of commercially-made cajons and saw that
the snares - like on a snare drum - were essentially laying lightly
on the back of the striking surface.

I didn't want to move the rod at this stage; I'd have had to fill in
the holes that hold it in place. Instead, I made a couple of
"brackets" that attach to the rod and hold a narrow piece of 1/2" ply
that in turn holds the snares.

https://flic.kr/p/TWZpCB https://flic.kr/p/TyBArq

This now works pretty well. The snares, when "engaged" are nearly
parallel to the striking surface, and they produce the desired sound.
In addition, the sound can be adjusted a little bit my rotating the
knob to vary the "pressure" on the snares. Here's a poor photo inside
the cajon:

https://flic.kr/p/U9xV56

In the "disengaged" position the snares "jingle" softly from the
vibration of the box. I intend to install a piece of foam
weatherstripping for the snares to rest against when they are not in
use. That will probably wait until I decide on another experiment or
two that I might try to alter the sound.


The foam sounds like a good idea.
I was thinking you could tape the strands together down a couple-few
inches from the tips, just enough to wear the business end of the wires
would contact the batter section of the cajon. The tape would keep them
from jingling but still allow them to make a "snare" sound on the box.
I suspect the jingling is from the separate wires percussing against one
another.

That is exactly what is happening. The foam should be an easy fix, attached to the underside of the cajon top.

BTW, if the snares don't work out, consider some sort of exterior pocket
or something that would hold an existing shaker. Based on more the past
17 years of playing acoustic shows with singer/songwriters, I find
certain shakers, rectangular, or pouch shakers filled with BB's or
seeds, etc., sound much more like a snare drum than snare wires on
anything other than the resonant head of a snare drum. :-)

Interesting. I actually have a pair of the LP "Finger Shots".

Using an exterior shaker also give you the opportunity to
customize/change the sound by simply attaching a different shaker.

Back in the djembe fad of the noughties (2000s), I kept a velcro pad
glued to the head of my djembe and spots of velcro stuck on just about
every shaker device I owned. This allowed for a bunch of variation in
sounds.

I'm not that up on what may be popular at any given time, but I have always loved percussion, the more different sounds the better. And I have a near-compulsion to tap on things in rhythm, finding the "sweet spot" of every household item that has any resonance at all.

Now that I finally have a home recording setup, I can preserve some ot that banging and tapping for posterity.

Thanks for the tips.