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Interesting discussion about the value and prices of shakuhachis. I'm still
scratching my head over a purchase I made about a year ago. I perform and
record with Native American flutes. I know almost nothing about the
shakuhachi. I tried unsuccessfully to play them a few times over the past
couple of years. Then I found one in a wonderful world music store in
Flagstaff, AZ. I could immediately get good sound out of this one. The
store owner told me he acquired it from a man who said it was a 40 year old
shakuhachi made in Japan. It was a root end with a red bore. No maker's
name is on it. I went home and did some research on the Internet and
realized that the $500 price on the instrument was probably a bargain
considering that root ends started at about $1000. So I bought the 40 year
old Japanese shak. I was having a good time with it until I found a non root
end shak at a local Ren Fair. It was a low B made from Chinese bamboo. I
instantly fell in love with this shak. I could play it far easier than the
root end 40 year old. I plunked down my $55 for the flute and have hardly
picked up the $500 shak since. My guess is that I'm just not skilled enough
to make the 1.8 sing. It's a shame. It's probably a wonderful shak and
deserves a more appreciative owner. And wouldn't you know it -- I'm one of
those guys who is also happy to drink a $5 bottle of wine after playing my
$55 shakuhachi.
Cheers,
Saggio
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<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>Interesting discussion about the value and prices of shakuhachis. I'm still scratching my head over a purchase I made about a year ago. I perform and record with Native American flutes. I know almost nothing about the shakuhachi. I tried unsuccessfully to play them a few times over the past couple of years. Then I found one in a wonderful world music store in Flagstaff, AZ. I could immediately get good sound out of this one. The store owner told me he acquired it from a man who said it was a 40 year old shakuhachi made in Japan. It was a root end with a red bore. No maker's name is on it. I went home and did some research on the Internet and realized that the $500 price on the instrument was probably a bargain considering that root ends started at about $1000. So I bought the 40 year old Japanese shak. I was having a good time with it until I found a non roo!
t end shak at a local Ren Fair. It was a low B made from Chinese bamboo. I instantly fell in love with this shak. I could play it far easier than the root end 40 year old. I plunked down my $55 for the flute and have hardly picked up the $500 shak since. My guess is that I'm just not skilled enough to make the 1.8 sing. It's a shame. It's probably a wonderful shak and deserves a more appreciative owner. And wouldn't you know it -- I'm one of those guys who is also happy to drink a $5 bottle of wine after playing my $55 shakuhachi.
<BR>
<BR>Cheers,
<BR>Saggio</FONT></HTML>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:50 PST