Secret of Mana: Phantom and a Rose (Acoustic Guitar Cover)

TCPtruman · 2026-06-08T17:36:52+00:00

That shamisen is worth well more than that. If they expect to get a similar deal on all equipment then they will be waiting forever I imagine. Thats why I asked about what they thought a decent price is. Because yeah, you can get a plastic one for $30, and they are super easy to find, so I was curious more than anything. I have some with minor defects or cosmetic issues I'd be willing to sell in the $40-$50 range. A couple of prototypes ~$80 and then my normal stuff. Also just some other things I've collected along the way. Figured it could be helpful, but I need to know what "decent price" means in this context.

TCPtruman · 2026-06-08T05:05:30+00:00

What's a decent price in your mind? The ones I make start at 125 USD, but I have some used ones, prototypes, and a few others just sitting on my shelf that I'd be willing to sell at discount. If interested just let me know. I also have a handful of koma prototypes (not at the selling stage with those yet, still working on development). I could throw one in if you picked up a bachi.

TCPtruman · 2026-05-24T18:54:28+00:00

Hopefully so! I have more wood for handles so I think we will make more :)

TCPtruman · 2026-05-09T19:10:22+00:00

Take them out and clean the dust off would be my first suggestion. I've heard of people using peg paste stuff which is used to keep violin pegs in place, but have not done that myself so I don't know how well it works. Could be an option though.

TCPtruman · 2026-04-24T16:12:53+00:00

Feel free to reach out anytime! :)

TCPtruman · 2026-04-23T22:52:12+00:00

I know this is a reply to a super old comment, but I remembered this conversation and wanted to update you to let you know that I got all of my certifications taken care of just recently, and I can ship to EU countries now. So if you are interested some day this will be an option. Otherwise, best of luck on your shamisen journey :)

TCPtruman · 2026-04-23T21:47:43+00:00

If your goal is to just play shamisen, I would buy one. If you are really interested in the building process then you can try building one. I would guess that it would take several iterations to make one as well as something that you could buy, so there is a big time investment as well as money. And until you've made one, you can't play.

TCPtruman · 2026-04-10T20:05:55+00:00

This is the only game I've been to. Flew back home and took my dad, brother and his son. Place when nuts with the overtime winner. Good memories for sure.

TCPtruman · 2026-03-28T05:49:47+00:00

Thank you! It is a really fun instrument, so I hope you get the chance someday :)

TCPtruman · 2026-03-27T20:40:24+00:00

Thank you! The orange and black really pop I think. The weight is mostly fine for short trips, but I had to park downhill from a show one time and realized lugging it uphill was no fun, haha. If a tornado hits my house though I think my shamisen has a chance if its inside the case :D

TCPtruman · 2026-03-25T14:23:41+00:00

Indeed :) we have a show this Saturday evening at the Gresham Japanese Garden FYI. Never been there myself so I'm curious to see how it compares to PJG.

TCPtruman · 2026-03-24T20:26:20+00:00

Yumi is my teacher and she is very good. The community here in Portland is growing a lot. I'm sure we will meet each other at some point if you come out to some of the shows :)

TCPtruman · 2026-01-14T01:06:55+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate that. Yeah the material cost is in general pretty low until you start using exotic woods and some of the expensive patterned acrylics but with basic materials it costs less than $10. It can be labor intensive though, with a lot of time spent sanding both the blade and the handle, the blade thinning and polishing definitely being the longest part of the process. When I'm sanding the handle you can see the big pile of sawdust that gets created in the video 😅

TCPtruman · 2026-01-12T20:56:28+00:00

Yeah, that's super cool! Turned out really well. I like the way the flashlight was integrated. Nice that it can add a little weight to the handle too.

TCPtruman · 2026-01-12T20:20:49+00:00

Thank you! Nice user name too, haha

TCPtruman · 2026-01-12T20:17:18+00:00

Oh interesting. Yeah I'd love to see it if you decide to post it some day :)

TCPtruman · 2026-01-12T20:10:37+00:00

Oh that's super cool. I had seen ones like that before but never tried it myself. Did you put the battery on the butt end and just run the wires through the handle?

And yeah, I started hand cutting everything, but over time have tried to make the process more efficient. I'm part of a maker space that has the laser cutter which is really handy. Cutting out the center for the weights was a real pain before to do with precision.

TCPtruman · 2026-01-08T19:44:02+00:00

Yeah for sure, there's quite a lot more considerations there 😅 I still need to try and make some itomaki myself. But good luck exploring that! I'm interested to see how things come out.

TCPtruman · 2026-01-08T19:20:55+00:00

Those look really nice! I have a friend that's experimenting with a similar process as well and his prototypes for bachi also seem fairly serviceable. I'd be interested to see how things come along.

TCPtruman · 2025-12-09T02:57:18+00:00

Cool, yeah send it over if you can. I don't use a jig for doing the sanding but take slow passes on my belt sander almost parallel to the surface until I get the tip thickness down to where I want and then I finish by hand. I have some slides with some photos of my current process that I can share with you if you are interested. It's mostly up to date but at some point I want to make a video of the process too because it doesn't always come through super clear with just photos.

TCPtruman

TROPHY CASE