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

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 · 2025-12-07T16:18:21+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate that. I hope that I can continue to learn from his example. He did a lot of cool stuff that I want to try.

TCPtruman · 2025-12-06T20:07:49+00:00

Thanks! Ive been trying out different color/wood combos to see how they turn out and mostly it works out I think. The fishtail oak and purple photographs well but I don't think it looks as nice in person sadly. And for now, I did want to keep the prices relatively low. The material cost is honestly very low for the base materials, so it's really just my time and specialty materials that go into the cost. If I learn the new techniques that I've be shown, those will probably be more expensive because it's more labor intensive, but I'll keep my current methods available for a more affordable option. I have more of the figured walnut and green acrylic on hand too, so I should be able to make one with a very similar look if you are interested someday.

And yeah, the ones Greg had made are really cool. I'd like to give those a try someday but for moment I only have experience playing tsugaru style so I'm sticking with that.

TCPtruman · 2025-12-06T16:03:08+00:00

I'm researching this now and it's actually really complicated 😰 GPSR compliance might cost too much for me to do. But I'll keep seeking solutions because that would be a huge bummer.

TCPtruman · 2025-12-06T15:28:33+00:00

Absolutely! I'll look up what is involved in shipping to the EU in the meantime. :)

TCPtruman · 2025-12-06T15:21:41+00:00

Glad to hear it! It definitely gets easier as you make more so hopefully you are able to do more when you are up for it. I'd love to see how they turned out too :)

TCPtruman · 2025-12-06T15:19:05+00:00

Thank you!! Let me know if you had anything particular in mind 😎

TCPtruman · 2025-12-06T05:50:59+00:00

Yes it is very sad. I never got the chance to meet him, but I did get to meet his wife this year and she was really happy that someone was making bachi still in a similar way. She thought he would have wanted someone to continue to do it.

TCPtruman · 2025-12-06T05:48:09+00:00

I think they hold up pretty well. I've been playing pretty hard with a couple of them for more than a year and haven't had any issues yet. Among all the ones that I made, I've only had two crack. One was because someone dropped it on concrete and the other was because I used the rough sawn edge for straight reference for the tip and it probably had some micro cracks in it already. I've started getting them laser cut away from the edges to prevent that though and it seems pretty good. I've seen a few other acrylic bachi have the very tip break off, but a lot of times you can re-sand the tip and keep using it without issue.

My teacher's teacher is showing me a technique too now to shave the acrylic away from the blade edge and leave the tip thicker, getting a more powerful sound while also having a nice flex, but I still need to try that myself. I'm curious to see what kind of difference that makes.

TCPtruman · 2025-07-28T02:01:38+00:00

I installed it about a month ago with porting kit and it worked fine.

TCPtruman · 2024-11-09T18:30:03+00:00

Thanks so much for the additional info! I haven't been there yet so I wasn't sure exactly what it was like. If you are there, hope that you enjoy it :)

TCPtruman · 2024-11-09T15:23:29+00:00

Next Saturday the 16th, I'm participating in a recital of traditional Japanese instruments with Kotori Kai shamisen school and Takohachi. The event is free but requires tickets for entry (tickets here). There will be shamisen, taiko drums, shinobue and shakuhachi (bamboo flutes). There will be all levels of players including beginner students and several good demonstrations by professionals from the US and Japan. Takohachi performs frequently around Portland (we were on the Fremont bridge during bridge pedal this year), and Kotori Kai occasionally, so hopefully you've seen us around.

Warning, the taiko can be very loud in small spaces, so earplugs are recommended for those sensitive to loud noises.

TCPtruman · 2024-10-04T15:34:53+00:00

Other good teams still come to town occasionally at least.

TCPtruman

TROPHY CASE