Equally essential are the strings, as no sound can be made without them (other than spanking the dou like a drum, of course). All strings break eventually (how long they last depends on how often it’s played and how much force the player uses), so it’s always good to stock up on extras. For peace of mind, I keep a minimum of two ichi-no-ito (silk), four ni-no-ito (tetron), and five san-no-ito (nylon). However, if you prefer every string to be silk strings, it’s safe to order more as silk strings break quicker than tetron or nylon.
It’s important to select the strings type for your particular shamisen. For example, if you have a nagauta shamisen, select strings specifically for nagauta style. Even if you want to learn tsugaru style on a nagauta shamisen (which is perfectly fine to do), you still need nagauta strings because the thickness of those strings match the diameter of the string holes in the shamisen’s itomaki (tuning peg).
The strings made for a tsugaru shamisen (specifically the ichi no ito, or the first string) is considerably thicker, and won’t fit into the hole of a nagauta shamisen’s itomaki (without drilling a wider hole).
Tsugaru string (Left); Nagauta string (Right)
