Looking to have the skins of your shamisen replaced with a fresh natural skin? No problem at all! All you have to do is send your dou (soundbox) to Kyle and he will remove the old skins and replace them with new natural skins. After you order the service, Kyle will send you the shipping information and will start working on your repair as soon as he receives your dou.
Note: Currently, Kyle is replacing natural skin for nagauta and jiuta shamisen. For those wanting high tension natural skin for tsugaru shamisen, he will connect you with his partner in Japan.
Possible extra costs
- Broken Dou: The glue on vintage shamisen is known to fail due to age. Sometimes, the corner joints of the dou are already separated and are simply held together by the skins alone! When this happens, the dou must be reglued before reskinning. Please note there may be a $50 to $100 extra fee if this happens.
- Rubber Pad (Dou Gomu): If your dou has a rubber pad (dou gomu) attached to it, please remove it before shipping. Unlike new dou gomu, (which peel off easily and cleanly) the rubber of old dou gomu are often partially disintegrated and crumble when trying to remove it. It's a considerable hassle, and there may be $20 extra fee to remove it.
