Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

I have made several from both schedule 40 and schedule 80 gray wall PVC with good results. Alos, schedule 40 white PVC.  I have made 1.3, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.4 and 3.0 lengths. The sound is bright and clear, and most of the fingerings I know work very well, as do most of the techniques I know. Just be sure if you make any that you don't inhale the PVC dust as it does NOT, as in never, deteriorate in the human body, i.e., your lungs.

I have several jinaishi and jiari rootend bamboo that I play most all the time, but I still like to play the "urban bamboo" periodically.

"If you understand, things are just as they are. If you don't understand, things are just as they are."

Riley Lee used to sell them in Hawaii when he was younger. It didn't look like it had a tapered bore or anything, so I'm not sure how good the thing sounded. I've thought about having a glass blower friend of mine try and make one, but you'd need to do it with a glass mold and all that: pain in the ass kind of stuff.

Otherwise, David Brown makes some nice wooden Shakuhachi out of Australia. They're always on ebay.

-E

Oops,Sorry...I take that back. The flute is made out of ABS Plastic. Sorry if i mislead you.
www.shakuhachiyuu.com

HI all; im new my names Rory. I'm apvc shakuahchi and hocchiku maker. just thought id add two things; one is that it's not the bamboo that gives a shakuhachi (or any flute) it's tone; it's the nature of the bore to length relationship coupled with the fingerhole ratio. Flute vibration contributes almost nothing to it's sound. And the second; is that although it isnt a good idea to get pvc dust in your lungs; it does clear eventually... as your lungs do clear themselves; they're not simply sacks.

Flute repair:

Perry Yung has a very nifty and nicely illustrated repair of a John Kaizan Neptune shakuhachi on his website in the 'shakuhachi Blog' section (March 22, 2006):

     http://www.yungflutes.com/log/