Chokan : Long Shakuhachi Bass Flutes

I've succeeded in mathematical scaling of my best gauge flutes to produce a 2.8" - Key of G at the request of John Kaizan Neptune who has visited here twice in the last year. Not all of the flute makers in Japan make these long instruments, so good ones are hard to come by.

John and I have been getting together regularly over the last several years, either at my shop in Willits or at his fantastic dome house in Japan. For a shakuhachi maker like myself, it is an invaluable opportunity to collaborate with a player of John's caliber. (And one that speaks the same language as I do, no less!) Our work pattern at these brainstorming sessions usually takes us late into the night until weary from gazing intensely into those mysterious long black tubes. 

This summer's research was particularly fruitful. The 2.8' I came up with was, according to John, concert quality. His expertise in fine tuning the bore has resulted in an instrument that is nicely balanced and very resonant in all of its notes. More important to my mind, is having established the methodological framework for extremely accurate bore scaling and fabrication. No simple task, but one that is greatly enhanced by the use of computerized calculations and (hopefully) soon the aid of an inkjet plotter to generate precision scaled graphs. What can I say? It's a nasty job, but somebody has to do it. Hope to have long, affordably-priced instruments in the keys of G, F#, F and E available in the near future.

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