Hello cajon players!
Attending many requests, I going to show how to tune a cajon.
As I’ve shown here on channel before there are different types of cajon with different features. Let’s recap the 3 main types of cajon:
PERUVIAN CAJON
- Peruvian cajon, without snare wires or strings
With a Peruvian cajon, the only alternative to tune is to change the tension of the front plate loosen or tighten up the screws.
SNARE CAJON
- Snare with Snare wires in the inside
Snare cajon comes with snare wires and the tuning is also loosen or tighten the front plate but in some specific models you can use the snare on or off depending on the sound you are looking for.
FLAMENCO CAJON
- Flamenco with strings in the inside
Then Flamenco type comes with strings in the inside and depending on the model or brand you can tune the front plate and also the tension of the strings.This is the type of cajons I normally use.
The model I’m going to use for this video is the Meinl Artisan Cantina Line. It comes with 2 sets of strings where you can adjust each set separately.
This is how it looks in the inside:
You can see 2 sets of 8 strings where we can adjust the tension with this 2 screw on the top of the cajon. You can also notice these blue stripes that are located behind the strings to prevent any extra buzz when the strings touch the front plate.
Let’s close it and start tuning!
I hope you like this examples of tuning.
And just to make it clear here: this was the way I tune my cajon that is a specific model and probably you can use some some of the ideas I’ve presented here.
Now I want to hear from you. How you tune your cajon which ideas you have to share with us, please comment below I would love to know more about it.
If you want to learn how to play the Cajon, I would would like to invite you to join my Online cajon School at Cajonmaster.com
Thanks a lot for watching the video lesson. See you next time with another one
Bye!
Is there any way at all to tune a cajon with snares inside? I just bought my first cajon, a MEINL Jam and the bass has so much snare sound. Can that be fixed?
Thanks….I love your YouTube channel,
Diane
Hi Diane, the snare cajons are a bit more limited in terms of tuning. To have less sizzle when you play the bass tone I would first try to tight the front plate a bit and if it doesn’t work you can try to ad some tape in the wires to control the amount of snare sizzle. Hope it helps.