Your Custom Cajón
Ever feel like having a jam and not wanting to bring your full kit? Does your band have a simple arrangement idea and rehearsal coming up? Do you want to busk without lugging around a full kit? A Cajón may be just the thing for you!
Features
We use a 42-strand snare wire, cut in half and bolted to a piece of free-spinning 1" oak doweling sitting in a cradle attached to the sides of the drum. The dowel is attached to a turnbuckle to adjust the tension on the snare wires. The snare mechanism system can be easily disengaged altogether if you like. Simple and effective.
The size and placement of the sound hole is very carefully planned to ensure maximum volume while still maintaining both body resonance and structural integrity. Let's face it, since you sit directly on the Cajón, it would be a rather unpleasant experience if it fell apart under you (although it might make for a great stage show).
Our standard Cajón is 30cm x 30cm x 50cm, but we can create yours in just about any size. Perhaps you want a Cajón based on the exact length of your leg (from the knee down) so it's more comfortable to play for long stints, or built a little bit deeper front-to-back so that it gets a deeper fundamental bass tone.
Selected Past Work
This sexy little number has a hand-dyed black finish to which I added some glitter to the top-coats in order to have a bit of fanciness shining through on stage. Also, there’s a bit on the back where the dye wouldn’t take, it looks rather good so I didn’t bother “fixing” it.
This baby is the in-house cajón down at the Lyrebird Lounge in Ripponlea. It looks very cool in that unique space.
THE SPECS
This is another “fun machine” cajón. This time, for extra fun-ness, this cajón has racing stripes. Hopefully, that makes it able to be played faster!
Like all Fun Machine Cajónes, the sizing is fully customised, and the snare mechanism is completely adjustable. This time however, mainly out of curiosity, the top corners on the front of the cajón have small springs embedded between the front plate and the body of the unit. This pushes the plate back out just enough to add a little bit of extra slappiness to the high snare sound. Rather nifty idea we had that day. Every cajón since has had the same added.
THE SPECS
Campbell Phillips from the D2 Drumline was gifted this Cajón from his peeps as a thanks. What a great gift idea!
This one is another standard Fun Machine cajón but with one main distinction, there’s a custom engraved nameplate added under my logo/badge. The Engraving was done by John Morris at Keyhole Engraving in Port Phillip Arcade. John is an old school pro, so old school in fact, he doesn’t have an email address let alone a website; kinda awesome.
THE SPECS
“Hoak is easily one of the best sounding & well built drums I have ever played in over 30 years in the industry.”
Hoak has a note & body that sings for days – it’s a truly beautiful drum. Absolutely musical in every way. I love it! Thanx Phillip – don’t stop building.
Nice words provided by Torst Trenka, Melbourne, VIC
Based on shipping crates played by slaves on shipping docks in 17th century South America, The Cajón is essentially just a wooden box with a sound hole like a guitar on the back plate.
The front “tapa” (Spanish for “top”) is usually a thinner piece of wood loosely attached to the body of the Cajón. The standard paint job is bright orange with a dark brown satin finished stain on the front tapa, but we can colour your world with any hue you like.
Also, if you’d like we can help you source out all kinds of accessories as well. Anything from bells and tambourines that are designed to be strapped to your ankles or feet, cases, even cable operated kick drum pedals are out there.
The Cajón is really taking off lately as a fun alternative to traditional drum sets. Not to mention their usual use in tango and other Latin musical styles.
Cajones can also be used in studio to “double” drum set parts in an effort to add a bit more punch to the kick and snare. The trick is to play exactly what you recorded on your drum set on the Cajón and then bury it in the mix so that it gets “lost”. This technique allows your kick and snare sounds to really cut through, without the need for a bunch of ambiance-killing compression. It’s kind of like underlining, italicizing, emboldening, and setting your kick and snare in bright-red all caps: they’ll really stand out.
If you’re excited, we wouldn’t blame you: these things are so much fun that we refer to them as “Fun Machines”. And with a starting price of only a couple hundred bucks, these crates truly are an inexpensive and fun way to expand your drum arsenal.
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