Good Tone, Iffy Snares
- Rating
- Posted by
- Wes H.
- Date Posted
- 01/06/2017
Long story short, I can't give it 5 stars and say it's the best thing I've ever played, but I can't complain too much either. For the price (especially if you catch it on sale), you would likely not be disappointed in the product. Bought this as my first cajon while it was on sale for $99. With it normally being a cajon that sits around $200, I can't complain too much about what I got for the price. The drum is put together very sturdy with a slightly textured surface on top for you to sit on. Listening with the snares completely off, the cajon has a good bass tone. My only issue is with the snares themselves. The feature to adjust them in and out is nice and all, and I've found a couple sweet spots on it I like. The mechanism works as such: Three sets of snares are attached to a rod that runs parallel to the front face of the cajon. Adjusting the mechanism rotates this bar, pressing the snares up against the head. Where the snares end, there is a block coming down with a piece of felt attached, I imagine to prevent to much vibration of the snares and too keep them from tangling. I don't know if it's just a fault with mine, or just a side-effect of the above design, but I find many places on the adjustment spectrum have a tinny sound to them, as if one of the individual snare wires isn't properly installed. I've tried to diagnose it myself but I'm unable to find the exact cause of the problem. Some places on the adjustment scale it is worse and some places it isn't very noticeable. When you do hear it though, it's almost like someone is trying to play a jawbone harp with you. You get the nice bass tone, a good initial snare sound, and then that twangy "boing" after. Not exactly a sound I'm looking for in my cajon usage. It's probably something that can be fixed as well if you are an avid percussionist with the time to sit down and do it, and I'll likely try to remedy the situation myself here in the coming days when I really have time to look inside and figure out what exactly is causing it to make that noise. Overall, it's a quality product and I've maybe only seen one other person with that issue from numerous reviews on numerous sites, so I'm not sure if everyone has this issue or just a small number of the cajons do. If you definitely want a snares-only cajon, I'd personally say find yourself another LP cajon with the snares pre-set for you, but if you're on the fence as to the sound you want from your cajon or just want to be a little adventurous, give this one a shot.