Bachi is stick for taiko drums. We have a variety of bachi and it may confuse the beginner. There are 5 main materials of bachi: kashi (oak), kaede (maple), tabu (machilus), ho (magnolia), and hinoki (cypress) and they have different hardness and weight. In addition, there are some variations in size and shape. If you just started learning taiko and play the taiko called nagado daiko, we recommend bachi of 2540, which has 2.5 cm in diameter and 40cm in length. Because the broken bachi damages the skin of the taiko, make the surface of the bachi smooth with the sandpaper or get the new one.
Material:
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Kashi (oak): The hardest and heaviest material. It needs strength to play with kashi bachi. It's enough hard to hit the tacks (byou) and the edge (fuchi) of the body but please don't hit the edge strongly because it breaks the edge.
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Kaede (maple): The second hardest and heaviest material. It is relatively heavy and some people like this material in this respect. The players hit the taiko not with their strength but with the weight of the bachi.
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Tabu (machilus): Our best-selling material of bachi. It has the moderate weight and recommended to beginners. It's harder than soft material like ho and hinoki.
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Ho (magnolia): Ho is soft and light material. For taiko with soft and thin drum head such as katsugi oke daiko, soft bachi like ho is recommended. Please note that ho is easily dented hitting taiko's tacks (byou) and edge.
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Hinoki (cypress): Hinoki is also soft and light material. For some playing methods, bachi made of hinoki is used.
Type of Taiko & Playing Style:
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For Nagado Daiko: If you are adult and have average height in your country, bachi of 2540 is recommended. There are some different playing styles such as naname, beta, hachijo, and so on. It's the best to choose shorter/longer/thinner/thicker one than 2540 bachi depending on the the playing style.
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For Shime Daiko: Tapered bachi is used for shime daiko. The shape of shime daiko bachi has thinner top end and thicker grip end. There's just a slight difference in the length and the thickness in our lineup. It's better to choose from the material and ho (magnolia) is recommended for beginners.
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For Katsugi Oke Daiko: Short bachi made of ho (magnolia) is used for katsugi oke daiko. We recommend bachi of 2040.
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For Odaiko: Long bachi is used for odaiko. We recommend bachi of 3654. Or, try the longest bamboo bachi.
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For Miyake: Long bachi is also used for miyake, one of the popular playing styles. We recommend bachi of 3350.
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For Yatai: Thick and tapered bachi is used for yatai style. We recommend bachi of 314240, which means 3.1 cm in diameter of the grip end, 42 cm in diameter of the top end, and 40 cm in length. Also, we have chichibu yatai model.
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For Children: Choose shorter and thinner bachi. We recommend bachi of 2337 for children use.
