General Info

• Table of flute lengths
  
• Ken LaCosse has a good introduction here
• Binding instruction here
• Milan suggests Ardvos wood oil for finishing the bore instead of urushi or tung oil.
  

Hole Placement

• Okuda-sensei's formula:
• measured in cm from the bottom
  
• hole #1 = 12.1 x length / 54.5 = length x 0.22
• hole to hole = length / 10
• thumb hole from hole 4 = 3.6 x length / 54.5 = length x 0.07
• Navaching's hole placement:
• measured from the top of the flute
• hole #1 = 42% of the length
  
• hole #2 = 48%
• hole #3 = 58%
• hole #4 = 68%
• thumb hole = 78%
• this formulas matches Okuda's.

• We measured a 2.6 kyotaku made by Koku Nishumura:
• measured in 10ths of shaku from the bottom
  
• hole #1 = 5.55 sun
  
• hole #2 = 8.25
  
• hole #3 = 10.9
  
• hole #4 = 13.85
  
• thumb hole = 15.4
  
• Yamaguchi Shugestu's formula -- please attend our annual workshop

Tuning

• Pentatonic Interval Gauge
• John Neptune's pressure point chart:

• Navaching's pressure point chart:
  

• If you add material anywhere in the flow node region (below the line) the wave will lengthen. Add in the pressure region (above the line) and the note is sharpened. So it matters both how much stuff you put in the bore of your Shakuhachi AND where you put it. Put stuff right where the wave crosses the line (getting a bit of flow and pressure) and the addition cancels out--no effect. This crossover point is the Flat Spot and holds particular interest as a candidate for hole placement.
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