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I recently got a bee in my bonnet about Cajon drums, and decided to have a go at making my own one. I searched around the web and found the best design, in my opinion, and this is how it turned out...

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Quote from Wikipedia
The cajón is the most widely used Afro-Peruvian musical instrument since the late eighteenth century.
It is basically a wooden box with the front "tapa" being much thinner than the rest. You hit the tapa to generate the drum sound. You will notice the 4 coach screws on the side, these are for tuning the 4 guitar strings that run along the top of the tapa that create the snare sound when hit. If you hit the middle of the tapa you get the bass sound.

I am not much of a drummer myself, but when I gave it to a friend to play around on I was amazed at the sound. IMO this is a very versatile percussion instrument, and it sounds fantastic. The bass sound is really tight and you can adjust the tuning of the guitar strings to give you differing snare sounds. It's going to be great to do some acoustic sets with this baby!

I'm keen to hear what you all think.
    That's so cool!

    But show us the inside plz!

    What woods did you use?
      Hey aja

      I didn't get any pics of the inside, but this is exactly what I've done as per the instructions



      There are other ways of doing it but I thought that looked the best. Flip, it was hard to drill holes through the coach screws.

      I've just used good old pine plywood for the whole thing. The experts say that plywood is the best for this sort of instrument as the sound doesn't get absorbed into it. I've finished the box with some awesome teak coloured outdoor and indoor furniture sealer, and the the front is just clear woodock sealer. My thinking was that this thing is going to be bashed around so the finish needs to be quite resilient. It also look great in the lounge as a small coffee table ?
        ok I HAVE to come see this thing...
          Cool Donovan! Bring your drummer and your acoustic guitar along and we can gave a jam.
            3 months later
            resurrection bump...

            which build instructions did you follow? I want to try my hand at building one as well... Do you have a sound clip of yours?
              I stuck to the instructions on this web site -> http://caseyconnor.org/jl/cajon

              You have to download the spanish document then the english translation and read them side by side.

              I don't have any recordings of it unfortunately, but it sounds great. I'm no drummer, so I took it down to the local music store here, and the drummer there had a bash. He was very impressed with the sound.

              If there's one thing i would change, it would be to use thicker guage strings, and maybe add a fifth string.
                thanks... have about 3 or 4 different guides now. Will report back in a week or two..
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