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I saw this Cajon this week which is essentialy drum made from a box with a snare strap attached. My observation - looked like rally cheap plywood box. Was thinking of making one with a spruce soundboard and some back and sides from a nice wood like mahogany and jusy wondering if anyone has built one with some high end wood?

Cajon are made for bashing, so thats why its made from plywood. Its a nice idea to use solid wood but due to the intense beating, it doesn't last long. beside having different thickness for the sides, I've also attached some transducers on various spots inside the cajon and using separate output thru different effect box, its real fun to create lots of interesting sound.
Jeff

Easy enough to make the back and sides from anything you want as they won't be taking the beating the front does. If you want a spruce front, then I would recommend making your own spruce plywood by laminating two or more layers to come up with the .125" thickness. I agree with Jeff that a spruce front would likely crack within a short amount of beating time although I'm sure cajons have been made with solid wood fronts. A solid hardwood front like mahogany would likely be more durable than spruce for this if you choose to go that way. I've only ever used 1/8" baltic birch for fronts. Tough stuff.

Thanks Guys. Was thinking of making the sounboard like a gutar - maybe with x-bracing of some form but you have me thinking differently now. So easy to make, think I will try a couple different soundboards. One idea I was thinking was to make the sounboard of sitka and then brace it like a guitar - X-braces - perhaps heavier than a guitar.

Then started thinking of making the shape like a guitar (w/o neck) so the appearance would be like sitting on the upper bout where the neck would go. The one I saw had the soundport on the back and they placed a mike at the opening. Was thinking of doing the sound port on the front and maybe attach a Fishman type sound hold mic.

Will see. Plan on giving it a whack over the holiday season.

If the top is going to take a beating, would birch or maple be more practical?

When I was making drums, I remember there was a guy making really nice cajons out of hardwoods. I usually made mine out of ply, but one had a spruce back and maple sound board. It was the worst of the bunch. The best cajon was the one we ordered from Popercussion My snares just never sounded right.

If you were going to brace the top, you'd have to plan how you would ensure that the guitar strings were in contact with the soundboard for the snare effect. I use a double inverted V set-up which works well, but I've also seen other set-ups where the strings cross the upper corners. I didn't like the effect on those as much.

Rich, please keep us posted on this. I'd love to see some construction photos. I'm as much a percussionist as I am a guitar player, and I used to make ceramic drums, sort of patterned after doumbeks, but with my own unusual designs. I also made a couple of wooden drums (e.g. a djembe out of mango wood) and an assortment of other things. I've never made a cajon, or played one, for that matter - but it's one of those instruments I've been meaning to get around to.

One of these days I'll find the time to post some photos of the drums I made on my web site. Come to think of it, I'll post one here, now. I was recently able to get my hands on this one and take a few photos of it. Made sometime in the mid 90's.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Cajones work better if they are ply wood. They don't need braces either. A 3/16th " ply for the face and a 1/8" ply for the back works well with 1/2 " ply sides and top.

The trick is to get the the guitar strings inside to sound good. And the way the face is screwed to front frame of the box is important. They need to have a good 'doom' and a good 'tah' sound with the rasp of the guitar strings against the top on the inside. the doom comes from the center of the face and tah the from the edge. The tah sound can be adjusted by how much you restrict the movement of the face near the top seam by the seat. If you leave the top seam more open you'll get a slapping woody sound off the edge, which can be desirable. Two or three screws near the center of the seam will accomplish that. If you want a higher pitched closed sound, screw the whole top seam down with three screws farther apart.

Build the cajon and swap faces, try slightly different thicknesses of plywood and number of veneers. Or you can sand the center area of the inside of the face to loosen it.

Cajon faces and backs are slack and floppy, they kind of go against the rules of guitar top bracing. I would experiment with the size and placement of the soundhole and the treatment of the guitar string inside.

It's important to design it so you can reach in an tune the strings and change them without too much difficulty. Sometimes the strings break.