DRUMMER CAFE

One of the artists I perform with (James Curley - myspace.com/jamesfcurley) has a couple of new tunes in development where a cajon might work well.  So, I'm looking into getting one. 

I've been poking around on-line and I've kicked the tires on one or two at the drum shop, but I thought I'd bring it up here before I invest.

Any recommendations?

I went into my local drum shop and the guy there found a couple of sound clips to demonstrate the difference between a cajon with snares and one that just used guitar string to get the snare sound, and I decided I liked the guitar string sound better because the other sounded too much like a snare drum for me, and I already had 2 snare drums so I was looking for something different.

So then I picked out a Meinl with a cool burl wood front because it was in my price range, and I've been pretty happy with it.

That one has a mic hole in the back, I've seen some with the hole in the side, and don't really know what the difference would be there.  The only time I ever mic'ed mine was at a jazz band concert, and we only had 2 mics, so it was actually mic'ed from the front because the band director had to bring it over after a sax solo in the same song.

I have an LP Mario Cortés cajon which has guitar strings attached to the back of the front panel. It has a great bass tone and the slaps are also good, although the open sound has too much snare sound compared to others - but I like it that way. The guitar strings produce a dry snare effect which can be adjusted with some well placed tape. The only bad thing about it is that it can hurt your butt after a while because it don't have cushioning like other models

I think that those Fat Congas cajones come with the on/off snare mechanism. There are a lot of rave reviews about them.

You may also like to try a "cajón peruano" (Peruvian cajon) - no snare sound.

Hey Dave,

I have a Meinl, not real expensive, sounds good. It has the wire snares, but I probably play with the snares off 80% of the time, so I would concur with getting a model with the throw off. The snares will muffle the resonance somewhat, so with them 'off' you'll get a deeper low tone out of the center of the drum, but still get a high end pop out of the top of the drum. Most of the time I find that more useful. Cajon's are definately fun to play, and people always ask about it and enjoy the sound.

I'm kind of leaning toward this model.  The pedal allows the snare effect to be adjusted or turned off completely.  Seems pretty versatile.


Meinl Siam Oak Cajon with Foot Pedal and Ebony Frontplate

That does look nice.  Mine you have to take an Allen wrench to the inside through the mic hole, and that gets annoying.  I feel like I've never quite gotten the sound where I want it because I can't just go straight from tuning to playing and I can get it close enough without as much trouble.

Thanks for all the responses, guys.  I ended up getting this one and the padded bag:


Meinl Siam Oak Snare Cajon with Ebony Frontplate

Looks great, sounds great (or it will when I get my cajon chops honed in), surprisingly lightweight.  The snare wire adjustment knob is just what I needed.  It's easy to toss the snare effect on and off.