// JavaScript Document
var MarkShime = new Array();
MarkShime[0] = "Hello all, my name is Mark and I'd like to share my experiences and thoughts in building a brand new shime-daiko for Yukai Daiko. Why don't we just buy it like other groups? We are still a very young group and thus, our funds are really limited right now. So I've taken the liberty of buying the parts myself and.....well yea just did it. Let's get started! The first picture here was the start of my shime project over Winter break: a maple stain, a rust-preventer, and some rope which I later switched out and chose hemp.";
MarkShime[1] = "After several days of waiting and tweedling my thumbs, my skins arrived! The pair felt like hard plastic when opened my shipment box. I ordered the calfskins online at Mid-East Mfg., Inc. The skins were translucent though. Mid-East Mfg., provided reasonable prices for the skins. It’s pretty cool that you can buy hides online just like that. Awww.....the wonderful age of the internet......";
MarkShime[2] = "Several days later after that, I got another package in the mail. Hmmmm, I wonder what can it be.....hmmm.... ";
MarkShime[3] = "Oh! The excitement of it all!";
MarkShime[4] = "It's my drum shell! Ain't she a beauty? I ordered bevelled edges and reinforcement rings as well to insure maximum sound and strength in the shell. This particular type of shell is a 10-ply maple shell made of 10 plys of wood, which was super-steamed and bended to form the drum shell. I was very impressed with the construction of it";
MarkShime[5] = "Yea, usually people would make the shell out of staves, but I didn't have the tools to cut. So I figured I mind as well try this type of drum shell. It's good enough for a snare drum.......it should be good enough for a shime!";
MarkShime[6] = "After X-mas break, I had to wait an additional week for the wielder to wield me the iron rings I needed for the shime. But he eventually made them for me. These rings are 16 inches in outer diamater with .5 inch thickness. These rings are very sturdy. Strong sturdy rings are crucial to a shime.";
MarkShime[7] = "As you can see, these rings are not galvanized, so I sprayed two coats of rust-proofing chemicals to prevent any rust from forming. My plan was to rust-proof these rings and then tape the rings over with water-proof tape.";
MarkShime[8] = "During my adventures of searching for sewing thread for the heads, I came about a leather-working store that was literally half a mile away from where I lived in my hometown! It was pretty convenient! As you can see in the picture, there's a lot of leather! Yea, lotsa and lotsa lotsa leather........";
MarkShime[9] = "Look, drum rings! Too bad none of the rings I found were what I needed....=/";
MarkShime[10] = "Haha, an anvil.....";
MarkShime[11] = "Whew, okay once I got all of my materials, we began work on the drum heads! My dad helped me out greatly in this stage of the project. Upon his stubborn insistence, he gung-hoed this part of the project. I'd like to really thank him for what he's done for me and for the group. Parents are such awesome supporters...."
MarkShime[12] = "We basically followed the instructions on this one guy's Web-site. Even though it explains how to build an Okedo, the process is really the same for a shime."
MarkShime[13] = "It looks kinda of like a star...ooooooooooo!";
MarkShime[14] = "Oh the stitching!! My dad went through like 9 heavy sewing needles! Stitching is the hardest and slowest process in the shime-making stage. It is hard because one needs to pay attention to what one exactly is doing or else mistakes can happen......and they could be bloody (literally).";
MarkShime[15] = "Aww, remember that plain drum shell earlier? After 7 coats, here's the result of the stain. Ohh Shiny...!";
MarkShime[16] = "Can you see my reflection?";
MarkShime[17] = "The shime heads after they've been stitched and fully dried.";
MarkShime[18] = "That really looks cool.";
MarkShime[19] = "Whew.....the last step, the tightening stage! ";
MarkShime[20] = "Pick a hole, any hole...........";
MarkShime[21] = "Here I want to say thank you to Kris Bergstrom off On Ensemble for being so nice and helpful in the shime tightening stage. Kris' TIASOU method is a great method of shime-tightening. You can grab the pdf's here.";
MarkShime[22] = "Bah.......I scoff at rope burns.......they cannot burn me, hehe....";
MarkShime[23] = "Whew, the lacing is done. It’s beginning to look a lot like a shime now! I hope it will sound like one....";
MarkShime[24] = "More tensioning w/ my bachi. Here one is supposed to get some agebachi (flatter bachi), but I did not have any and resorted to just use my bachi. My good 'ol Johnny Mori bachi provide leverage on section of the lacings. The rings act as a fulcrum when I push down on the bachi and thus it lifts the rope, allowing more slack to be pulled and tightens even more. I like to note that during this stage, it’s very important to apply even tension throughout the whole drum. I had to start all over several times due to uneven tension.";
MarkShime[25] = "Whewwwww!, after 6 + hours of confusion, exhaustion, and fatigue, I finally got it! The shime looks really cool. You can obviously notice the translucency of the drums. But I've consulted with Mr. Miyoshi and Kris Bergstrom, and they assured me that I shouldn't worry about the translucency. The strength of the skin is more important than it's alpha level — hehe nerd talk for transparency."
MarkShime[26] = "Good angle here";
MarkShime[27] = "And there we have it! We have Yukai Daiko's newest addition to the familiy! Wow, building your own drum is so awesome. I do feel like a part of me will forever be a part of this drum. Yea!!! We're going to sound all crisp and clean now, hehehe. Hope anyone has learned from my neat little adventure. If you have any questions regarding the shime building process, I'll be more than happy to answer them. Email me at mrkthang[at]ucla[.]edu. Replace [at] with @ and [.] with .";
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