A Cajon, a box-like percussion instrument is an efficient and convenient replacement for a drum set. Unlike a drum set, cajon takes up comparatively less space to be set up, is easy to hold in hand and carry anywhere, and can create sounds similar to drums by only being tapped on it. The percussionists sit on top and use their hands, palms, and fingers to create sound.

It came into being from Peru in the 19^th century when African slaves replaced drums with fruit crates due to being forbidden to play drums. This southern American percussion instrument made its first journey to Italy from Peru with famous flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia in the 1970s. From then it paved its way to be one of the most famous percussion instruments on the planet. Although the initial ones were just some wooden boxes, later on, cajon went through many modifications to sound as closest to a drum as possible. As we wonder how a box can make a sound like a whole drum set, little do we know about what’s inside it that makes it possible.

The basic structure

The instrument is 18 inches tall and 12 inches wide. Although the sizing varies a tad bit for different manufacturers, the instrument must be a rectangular wooden box. It may sound a little primal but the tines that can be achieved with a Cajon are remarkable.

Materials it needs

The wood must be premium quality hardwood. The most chosen woods are beech and birch. Marine ply is commonly used as this is quite strong, durable, and resistant to splitting and cracking. Some manufacturers use oak, mahogany, and mahogany-type woods. The higher quality woods would definitely make some high resonance and a wide range of tones as well as being long-lasting. The lower-quality wood whereas would makes very rounded mid tones resulting the sound quality very dull and uninteresting.

Parts of a cajon – Tapa, snare, cajon body

The most important part of a Cajon is the tapa, which is the front side as it is the only side to be tapped to play the cajon. The tapa also carries all sorts of branding, like the logo. Some manufacturers make colorful tapa’s with various designs to attract the attention of buyers and audiences. A good tapa plate is made of more layers of thinner plies to give an overall denser material. A tapa consisting of a higher and thinner number of layers of plies can produce beautiful crisp high tones. The typical thickness should be around 3 to 4 mm. some tapa s are made of synthetic materials such as plastic, acrylic or carbon fibre. Each has its own sound characteristics but the advantage of carbon fibre that it allows to make thinner tapa face around 2mm. this leads the tapa to be more sensitive, much stronger and more resonant.

Some cajon has snares inside to add some rattle or buzz to the sound. Some cajons have guitar strings as a snare, whereas some have an actual snare of drums inside. However, some cajon are purposely built without snares and sound quite woody and dry.

The body of the cajon consists of the other five sides of the box except for the tapa. It has a top, bottom, and two sides of 14 mm of thickness and a back of 4 mm of thickness. There should be a hole at the back for the air to escape from the box to make a high resonant sound. Usually, the rare hole is cut at the opposite of the tapa so the exit of the compressed air is direct and quick.

The assembly and construction

The front and back plates of 4 mm thickness are cut to the desired size and the edges are filed down. The thickness can go down to 2 to 3 mm depending on the material. After choosing from those two thin wood pieces that which one should be the front and which one the back, the rare hole is cut down from the back plate. The edges of the hole are filed properly as one can put a hand inside the hole to hold the cajon or place the microphone inside. After the front and the back are handled with care, it is time to drill the holes at the sides of the front and the backside. The back side gets drilled with holes on all of its sides. Holes on the front depending on the manufacturers. Some make glue the front with the body halfway up from the bottom. So the bottom half does not need to be screwed in that case. The hole is drilled at the distance from the rim of half the distance of the side plates. Now the edges of the holes are sanded down and with the help of a countersink cutter, the holes are made wider. This helps the head of the screw to sink completely into the surface and the wood will hold tighter. The screws in the front are fewer than on the backside as only the top of the tapa is screwed with the body. Another reason to use relatively fewer screws to make the top part of the tapa should be a bit loose to be able to swing and produce good sound. To start with the basic frame to glue, the base and one of the side is glued first. Then the top and other sides are glued. One must have a helper ready to hold the side as straight as possible while gluing. To strap ample pressure to the pieces while the glue is drying, carpentry clamps are used. The snares are attached before gluing the tapa. Depending upon what the snare is, the position and way of attaching vary. If a guitar string is used as a snare, it should be stretched at the back of the tape straight from the top to the bottom. Or diagonally at the top corners, roughly 3 inches from each corner on the top and on the sides. Drum snares usually are attached at the top.

Finally the front and the back pieces are applied as before. The back part is screwed at all sides. The front is screwed only at the top and halfway of the sides from the top in most cases. The feet are made from rubber or cork to have some cushioning surface at it will hold the weight. The top side corners are rounded down to make it comfortable to sit on. Finally, the instrument is decorated by coloring and adding designs on it.

So, types of snare in cajon went through several developments to become more than just a box instrument and were transformed into one of the most important percussion instruments in today’s world. One most greater of that development is having a “snare” inside the instrument. Whoever was or were the enthusiasts coming up with such a thought of repurposing an actual snare in a cajon to add a sizzle to the sound was no less than a genius as it brought a revolution to the cajon’s history and players’ experience with it as well.

Now before starting with the snare talk, let’s know about a few features of cajon that are solely associated with the build-ups of a snare. Basically, this box instrument has only three functioning sides out of six, from which the top side is used to be seated, the backside has a sound hole cut on it, and the face or the front part is the only striking side to be played. The face is made out of thin layers of plywood, called “tapa” which has the most important role in the sound texture and in having added snare stretched across its back. Now we know the fundamental construction of a cajon and where the snare is placed inside the instrument. As a percussionist strikes the tapa, the snare adds a buzzing effect to the sound that is produced by the tapa.

So, what a snare is? The literal meaning of snare is a length of wire that is stretched across a drum head to produce a rattling sound. Very prominently, the new-day drummers wanted to develop the cajon in a way that sounds like a drum as near as possible to replace drum kits with this convenient instrument and therefore repurposed drum snare into it. Although in cajon’s scenario, it’s not just a drum snare, it can also be guitar strings to make the buzzing sound. So there are 2 types of a snare. The least famous type of cajon is the one without a snare which is the Peruvian cajon. Usually for not being able to produce a rich sound that has a big range, these type of cajons tends to sound better when played together.

Guitar Strings as Snare

Since the time Paco de Lucia, one of the most famous flamenco guitarists ever took a cajon with him back to Spain, the instrument began its own whole new journey to the modern world. Having quite a similar sound to the staccato of flamenco music, cajon caught his eye with its wide possibility to become an integral part of flamenco music. Guitar strings were added vertically to the back of the tapa to produce a sizzle to the sound. The kind of sound it helps to produce is tighter and more precise than a Peruvian one. This type of snare gives room for more controlled and rapid playing. Tighter strings produce less buzz. Some cajon makers these days use beaded wires or bells attached to the wires. The string settings can be done in many ways. One of these is straight strings with or without bells. But the most relevant way is a diagonal setting of the strings across the top corners, as the players pointed out an issue that the snare would vibrate no matter where they strike the tapa. So strings that are stretched across the corners diagonally made them vibrate only when the top corners are played, leaving the bass totally buzz free and keeping the sound clean and deep.

Drum Snare

The snare cajons are named after the usage of a real drum snare inside the cajon. So the snare consists of the same tightly curled snare wires that are found on a snare drum. Each manufacturer has his own choice of a number of snares, depending upon the model as well but usually, two sets of the snare are found most commonly. Each snare is made of many little wires. The more the wires are in number, more the sizzle it adds to the sound. The snare wires can be arranged and positioned in many possible ways. Usually, the fixed snares are attached to the bracing or the “frame” of the cajon. These are the simplest to be made but cannot be adjusted or muted. The bar-mounted snare system spans from side to side inside a cajon, usually in the upper half. The stationary bar can be fixed or removable depending upon the manufacturer. The angle of the snare wire and distance from the tapa is determined carefully by the builder to maximize the snare sound. If the bar is removable, then the player must get off the cajon to reach inside to take it out. A great feature of an adjustable bar cajon is the control over the snare by adjusting the snare wires. It can simply be switched from a snare-off to a snare-on cajon by muting the snare. The adjustable cajon has a knob or pedal built to one side which allows changing the snare response by simply loosening or tightening the snare wires or string or brushes. This makes the cajon more flexible while having that drum snare slap sound on it. This type of snare doesn’t allow to produce a tighter sound but typically produces a wider sound and is therefore not suitable for highly technical playing, unlike a flamenco cajon. Despite this, cajons having drum snares are great for emulating a drum kit for the above-discussed reasons.

Even though these two types of snares are found the most, cajon builder these days are constantly trying out new things to push the boundaries to the edge and widen the possibilities of specializing snares in their own ways.