Kevin Cloud -> Master-quality cajones from Berkeley Box Works (Aug. 5 2012 21:54:24)
Hola Flamencos! I make master-quality cajones in Berkeley, California. Luthier Stephen Faulk suggested I join the foro and share a little about my instruments and cajones in general... I've been studying and building cajones since 2006. After decades as a musician and woodsmith, and a few years building Celtic harps with Chris Caswell, I still had to build about 15 cajones before I started to feel happy with the results. Since then I've made and sold about 150, and at this point I believe there is no finer high-end Doble-style cajón than a Berkeley Box... www.berkeleyboxworks.com ... I also produce simpler instruments for students and casual players.
My instruments are not the modern flamenco style a la Mario Cortés. The Doble-style is like the flamenco-style but built more solidly, with a 12mm 4-sided shell, two glued heads and the sound hole on one side. The glued heads (front and back) couple acoustically for a powerful bass tone, and the Berkeley Box snares are uniquely engineered to allow adjustment or replacement without compromising bass-tone. My instruments are designed to be super-responsive to finger-tip playing, allowing a wide pallette of very rich tones even at very low volume. My pro-level instruments go for around $4-500 US, and I don't believe you can find a finer Doble-style cajón anywhere.
Here's Tobias demo-ing a Torino, our most high-pitched model
...and Aharon demos the mid-pitched Tenor ErgoBox, also showing the bongo/conga tones of the 2nd playing-head:
It's an honor to present to this forum: please contact us if you're interested in a really great cajón!
Gracias, Kevin Cloud
Dave K -> RE: Master-quality cajones from Berkeley Box Works (Aug. 6 2012 0:13:05)
Sounds great, but did you know this is a flamenco forum???
Kevin Cloud -> RE: Master-quality cajones from Berkeley Box Works (Aug. 6 2012 0:32:39)
Yes, Dave, I did. The name Foro Flamenco was kind of a giveaway ;-)
