Meinl AE-CAJ5 Cajón Lava Burl Artisan

General

The AE-CAJ5 Artisan cajon is a hand percussion instrument that you play while seated on top of it. This originally Peruvian instrument is now manufactured in Meinl's facilities in Spain. It is a very popular instrument for accompanying other musicians during smaller-scale gigs, which is why it has been gaining popularity.

Anatomy of a cajon

The cajon is basically a sound box that you sit on. It's made of nine plies of birch, while the frontplate is made of cedar wood with a lava burl finish. You can use it to produce a wide array of sounds, partly thanks to the ten pre-tuned snare wires inside the body. Combined with the integrated bass filter, which compresses the sound, these snare wires give the cajon its snare drum-like sound. The sound that the cajon produces escapes through the sound port on the back of the body. As mentioned before, the cajon is an instrument that you sit on. Therefore, to prevent the bottom of the cajon from being damaged as you move it around, it is fitted with four special rubber feet.