I chose this cabasa because the beads seemed to be slightly looser than on other models, which allows for a shaker-like technique. However, even with the beads hitting the cylinder from a slightly bigger distance when shaking, the sound is not quite as loud as I would like.
The non-metal parts are made of wood and have a natural finish which I like.
The beads are indeed oily as other reviews said.
After a week of light use at home a ring of beads came off. 2 other weeks and the handle went loose. The handle can no longer be tightened enough so the cabasa has been sitting in my drawer, unusable, and never made it to a live session.
The reason for these problems lies in 2 fundamental construction errors (it could be just the one I got that was poorly constructed). First, the cylinder is larger than the circle sticking out from the centre of the wooden top and bottom, so the cylinder can move around, get closer to one side and allow the bead rings to fall off. Second, the threaded rod in the handle and the nut in the wooden top are too short - they only connect in half a centimeter so the threading in the end of the nut will wear off easily.
I am planning to fix the handle myself if I can get a longer nut or a threaded rod and a connector nut. I've recently seen a cabasa with shaker filling, so I might also experiment with putting some filling in mine to make the shaking sound louder.
