Playing an electric sitar gives some weird possibilities.
Watch this Niladri Kumar on the electric highway.
Playing an electric sitar gives some weird possibilities.
Watch this Niladri Kumar on the electric highway.
A very special and most beautiful series of sitars and surbahars made by Dieter Zarnitz.
The tumba is replaced by a wooden construction as used in traditional western lute making. Neck and body are made from flamed maple, with old air-dried pine soundboard. The head and curl are made of rosewood, the tuning pegs are made from ebony.
But, all I’ve ever heard about the man who builds these beauties is this flyer, taken by my friend Bert Cornelis at a concert in Aachen (Germany).
Sitar, Surbahar & Tanpura
Dieter Zarnitz
Gutenbergstr. 40
31139 Hildesheim
Tel: 05121/2043815
dieter.zarnitz@htp-tel.de
Jay Scott Hackleman and late Kartar Chand Sharma
21 years ago Jay Scott Hackleman was so very lucky to be able to spend a whole year in the very special company of some of the world’s finest traditional sitarmakers, Kartar Chand & Hari Chand Sharma.
He wrote a profound article about his apprenticeship in the shop of Late Kartar Chand which has originally been published in The Journal of The Guilds of American Luthiers N°67 in 2002.
Hari Chand often talked to me about this “very fine young American person”. He showed me many pictures in his much used and thumb marked album. And during one of my last visits Hariji proudly presented me a beautiful copy from this unique article written by Jay. It’s a real extensive documentary (4,13Mb pdf), made with sincere care and love. Thank You So Much, Jay.
Today Tineke found a website about his present-day work.
Seen at the annual top-event of music-industry in California :
Look at the similarities to my solid body sitar.
Or, check here: blog categories sitar making.
The start of a big glueing job…
Continue reading →
Some time ago Nik G. asked me to modify this Simon & Patrick guitar into a sarod…
but first a little damage had to be repaired… Continue reading →
Here is the translation of “how to make mizrab” section taken from an old “teach yourself sitar” manual.
Or, try this alternative animated demonstration .
Here is my ” how to make mizrab ” ( .wmv, 683kB ) instructions, which I’ve learned from Hari Chand.
And, the last step 7 = “Mizrab stretch out” can be done like this:
If you can read Hindi, please find some more details here. 🙂
Found some pictures of my Martin 01, which I made at CMB, Puurs, 1998 – 2000.
The guitar has a beautiful head of walnutroot-veneer.
As it was my first own built acoustic instrument, it took me 2 years to finish it. Body made out of rosewood, cedar top plate, Honduras mahogany neck and fretboard in ebony. Rosette with abalone…