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Tag Archives: Restoration

Kartar Chand vintage sitar repair

Sitar Factory Posted on Thursday, 27 December 2012 by AnandaTuesday, 5 January 2016

In 2009, Hari Chand presented me an old sitar which has been originally made by him and his brother, late Kartar Chand, in the 1970’s. The sitar suffered severely from a loose joint due to “an unfortunate fall from a kitchen table”…, dixit the former owner. How peculiar that no other parts of the instrument were  broken. Since the owner wasn’t interested in this sitar anymore I was the lucky one to receive it.


During the second half of this year I finally found the time to repair and fully restore this instrument. Here are some pictures about the more spectacular part of the process. For this occasion I installed my home-made steam injector again. It has been serving me well in the past (click here), although its use is not always completely without risk. The steam can be very tricky and cause severe burns quickly. But everything went well. As for the joint itself: the wood was split at 2 positions due to an earlier joint adjustment. That’s why I decided to insert a completely new piece of wood.

Now this sitar is completely repaired and carefully renovated, ready to start a new life. It is a very light weight instrument, decorated in a very refined and exquisite way. There are 20 pardas, 12 taravs and a high quality staghorn jawari. The sound is superb, bright and clear, with an incredible tarav response. Well-known qualities for all sitars built by these two excellent craftsmen-brothers!

Posted in repair | Tagged joint, KartarChand, Restoration, SitarRepair | 2 Replies

Naskar tun sitar

Sitar Factory Posted on Monday, 19 September 2011 by AnandaTuesday, 27 August 2013

Old Naskar so called “teak sitar…??” turns out to be a regular tun sitar. This sitar has been repaired from a loose joint and twisted neck. Also the tabli has been lowered and the neck has been finished in an open pore look with 6 layers of Danish oil. Almost full restoration… see pics after:

Posted in repair | Tagged joint, Naskar, neck, Restoration, SitarRepair | 1 Reply

Naskar teak sitar…??

Sitar Factory Posted on Wednesday, 10 August 2011 by AnandaThursday, 21 March 2013

before and during restoration, a few “inside” views…:

Posted in repair | Tagged joint, Naskar, neck, Restoration, SitarRepair | 1 Reply

Kartar Chand sitar restoration

Sitar Factory Posted on Wednesday, 5 January 2011 by AnandaThursday, 21 March 2013

This early 70’s original Kartar Chand sitar just left the restoration booth. Complete body check-up and new polish has been done by late Kartar’s brother Hari Chand in New Delhi in march 2009 while I was there on a visit. The celluloid mother of pearl imitation parda lanes have been renewed. My part of the job was to refurbish the original pardas and fit them again on the new lanes. I also made and fit new stagghorn jiwaris for main strings and taravs. The original tuning pegs were used again but some taravkuti-holes needed a new bushing.

Note the very fine finger grips on these taravkutis and also the remarkable cherry-round tumba-shape which is very typical on all Kartar Chand’s sitars.

This sitar sounds amazingly bright and has a vivid tarav response. The meends play very easy and the instrument is very light-weighted.

Posted in repair | Tagged HariChand, KartarChand, Kuti, Restoration, SitarRepair, tumba | 1 Reply

New pardas on Hiren Roy

Sitar Factory Posted on Wednesday, 12 August 2009 by AnandaThursday, 26 September 2013

This old Hiren Roy sitar, brought to me by Arnoud E. needs new pardas and some small repair work. Arnoud provided a full set of new pardas made by Hiren Roy Company, but some of them were made too short. Thus I decided to reuse a selection of the old pardas and fitted them at the end (the last 4, nearest to jiwari).

Also some body cleaning has been performed and together with new strings and fresh jiwari this sitar is ready for another life… finally almost a complete restoration.

Posted in maintenance, repair | Tagged HirenRoy, parda, Restoration, SitarRepair | 2 Replies

Joint Repair II

Sitar Factory Posted on Monday, 12 May 2008 by AnandaSaturday, 25 November 2017

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This old Rikhi Ram is having a problem: the joint got loose.

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I handled the same problem before on another (left – handed) RR sitar. On that occasion I made a new joint which took a lot of work to make it fit perfectly. Now I turned an old pressure cooker into a steam generator which is used for removing and loosening the animal glue.

First step is to open the sitar :

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Then I drilled a fine hole in the corner area of the joint in which the needles will blast their steam.

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I add water to the pressure cooker and have the power switched on …

steam generator

to be continued here

Posted in repair | Tagged joint, Restoration, RikhiRam, SitarRepair | 2 Replies

Tanpura Restored

Sitar Factory Posted on Monday, 17 September 2007 by AnandaMonday, 16 November 2020

Eventually even the restoration of an anonymous tanpura gets finished…

Sound sample: Play Listen how it sounds !!

  • atelier
  • celluloid
  • celluloid
  • birdie
  • celluloid
  • celluloid
  • polish
  • polish remove
  • polish remove
  • polish remove
  • celluloid
  • tanpura ready
Posted in listen, maintenance | Tagged Restoration, Tanpura | 1 Reply

Restoration of old Bina Musicals sitar

Sitar Factory Posted on Saturday, 7 April 2007 by AnandaThursday, 21 March 2013

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This 40 years old Bina Musicals sitar came in for repair.

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Continue reading →

Posted in repair | Tagged BinaMusicals, popote, Restoration, SitarRepair, tumba | 2 Replies

Vishwakarma

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A photo report about the making of...

A Hybrid Sitar

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The See-Tar

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