Comments

Dead notes — 9 Comments

  1. I have observed sitar makers all over India, especially in Benares where I lived over ten years, but I never heard them talk or demonstrate about dead notes. I think this is a western luthier’s concept.

    • The original weight of the bridge is 39g. But this Elforyn™ bridge is slightly smaller than a normal bridge. Normal high grade sitar bridges weigh average 43g (bone), 54g (stagghorn), 41g (ebony)…

  2. Hi Ananda, I have tried this on my sitar and I think it has also slightly increased sustain in the middle of the neck….. I am always looking for that little bit more sustain when playing alap style meend with murkhi….. i am quite sure it has added sustain……. am i deluding myself or could adding weights to the bridge explain this? The weight I used was 46g (i just used a clip on dunlop guitar capo).
    Thanks
    Adam

    • Hello Adam, thank you for your report. Your experience is correct. Sustain is inherently directly proportional to the weight (and stiffness of the system). If you add weight to the head of the sitar you will also experience more sustain… but also more weight to carry!! And, unfortunately, sometimes loss in low frequency response.

  3. Hello Ananda,

    thanks very much for this article. The result sounds amazing.
    I’m playing sitar for many years (Pathak gharana).I own 3 sitars, all with the same resonance problem, so i will try your technique and will tell you about the results

    regards
    Jacques Platenkamp
    Wolvega – the Netherlands

  4. Great article and congratulations. Due to your work the process is now clear. Of course every sitar will be different and more experiments are necessary but in time I’m sure you will receive more valuable data from colleagues involved with this problem. Then the process can become more refined and accurate.
    Thank you Ananda for your great work, you’re a real source of inspiration.
    Warm regards, Toss Levy

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>