↓
 

Sitar Factory

sitarfactory.be is a casual magazine about sitar making and repair

  • Projects
    • Hybrid Sitar, a real Guitar Sitar
    • See-Tar, the Plexiglass Sitar
    • New style sitars SAS & SBS
    • The Solid Body Sitar
    • Sitar Mods
    • Restoration
  • Repairs
    • Joint Repair
    • Kunti Repair
    • Kunti Bushing
    • Neck Bend Repair
    • Tarav Mogara Repair
    • Tumba Repair
  • Maintenance
    • Body Cleaning
    • Jawari
    • Tools
      • Floor bench vice
      • Gauge Meter
      • String Wire Conversion
    • Tuning
  • Resources
    • Sitar Factory Shop
      • other for sale
    • Hari Chand’s shop
      • Kartar Chand Hari Chand history
    • Kartar Chand’s shop
    • Indian Music Teachers
    • Sitar Buying Tips
    • Info
  • Contact
<< 1 2 3 >>

Author Archives: Ananda

Post navigation

<< 1 2 3 >>

Sitanpura, the Sitar Tanpura mod

Sitar Factory Posted on Friday, 12 March 2021 by AnandaFriday, 12 March 2021

Good news for the thousands of “tourist”-grade cheap and crappy sitars, bought in India by trusting tourists eager for buying a “real” sitar as a souvenir. For many of them there is life after years of exile to the attic: the sitanpura is born!

I turned this old innocent banished beauty into a real full-fledged 5-string tanpura. And, it is also very flexible because it can be quickly converted into a regular 4-string tanpura. You only have to remove 1 string and put the remaining ones into another slot. You’re done…

Only one skill remains: jawari. Making the ghodi, installing it on the tabli, adjusting the angle and “doing jawari”. But also this can be learned by doing… with patience and persistance…

Sound sample: Play PA-ni-sa-sa-SA Sitanpura

The string set is
1: 0,56mm bronze string tuned to G#2
2: 0,41mm bronze string tuned to C3
3: 0,41mm bronze string tuned to C#3
4: 0,41mm bronze string tuned to C#3
5: 0,76mm brass wound string tuned to C#2

Posted in listen, making, varia | Tagged SitarMods, Tanpura | 3 Replies

Benares tanpura repair

Sitar Factory Posted on Monday, 1 February 2021 by AnandaThursday, 11 March 2021

One day I received a quite damaged and almost demolished tanpura. “Children have been playing with it…” was the comment of the owner. I wonder what game they have been playing, but it was certainly not a peaceful game. Or, at least at some time it went out of hands… as one can say?

The tanpura seems to be an old instrument, bought in Benares in the 70’s. It shows already some diligent life-signs, sensations and similar repairs. As such the gourd looks impressive. I will aim to maintain this mood. Just regain its spirit. That’s where it’s ever made for…

I started to remove every worn leftover hardware piece and glued all the cracks in the wooden body. There were many! And, even the tabli has completely come loose.

I restored some deco’s and took advantage of the situation to create some extra goodie carved into the celluloïd: an OM sign, in the middle of a simple repetitive circular design …

After that, some body cleaning and leveling has been performed followed by rough color matching. Mahogany as well as gulanagari red have been applied before, so I used it again now. Followed by a thin and fresh new protective shellac finish layer, treated with bee wax to regain it’s aged expression.

Doing jawari & mounting new strings to conclude…

Note: this is a large female size (35inch) tanpura.

Sound sample: Play Benares tanpura

The scale (open string length) of this slim instrument is 90cms and it is tuned to F#.

The string set is
1: 0,41mm bronze string tuned to C#3
2: 0,30mm steel string tuned to F#3
3: 0,30mm steel string tuned to F#3
4: 0,56mm bronze string tuned to F#2

Posted in listen, repair, varia | Tagged Restoration, SitarRepair, Tanpura | Leave a reply

2 more Plexitar sitars

Sitar Factory Posted on Sunday, 6 December 2020 by AnandaMonday, 29 August 2022

This year I’ve completed 2 plexiglass sitars. They are 100% See-Tar cloned replicas according to the original Purbayan Chatterjee copy as seen here on this site.

Sound sample:
Play Plexitar on AER Compact 60 amp

Comes with a solid AUER CP 12416 Protective case Pro with locks & wheels in beautiful “blutorange” (vermilion) color.

Posted in curiosity, listen, making | Tagged electric, ForSale, fusion, plexiglass, See-Tar, SitarMaking, varisitari | 2 Replies

SBS-02, with 3 Lipstick pickups

Sitar Factory Posted on Friday, 13 November 2020 by AnandaMonday, 29 August 2022

I have improved the sound of my solid body sitar SBS-O2. I added one Lipstick ‘bridge’- pickup to the combination. The earlier 2 ‘neck’-pickups can be switched in parallel or in series and now smoothly be mixed with the additional ‘bridge’ pickup by means of one of the pot-meters. All the pickups are Seymour Duncan types and the sound possibilities are divers and very inspiring.

Sound sample:
Play SBS-02 & SH101

You hear SBS-02 thru an Orange CRUSH20 distorted amp accompanied by a Roland SH101 synth in a random modulation (complex tanpura) mode …

Note: May not be entirely suitable for pure ICM… 😉

CURRENTLY ONE FOR SALE @ SITAR FACTORY SHOP

Posted in listen, making | Tagged electric, ForSale, fusion, Lipstick, SBS, SitarMaking | 1 Reply

Drowned Sitar

Sitar Factory Posted on Friday, 13 December 2019 by AnandaThursday, 12 December 2019

More than one year ago, an awfull sitar was brought to me. At first sight it looked like it was burnt, but actually it was only drowned for some time. This sitar was stored in a basement which has been filled with water due to an inundation. Only after some time it has been rescued and luckily it was protected by a good fiber case. All the strings and hardware got ruined. The damage to the tumba was horrible but the neck seemed to have endured the misadventure well.


I removed all the hardware and pegs and started to let the sitar rest and dry up completely for almost one year. Then, after some time, the tumba’s lacquer finish started to peel off. So, I removed everything which was hanging some loose and made a new build-up. Fortunately it was a decent tumba, sturdy and round. Then colouring and a fresh full-scale shellac finish finally made it look like a new… real good Srishti Musical sitar.

Posted in repair | Tagged SitarRepair, SrishtiMusical, tumba | 6 Replies

Tabli Info

Sitar Factory Posted on Friday, 15 March 2019 by AnandaFriday, 15 March 2019

Dear friends, please hereby find some info about different styles of tabli. Clicking on the pictures will show up a drawing presenting the thickness (in mm) on different locations of the tabli and a zoom showing details of the surface finishing on the backside. Notice the increased thickness at the jawaris section to prevent indent on the surface.

1. Kartar Chand RS style 1980 Tun wood

2. Naskar RS style Teak wood

3. Hari Chand RS style 2005 Tun wood

4. Rikhi Ram VK style 1970 Tun wood

5. Unknown 1980 RS style Tun wood

6. SAS-02 New style 2008 Walnut wood

Posted in making | Tagged SitarMaking, tabli | 2 Replies

More Dieter Zarnitz ghoraj

Sitar Factory Posted on Wednesday, 1 November 2017 by AnandaWednesday, 21 July 2021

A new set of ghorajs made by Dieter Zarnitz. The wood comes from leftover pieces of a construction.
“Cumaru” is a very fine, hard and durable construction-wood. “Angelim Amargoso” is very heavy and rougher than Cumaru. Both grow in South America. The colour you see is the natural one. The setting (“jawari“) can be done at the Sitar Factory (Belgium) or at Dieter’s house (Germany).

You can contact Dieter Zarnitz via e-mail (click here).

Posted in making, varia | Tagged ghoraj, Jawari | 2 Replies

Tumba Pics

Sitar Factory Posted on Sunday, 30 July 2017 by AnandaMonday, 16 November 2020

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4

Posted in repair | Leave a reply

Vicitra Veena massacre

Sitar Factory Posted on Friday, 16 December 2016 by AnandaFriday, 25 February 2022

… without words …

Technical info on strings & tuning:
Baj tar: steel 0,37mm (N°5) tuned to F#2 (MA)
Sa tar: bronze 0,46mm (N°26) tuned to C#2 (SA)
PA tar: bronze 0,56mm (N°24) tuned to G#2 (PA)
Laraj: bronze 0,72mm (N°22) tuned to C#1 (SA)
Kharaj: flatwound bronze 0,92mm (N°20) tuned to G#1 (SA)
Cikari’s: steel 0,30mm (N°3) & 0.28 (N°2) tuned to C#3 (SA) & C#4 (SA)
Tarav’s: steel 0,28mm (N°2)

Posted in curiosity, repair | Tagged SitarRepair, veena | 1 Reply

Hybrid Sitar mod

Sitar Factory Posted on Wednesday, 3 August 2016 by AnandaSaturday, 1 May 2021

… the ultimate guitar for sitarists …

Frédéric t’Serstevens is a young and talented sitarist and disciple of Shubhendra Rao and Kushal Das. Since in the beginning he was a dedicated (bass) guitarplayer, he came up with this rather common idea to convert a sitar into a guitar. But now in a suitable and really original way: why not make the accompanying strings, jora, laraj & kharaj, entirely playable on the full neck area?
On traditional sitars, it is common that these strings only can be played (without meend) up to the 4th, 5th, … 7th parda. From then onwards, very frequently, intonation problems occur due to a continuously and significantly increasing strings action. This means that the distance between the string and the frets (pardas) increases too much, and thus the played notes become higher… until unplayable.

The solution is very simple: reduce the strings action by changing the shape of the pardas.

original shape (Rikhi Ram)

hybrid shape (Sitar Factory)

With this kind of new hybrid pardas, mounted on a raised parda lane, the action on the strings is higly reduced. And as such coming very close to a near perfect intonation, comparable to a guitar:

Now even chords can be played perfectly on this instrument… making it the extreme sitar for guitarists, or,… reverse ?? Or just: the ultimate hybrid sitar… 🙂

For more details, please read (on this site): The modification of an acoustic travel sitar into an electric hybrid guitar-sitar.

Posted in varia | Tagged fusion, guitar, Hybrid, parda, SitarMaking, SitarMods, varisitari | 1 Reply

Post navigation

<< 1 2 3 >>

Vishwakarma

unloaded picture, try CTRL + F5

FOR SALE @ SITARFACTORY SHOP:

Sitarfactory Sitars for sale

(click here)

OR

other Sitar, Surbahar & Tanpura for sale

(click here)
 

+++ MUST SEE +++

A photo report about the making of...

A Hybrid Sitar

... the ultimate guitar for sitarists

The See-Tar

... a sitar in plexiglass


Blog Tags

cikari Concerts eco electric ForSale fusion ghoraj guitar HariChand HirenRoy India Jawari JazzSitar joint Jora Kanailal KartarChand kharaj Kunti Lipstick lutherie Mizrab neck parda Pathak plexiglass RajMusicals Restoration RikhiRam Sarod SAS SBS See-Tar SherMohammad SitarMaking SitarMods SitarRepair steelstring Surbahar Tanpura tarav tumba tuning varisitari veena

Categories

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Ananda on other for sale
  • Fahim Khan on other for sale
  • Luis C. on How to make a Mizrab … in one minute
  • bob the record guy on Electric Zeetar
  • bob the record guy on Electric Zeetar
  • bob the record guy on Electric Zeetar
  • kyle lane on Electric Zeetar

India Soundscapes

Play
Stop
Next»
«Prev
HIDE PLAYLIST
launch POP-OUT PLAYER

Listen to India Soundscapes in popout player

Sitar Makers Links

  • Kartar Chand Dhiman
  • Hansraj Sharma
  • Waseem Maner
  • Naeem Naushad
  • Altab Mehboob
  • Ajay Sharma
  • Sanjay Sharma
  • Hari Chand Sharma
  • Hari Chand's shop
  • Dieter Zarnitz
  • Green Onion Sitars
  • Solid Body Sitar
  • Solid Body Sitar
  • Alan Arthur Suits
  • Tony Karasek
  • Jay Scott Hackleman
  • Harry Shaffer
  • Chandrakantha
  • Vintage Sitars

Lutherie Links

  • CMB
  • MIMF
  • GUL
  • FRETS

Sitar Sale Links

  • Sitarfactory.be
  • Raincitymusic.com
  • India-instruments.de
  • Sitar Buying Tips

Friends Sites

  • Moviganta
  • Flugzeug Music Art Design
  • Débloque-Notes
  • Sitar Music
  • Sitarplayer.be
  • Shivoham
  • Manoj Gautam
  • Wannes
  • Music Fund
  • CSA
  • Wervel
  • Low Tech magazine
  • The Meatrix
  • MO
  • Planktone

Login

  • Log in
©2023 - Sitar Factory
↑ Scroll