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Author Archives: Ananda

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Hari Chand

Sitar Factory Posted on Wednesday, 16 February 2022 by AnandaThursday, 25 August 2022

One of my dearest friends and guru, Hari Chand, passed away yesterday. He reached the age of 87. All what you can read on this site, I’ve learned from him. I am eternally grateful to him and my thoughts go out to him and his family and friends.

Death is not extinguishing the light,
it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come. (R.Tagore)

History
Shop closed

Posted in me & i | Tagged HariChand | 4 Replies

Makhan Lal Roy sitar surbahar repair

Sitar Factory Posted on Wednesday, 2 February 2022 by AnandaThursday, 24 February 2022

Here is an old and worn Makhan Lal Roy & Son sitar with numerous defects coming to my shop. It is a very rare surbahar style sitar with very little decoration. I have no idea about the age of this sober beauty but she has clearly been through a lot.

View the main list of defects:

    • Neck plate is loose
    • Joint is loose
    • Pardas are worn
    • Pegs are worn & greasy
    • Tarav holes are broken
    • Tarav mount on tabli is broken
    • Lacquer on tumba is damaged

Additionally there are a few small things to do and finally new strings to be mounted & jawari done…

Unfortunately the owner decided not to have repaired everything at once. The cost is too high. The original tarav strings mount remains broken and the strings itself are attached to the main string mount as done on ordinary sitars, across the tabli. The lacquer has been cleaned thoroughly but remains as is. So I expect this sitar back sooner or later… but for now she is ready to be played on again.

Posted in curiosity, maintenance, repair | Tagged MakhanLal, SitarRepair | Leave a reply

Surtanpura, a Surbahar Tanpura mod

Sitar Factory Posted on Monday, 31 January 2022 by AnandaMonday, 31 January 2022

Following the Sitanpura, here is now a surbahar transformed into a 5-string tanpura. This one has a mini swarmandal facility with 13 strings under the main strings (= the former taravs). The lazy Gurusoundz products are good for something after all… 😉 This surtanpura sounds awesome.

The scale measures 106cm and the string set is:
1: 0,56mm bronze string tuned to G#2
2: 0,46mm steel string tuned to C#3
3: 0,46mm steel string tuned to C#3
4: 0,46mm steel string tuned to C#3
5: 0,76mm brass string tuned to C#2

Long live recycling! 😉 Listen… :

Sound sample: Play PA-sa-sa-sa-SA Surtanpura

Posted in varia | Tagged SitarMods, Surbahar, Tanpura | Leave a reply

Hiren Roy 70’s refurbish

Sitar Factory Posted on Wednesday, 21 July 2021 by AnandaWednesday, 21 July 2021

Hiren Roy 70’s refurbished…

Peeling tumba & crack repair with color change…

before

after

New jawari ghoraj mounted…

Dieter Zarnitz jawari ghoraj with Cumaru top & Angelim Amargoso feet installed.

 

Pardas added…

Added RE komal & DHA komal, 23 pardas in total.

  • front
  • front tabli
  • tumba
  • front head
  • second tumba
  • front deco
  • tabli
  • ghoraj

Posted in repair, varia | Tagged ghoraj, HirenRoy, parda, Restoration, tumba | 3 Replies

Rikhi Ram 70’s restoration

Sitar Factory Posted on Friday, 16 April 2021 by AnandaTuesday, 12 July 2022

Michel DumontEarly 1970, Michel Dumont (Musician, flutist, graduate of the conservatories of Brussels and Valencienne, who became a theatre and opera decorator at La Monnaie/De Munt) together with his wife Martine Mergeay (journalist and music reviewer at La Libre Belgique, Le Vif/L’Express and Musiq3) went to India to explore and learn about Indian Classical Music. They meet Ravi Shankar and purchase a sitar at the Rikhi Ram shop in New Delhi. They stay one year in Benares and face a profound study about raga in instrumental (Michel) as well as in vocal (Martine) techniques.

Last year (2020) unfortunately Michel passed away after suffering a long disease. His sitar remains alone…

It finally arrives on my table. It has clearly not been played on for a long time. The strings and pardas are rusted and there is a lot of dust on the body. The lacquer on the soundboard has been severely cracked and there is a dull and matte appearance to the whole instrument. The decorations are faded out.

Then I quickly started to remove all the worn parts and the pardas. The lacquer was well sanded and given a new layer of varnish. The decorations were then carefully and neatly scraped off. Then I cleaned and polished all the pardas and put them back on with new orange wires. The tuning pegs, too, were given a thorough cleaning and were given a good layer of fresh chalk. The original label was missing, so I copied it by hand as was common in those days. The sitar is also getting a new stagghorn jawari ghoraj and, of course, new strings. This extraordinary sitar is now ready for a new life…

And it is one of the best-sounding sitars I have ever held in my hands. The tarav response is exceptional and the tone is particularly well balanced. It is made of exquisite teak wood in an era when a new instrument was still built with great care and of course, by one of the most passionate and experienced builders in India…

See here the result:

  • front
  • front low
  • front tabli
  • deco
  • front top
  • label
  • tumba
  • tumba 2

Posted in curiosity, repair | Tagged Restoration, RikhiRam | 3 Replies

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

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