Kabul 1900 sitar restoration – Pt2
In a first part, you can learn about this particular ancient instrument, baptised the Kabul sitar, and read a description of how to check and repair the body and make the missing wooden parts. At that time, it was already clear that other important parts were also missing: at least 4 frets had disappeared and, since the intention was to make this a playable instrument again, new bridges also had to be built. The type…
Kabul 1900 sitar restoration – Pt1
In April 2020, Matyas Wolter stumbled upon some very old Indian musical instruments for sale on ebay in southern Germany. His eye fell on one of them. The description indicated that the instrument was bought in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the mid-1970s. At that time it was already considered old, the seller told him. It was a part of a small local museum in southern Germany from 1985-2017. The sitar was nicknamed Kabul sitar. It is…
Tom Thumb sitar
A person encounters all sorts of things in life, and so too in the sitar world. I knew that there are children’s sitars (mini sitar or baby sitar) that can also be played, but I had never seen such a gem before. What would you call it? A tiny toy sitar? But it seems more then only a toy designed to me, which you can then actually play on (if you want to). Calling it…
Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt2
Foto from left to right: Idris Khan – sitar, Ustad Ilyas Khan – sitar, Tadahiro Wakabayashi – tanpura. Foto © T. Wakabayashi This is the follow-up report to a project on the restoration of a special Hiren Roy sitar. Click here for the first part. Below is the second part concerning the result: The original second tumba is missing. This is very unfortunate for a sitar that is around 60 years old. It is easy…
Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt1
There is a very special sitar on my workbench. Special in many ways because it belonged to Ustad Ilyas Khan (1924-1989), a lesser known but highly skilled and deserving sitar player, born in Lucknow to a family of musicians. His father belonged to the Shahjahanpur gharana. This unique Hiren Roy sitar now belongs to German sitarist Matyas Wolter. In spring 2023, he sent me for a list of problems: A. Structural Issues: > Open the…
Staghorn Narka
I made a narka out of Belgian stag horn. This is a tuning aid to comfortably and finely tune the taravs, the sympathetic strings on a sitar. A deer antler hung on the wall. You can find them at old flea markets, or nailed to the wall at hunters’ homes: deer horn antlers as hunting trophies. You can’t do much with them, but for a sitar player you can make a beautiful and useful tool…
Makhan Lal Roy sitar surbahar repair
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…
Rikhi Ram 70’s restoration
Early 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…
2 more Plexitar sitars
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: Comes with a solid AUER CP 12416 Protective case Pro with locks & wheels in beautiful “blutorange” (vermilion) color.
Vicitra Veena massacre
… 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)
The See-Tar
Last week Friday, 19/06/2015, I’ve delivered this electric plexiglass sitar to Purbayan Chatterjee. One year has passed since he had asked me to build this instrument for him (May 2014). Initially I found it a weird idea and honestly, I didn’t favour the choice of plexiglass because of the rather unknown and synthetic nature of this material (modified PMMA / Polymethyl methacrylate). In general I prefer working on wood, rather than with plastics. But the…
Belgisk – Dansk Veena Guitar
Here is another unique combination: a fusion between a guitar and a veena. The concept has been developed and build by Shintai who was born in Belgium and now lives in Denmark. He frequently plays meditative concerts on this remarkable instrument. Basically the instrument consists of a bass guitar-neck fitted on an acoustic guitar body. It has 7 main strings, 12 taravs & 23 specially shaped pardas. The 5 highest notes, located on…