Category Archives: repair

general repair and restauration

Kanailal joint repair

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Kanailal jointA very fragile part of the sitar is the joint. It is the connection between the neck and the resonator. The neck (dandi) itself consists of two large parts: the flat top plate and the round bottom part. The resonator consists of three large parts: the gourd (tumba), the shoulder (gulu) and the top plate (tabli). The shoulder is a wooden part to which the gourd is attached and which serves as a connection to the neck. The shoulder and the neck are connected by a wooden part that is actually an extension of the neck and fits precisely into the shoulder. It is usually a round connection, but it can also be rectangular or trapezoidal. We call this part the joint. It is a crucial part that provides strength and stability to the entire instrument. It also bears the greatest tension of the instrument.

The joint can therefore easily break in an accident or come loose over time when the glue starts to fail. As long as there is no decoration over the junction, this can be easily noticed. Take a good look at the back of your instrument.

Other symptoms include a noticeable increase in action and/or the sympathetic strings starting to touch the first fret. You may also notice that the intonation is no longer correct and that you need to change the position of the frets. Stability in tuning is far gone…

Kanailal jointNow it is the turn of an old and rare Kanailal sitar. The photos speak for themselves…
As always, the work begins with the removal of all hardware: strings, frets, main bridges, tuning pegs, neck bridges and string attachment.

loosening screws
loosening screws
On an old instrument that was once assembled with hot glue, loosening screws can be difficult. In that case, it is sufficient to briefly heat the screw locally with a soft soldering iron. The glue will then soften and you can easily unscrew the screw.

Kanailal tabli
Kanailal open
Next, a large part of the decorative strips is removed so that we can access the glue edges.
The tabli comes off easily with a well-aimed chisel strike on the glue edge.

Kanailal dandi
Kanailal dandi
The same applies to the neck, but here we start at the top and insert wedges to keep the neck open and apply light pressure to the glue edge. It opens flawlessly…

Kanailal jointTime to take a good look at the actual joint. I was very surprised to find that this sitar had a different construction. Under normal circumstances, the joint is part of the neck section. The neck & joint are made entirely from a single piece of wood. But in this case, the joint appears to be a single separate piece of wood that is attached to the neck with glue and screws. I have never seen this before… except in the case of a repair where the original joint has been removed or broken off and replaced with a new piece of wood. (see other joint repair)

Kanailal joint
Kanailal joint
A strange situation, then…
Because the joint section on the shoulder seems to fit perfectly and be firmly attached, I decide to loosen it on the side of the neck. It is clearly less well fitted and more accessible there. These screws are also firmly attached, but cannot withstand the gentle heat of the soldering iron.

steamerI get out my steam machine and slide the steam nozzles into the gaps in the neck. Unfortunately, the connecting piece does not come loose. Only after three afternoons of steaming does it start to move. That is not normal either. Usually, this is done in a few hours, but here, warm glue has definitely not been used. More likely, a two-component epoxy-like substance has been used, which I cannot identify, but which indeed glues very hard.

twisted dandiNow that all the parts are separated, I can see the seriousness of the situation. The two parts of the neck are exceptionally curved and twisted. I fear that the normal repair method will not be sufficient to make it straight and sturdy again.

 

steam device

 

steam device

steam device
I decide to straighten both parts separately using steam. After a day of tinkering, I cobble together a steam-straightening device. It consists of two parallel plates on which the neck parts can be mounted on a perfectly straight surface. Between the two plates, I generate a good amount of steam, which then softens the wood via the inside of the neck parts and allows it to cool down again in its new straight position. It works! Both neck parts are nice and straight again.

Kanailal assembledFrom here, we can continue with the “traditional” method. Re-glue the parts, secure them with ropes, and allow the neck section to dry perfectly straight using a sturdy straight wooden beam. There is nothing new under the sun. (see previously neck bend repair)

Kanailal decoAfter sufficient drying and curing time, the hardware can be reinstalled: first the decorative strips, followed by a few coats of new shellac finish. Then the tuning pegs, neck bridges and main bridges, frets and finally new strings.
After doing jawari this Kanailal sitar is ready…

Kanailal readyIt remains a mystery to me why the joint piece consisted of a single piece of wood and was glued with modern synthetic glue. Could this sitar have had problems with its joint before and was it quickly repaired with this new type of glue? By whom? Who knows? Kanailal, the legend lives on…

Kanailal label

Barun Roy broken joint

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One day London based sitarist & composer Jonathan Mayer drove with his car straight from London to SiTAR FAcToRY in Belgium (+/- 8hrs drive). His favorite sitar, recently made by Barun Roy, has a severe joint problem. At first sight the joint has only loosened. A friend of him fixed it with some glue and a piece of metal with two screws over the cracked region and it worked fine for almost a year or so. But now the situation has changed. The crack has opened again and the sitar became unplayable.
JointThe photo clearly shows a very large crack and the neck feels very loose. So I start dismantling the instrument. All the strings, frets, bridges and tuning pegs are removed and neatly stored away. Then all the decoration has to be removed so that I can safely and clearly start the splitting process. But it doesn’t get that far right away. With a little bit of movement and prying, I notice that the joint is actually broken. Suddenly I am left with two parts in my hands.
Clearly broken…
Now we are sure that the sitar has to be completely dismantled and a new joint has to be made.
Splitting the parts goes very smoothly. Barun Roy used the right type of glue.
I don’t have to waste any time loosening the joint because it’s broken anyway. So I can just cut away the remains.
Then I look for a suitable piece of wood to make a new joint. I still have some first-class mahogany lying around and immediately cut a nice piece out of it. Then a very difficult part begins. From that rectangular piece of wood, I now have to make two matching curves that are also tilted at an angle of a few degrees. With a lot of patience and calm, it will be fine.
The gluing can begin. First, glue the piece to the lower half of the neck. Allow it to dry and harden sufficiently, then fit the piece to the neck and glue it in place.
That’s the hardest part done. The tabli can be placed on the tumba and the top plate of the neck can be put back in place.
After allowing some extra drying time, all the decoration is put back in place. The celluloid is held securely in place with glue and bamboo nails. Then all the empty spaces between the body and celluloid must be filled with coloured wax. After the wax has hardened, the excess wax can be scraped off and the lacquer finish is thoroughly cleaned with popote.
Finally pardas, kuntis, ghodi & new strings…

 

See other Joint repair cases on SiTAR FAcToRY here.

Kabul 1900 sitar restoration – Pt2

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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.

Kabul sitar restored

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 of frets used on this old instrument is almost impossible to find anymore. They are flat metal (bronze or brass) strips with a rounded top and 2 gutters on either side of the rounded top. The fixing wires can run into those.

Kabul sitar restored

I don’t know a thing about metalworking. So it was thought to outsource this job to someone else. After some research, Matyas found a German goldsmith who was willing to make 4. This job took a very long time (-1 year) and the result was very disappointing. The material used was very different from the originals and the gutters for attaching the strings were simply unusable. Very unfortunate but back to square one!!!

Around that time, I happened to get to know Kees Verbeek from Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He builds a nice surbahar himself and had a few questions about it. I note on his business card that he is actually also a bronze caster. Assuming that these old frets were made of bronze, I presented Kees with the project and asked him if he could take a look at recreating such frets for us.

Kees was very enthusiastic and I sent him 2 original ones. He immediately set to work. The material eventually turned out to be brass, not bronze, and Kees managed to recreate 4 new ones in no time.

He had a sheet of brass lying around at the right thickness, cut strips out of it and rolled the shape into it. Then he filed in the gutters with fine needle files and finished them seamlessly.

Apart from the fact that they were made recently and thus still have a noticeable new metal sheen, they are barely distinguishable from the originals.

Wonderful work by Kees Verbeek!

Meanwhile, I made 2 new bridges from first-class quality bone. Or rather bridges, as the instrument does seem quite a bit smaller than an ordinary modern sitar. Although remarkably: the length and the scale have remained almost the same. And, the instrument weighs only 1.32 Kg, which is very little compared to a present-day sitar that easily weighs over 2.34 Kg.

This brings us steadily to the finishing touches. Matyas wants to play it and, as the instrument is very lightly built, we choose a light, thin stringing in a rather low tuning C. For details, see the overview of the Kabul 1900 sitar string set / tuning chart.

Once we agree on these details, I can start fitting the frets. First, I put on a baj string and a jora string. That’s enough to start setting and binding the frets. The position of the frets is determined by the tuning. Little adjustment to the height and position of the bridge is needed to achieve a workable fret distribution. Since this old type of sitar has only 17 frets, the positions for Komal RE, Komal GA and Komal DHA initially remain empty. Even the high Komal NI is not provided permanently.

Once all the frets are in position I check everything again. Finally, the rest of the strings go on. The new Kabul sitar sounds soft and very lively. Matyas will be pleased…

If you would like to see, hear and read more, take a look at the marvellous report on this sitar, which you can find on Matyas’ outstanding website: Antique Kabuli sitar.

Kabul 1900 sitar string set / tuning chart :

1. Baj – steel wire 0,28mm / N°2 tuned to F3
2. Jora – bronze wire 0,37mm / N°28 tuned to C3
3. Jora – bronze wire 0,37mm / N°28 tuned to C3
4. Laraj – bronze wire 0,46mm / N°26 tuned to G3
5. Pancham – steel wire 0,25mm / N°0  tuned to G4
6. Cikari – steel wire 0,19mm / N°000 tuned to C5
7. Cikari – steel wire 0,19mm / N°000 tuned to C6
0. Taravs – steel wire 0,19mm / N°000

Kabul 1900 sitar restoration – Pt1

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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.

Kabul sitar origin

The sitar was nicknamed Kabul sitar. It is probably +/- 110 years old…

There was a small crack (about 7cm) in the neck and the strings would have to be replaced. ‘It is in an uncleaned and unrestored storage condition’ reads the description.

In May 2023, the Kabul sitar arrived here in my shop, along with the Ilyas Khan sitar I previously restored for Matyas .

It soon turned out that it did have more going on than the original description indicated.

Besides the small crack and the old worn strings, it also turned out that the neck was well bent. At least 4 frets were missing and most of the tuning pegs needed a lot of attention. The bridges also had to be renewed.

In this section, I describe the work on the body. Mainly woodwork, in other words. In the next part, the metal fittings, the bridges and finishing and tuning will be covered.

We start with the body. The neck is noticeably well warped. This is easy to see when all the hardware is removed. So it needs to be opened up and straightened again.


There was already a crack in the neck, just on the line of separation between the 2 parts of the neck, and so opening it up goes pretty smoothly. The glue is very old and breaks easily. Still, the job has to be done very carefully. It is a very fragile instrument.

And yes, once opened there are a few striking things to see. The neck is made extremely thin, and the lower, round, part has an unusual thickness gradient. The front, which holds the tuning knobs, has a thickness of 5 to 6 mm and tapers to a thin 2.2 to 3 mm on the other side. The top flat plate is only 3 to 4 mm thick.

I also note that there are very small holes in the wood of the neck, most likely cavities of woodworms. There is no trace of the worms themselves, fortunately, and the damage does not seem to be too bad.

I also notice an additional crack in the side of the neck. This could not be seen on the outside, but it has certainly weakened the neck well. Now that the neck is open, this is an excellent time to repair this crack properly.

Then the time has come to close the lid again. I leave a small signature and after a final look at the nevertheless finely flowing and evenly finished inside, the pieces go back together. Everything still fits perfectly.

After a few days of good drying, the heavy solid straight beam and ropes can come off and we get a perfectly straight neck again. The kabul sitar is on its way of return.

Kabul sitar return

Then it’s the pegs’ turn. There are 8 main pegs on it for the main strings and 11 tarav pegs for the sympathetic strings. Of the 5 main pegs present, only 3 seem usable and 1 is missing. Of the 2 cikari pegs, only 1 is usable. We then start combining the good and usable pieces and use the head of the too-short one to make a new fitting one.


Then I dive into my box of old (discarded?) specimens and find 2 similar pieces whose head I can update. In this way, I put together a full, fitting set of large pegs. In the meantime, that looks good.

1 cikari peg I then have to replicate myself. I start again from an old scrapped peg, taken from a very old sitar from Bangladesh. After some sawing, filing and sanding, a nice new one emerges. I give it some dents and bumps and finish it so that it is indistinguishable from the others.


This is followed by checking the tarav pegs. It becomes a real puzzle because most of them are so worn that they keep coming loose and no longer fit. I then decide to combine these pegs with new internal bushings. See the previously demonstrated method here. All in all, it’s not too bad. I only need to replicate 1 new tarav peg. For that, see the same procedure as for the cikari pegs. The cikari pegs and tarav pegs are very similar, and in fact almost interchangeable. The only difference is the location of the hole where to attach the string. On the cikari pegs, it is outside the neck, and on the tarav pegs, that hole is on the area that is inside the neck.


So much for the first part. All wooden parts are complete and checked for proper functioning. The instrument is ready for the finishing phase. See part two on this Kabul sitar restoration soon.

Tom Thumb sitar

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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 a “Tom Thumb sitar” sounds good, I guess…. 😉

Anyway, the little instrument did need some cleaning and repair work before anything could be done with it. The bridge was missing and a few tuning pegs were broken. Other than that, it wasn’t too bad. So, I made a new bridge out of a tarav bridge and found some old matching tarav kuntis.

Tom Thumb has 10 pardas, 5 taravs and possibly up to 7 main strings. The scale is only 36cms, the body is 55cms long and the tabli 14cms wide. The neck is only 5.4cms wide. The ‘tumba’ is probably all wood, with a good bit of plastering to get it nice and round. Otherwise complete with simple decoration on celluloid, just like its big brothers & sisters!

Tom Thumb sitar string set / tuning chart (example):

1. steel wire 0,28mm / N°2 tuned to A#4
2. bronze wire 0,37mm / N°28 tuned to C#3
3. bronze wire 0,46mm / N°26 tuned to G#3
4. steel wire 0,23mm / N°0  tuned to G#4
5. steel wire 0,19mm / N°000 tuned to C#5
6. steel wire 0,19mm / N°000 tuned to C#6
Taravs: steel wire 0,19mm / N°000

Lost Paloma

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This old Paloma sitar had been found in an attic. How long it stood there is not clear, but it may have been a while…. Paloma is a registered brand of Haribhau Vishwanath Diwane who distributed sitars from various builders under it. They are rather somewhat cheaper mid-range sitars for everyone. But there are also hidden gems among them. Who eventually made this sitar I don’t know, but it is definitely well made, and fitted with full decoration.

She has undergone a full restoration and is ready to please another sitar player. She is also very suitable for the committed beginner.

Now for sale on this site (click here).

Rikhi Ram necklace 75′ restoration

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[ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]An original Rikhi Ram necklace Sitar from around 1975 needs a complete restoration:

– The neck is bended and needs straightening.
– There is a crack in the top of the neck that needs repair.
– A large tuning peg is broken and needs to be replaced.
– The optical condition of the instrument needs to be renewed.
– All the frets should be re-tied.
– The instrument needs to be completely re-stringed.
– Any faults found should be fixed.
– And, of course, jawari needs to be done on the instrument.[/ezcol_1half_end]

Here then is a photo report of the work carried out:

 

More neck bend repair can be found here.

Hemen tumba repair with K&K Big Twin internal mount

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Yet another Hemen sitar crosses my path. This time with a seriously broken tumba and damaged lacquer.
There is a big hole in the tumba and fortunately all the pieces are still in it. It will be “puzzling” again.
Because the hole is so big, it seems like an excellent opportunity to also build a transducer internally in this sitar. 🙂
We are already going for a K&K sound Big Twin internal.

The jack connector will be built a bit further up the tumba to achieve more comfortable accessibility.


Because the tumba is rather thin and weak, I make a rounded wooden support that is glued firmly to the inside of the tumba. This way, the connection can take a bit of rough handling….


Then the two transducers are glued to the tabli on the inside. I provide a small piece of white cotton soaked in white wood glue to secure the wiring.
Once this assembly is successful, the various tumba parts are glued until the puzzle is complete. However, one small piece is missing. The hole is filled with a mixture of wood dust, plaster and wood glue.

This is followed by further finishing of the tumba with colour and the whole instrument is given another coat of finishing shellac polish.


The pardas are polished and re-tied, kuntis are cleaned and treated with chalk, new strings put on and jawari done… and there we go.

Read here an article about mounting K&K Big Twin internal external

Read here an article about mounting K&K Pure 12-String internal

Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt2

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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 to see from the photos that this is a fairly large second tumba. Not surprising for sitar of this class. I myself do not have any tumbas in stock, nor can I make them just like that. But for some time now, I have been working regularly with Mohammad Waseem Maner, a young and talented sitar maker from Miraj. I asked him if he could then make a replica of this missing second tumba for us. “Yes. Sir I will do the needful” was his prompt reply and so it happened.

The new second tumba arrived just in time to still be mounted on the fully repaired instrument. And, Waseem did a sterling job. The cut-outs in the woodwork match those of the original perfectly.

Following are some photos of the finished instrument.

Time to dwell for a moment on the unusual bridge on the head of the neck.

It is widely known that traditionally built sitars do easily suffer from anomalous intonation. This is especially noticeable with the Laraj Kharaj strings. Modern western instruments are often equipped with options to adjust the length of each string separately so that one can achieve quasi-perfect intonation. But that is not easy to achieve on a simple construction like a sitar.

Many sitar maestros started experimenting with an extra bridge added to the bridge at the head of the neck. The construction found on this instrument takes the crown. At first, only the length of the Laraj Kharaj string was adjusted. In principle, that should have sufficed, but apparently it could have been even better. An extra bridge was added later. This time, the Jora string was included in the adjustment.

The result is impressive, though. The intonation of this sitar is one of the cleanest I have ever heard. Once the new strings were fitted and the instrument was given a first tuning, it was noticeable that all the strings can be played quasi right on the fret. Very special, especially then with the Laraj Kharaj….

Only drawback Matyas quickly found was that the Kharaj, when played open, easily tended to go into an excessive buzz. This is not surprising given the actual width of this extra bridge on the headstock. The problem was remedied by turning in the accompanying screw a little deeper, though. But whether this will hold up in the longer term Matyas can tell us soon….
In any case, this sitar is ready for a new start with a promising young sitarist Matyas Wolter. And they lived happily ever after together…. 😉

Those who would like to hear this sitar in the hands of its master please visit Matyas playlist of Ustad Ilyas Khan’s music on his archival YouTube site:

Ustad ILYAS KHAN: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvP9MFDf6jaLLvf-4xvUVTsIEkpm3hOsL

Those who would like to hear this restored sitar in the hands of Matyas himself listen here:

Matyas Wolter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SA9T4OYYrI

Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt1

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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 tabli and neck plate and tighten all loose points
> If it is opened once anyways, maybe it could be tried to straighten the neck???!!!
B. Cosmetics:
> Spot repair of torn polish spot in front of lower bridge leg on the tabli
> Spot repair of gourd pimples
C. Setup:
> All obvious works: fret binding & setting, new strings etc
> Original Horn bridge adjustment, and (possibly after neck repair) heightening

Since this is a larger project, I have split the report into 2 parts. Below is the first part concerning basic repair:

The sitar almost fell apart by itself. It had once been glued with rohlam, a traditional wood glue made from a mixture of wheat flour, lime and copper sulphur. After a (long) time, it came apart easily.

So taking the instrument apart wasn’t too bad. The neck came off easily with a couple of scrapers inserted and almost immediately the whole tabli came off too.

Matyas had noted earlier that the tabli was probably loose, and that was no overstatement.
The joint on the other hand was still firmly attached, but once the 4 screws were loosened, it too came apart perfectly.

By special request from Matyas, I have put a message to the inside of the neck plate:

“This sitar was made by Hiren Roy of Calcutta in the early 1960’s for Ustad Ilyas Khan of Lucknow and was his main sitar until he passed away in 1989. Thereafter his son Idris Khan took care of it. After Idris’ demise in 2013 Ilyas Khan’s nephew Ustad Irfan Khan of Calcutta took over. He passed the instrument on to his German disciple Matyas Wolter in 2023. It was completely restored for a new life by Klaas Janssens at Sitarfactory / Belgium in 2023.”

The various parts were then well cleaned and cleared of rohlan residue. I then glued them back together with modern hide glue. First up was the neck as it was slightly warped. Then the tabli was put back on. Everything was fixed and held as per the traditional way, with rope…

After a few days of drying, the next step came: the tumba. Matyas had noticed strange bulges, gourd pimples, on the surface and now a little later I came to a peculiar discovery. There were screws under the surface. Due to the effect of rust, and probably also the metal expanding and contracting, slight bulges formed on them over time.

I had never experienced this construction before and still wonder about the purpose of these screws. I can only imagine that they served to help improve the natural shapes of the harvested pumpkin so that it could be made nice and round. The screws probably served to hold the various cuts firmly together again. This is no longer necessary with today’s modern wood glues, which make a good solid joint.

As you can see from the photos, quite a few adjustments were made. I then removed all the bulges, cleaned them well and then gave them a new coat of wood glue/wood dust mixture.

Finally, after this exceptional job, the finishing procedure follows: tumba colouring, body polishing, fitting frets and bridges and finally new strings on… Because the neck is now nicely straight again, the height of the strings changes and so the height of the bridge has to be adjusted as well.

A second report will come soon with more info and photos of the final result.

This sitar still has a mystery… click here for the second part.