Proper maintenance is essential to keep a sitar playing and sounding at its best. At SiTAR FAcToRY I have gathered practical information based on more than 30 years of experience with sitar maintenance, setup and adjustment.
Below you will find information about tuning, jawari, intonation, bridge work, body cleaning and useful tools, with practical explanations and techniques for maintaining and fine-tuning your instrument.
I have just bought my first sitar ( at last after 40 years !!) I discovered that it had been badly set up with the frets in the wrong place,wrong gauge of strings. It was a Singh from Mumbai. How good are these for a beginner? How good is the construction. It has a pumpkin body and a 2nd resonant gourd and the sound is not too bad but hardly celestial. The low C on the 4th string buzzes like crazy but the other strings are quite closed. I want a more open sound and liked your article on bridge adjustments. I would like to know where in the UK, preferably near Liverpool I could get it set up for the first time. Great site. Invaluable source of info.
I am so happy read through your website. I have 2 sitars made by KartarChand when he was alive. Hari ji is truly a gentle and very great guy. I still go to him for all my sitar needs.
Thank you for this website. One of a kind.. Waiting for demonstration on how to make a perfect jawari.