Tarav strip
Day 50: Mounted all 24 pardas on this SAS-01. It’s a very delicate and time-consuming job: first accurate bending and height adjustment followed by binding the pardas. Day 51: After tuning the sitar properly, I put the pardas to their regular position. Then I draw a map, localizing the…
Soundholes
Yesterday I took an exciting decision: drill soundholes, or not …??
Meanwhile there are even some pardas mounted.
Assembling the SBS-02
The assembly of the body is now complete with strings and frets. Finally to be followed by installing the pickups and electronics … Day 46: First mounted the patri (comb), langoot (tail mount) and 5 main machine heads. After putting the jiwari the strings could be placed, followed by…
Finishing the body
We have now arrived at a final stage. The whole body of SBS-02 is nearly ready for assembly …
Transition
meanwhile, just a taster…
Joint Repair II cont”d
The joint has been fitted and glued again. On the left hand side you can see some adjustment strips sitting between the joint and the body. Then the tabli is glued to the body. A rope is used to keep the tabli fixed and under sufficient pressure at regular…
Parda lanes
Here we go again …
Day 41 en 42: Making and glueing the parda lanes. These are long and thin strips located on the sides of the neck to hold the pardas.
Joint Repair II cont’d
… after some time the glue became softened and the joint can be removed.
Now, the wooden parts need some time to dry thoroughly.
Joint Repair II
This old Rikhi Ram is having a problem: the joint got loose. I handled the same problem before on another (left – handed) RR sitar. On that occasion I made a new joint which took a lot of work to make it fit perfectly. Now I turned an old…
Jiwari 1997
Watch this video, made by my friend Denis on 29/05/1997 at my home in Bierbeek. At that time I’ve been inviting Hari Chand for the first time in Belgium and we temporarily turned the living room into a small improvised sitar workshop. On this video Hariji is doing jiwari…
Dieter Zarnitz
A very special and most beautiful series of sitars and surbahars made by Dieter Zarnitz. The tumba is replaced by a wooden construction as used in traditional western lute making. Neck and body are made from flamed maple, with old air-dried pine soundboard. The head and curl are made…