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…
My Last See-Tar
A random photoreport on the making of my latest and last plexiglass See-Tar. Read more about the making here: The See-Tar story … and here: 2 more Plexitars
Another tumba horror
Very similar to this previous “tumba horror” case, I received another one. The tumba has been broken into several bigger parts and then glued together with an unknown compound. I have no idea what happened to this beautiful instrument but it is clear that the defect has not really…
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’…
Mayur sitar with K&K transducer
This new Mayur sitar, made by Waseem Maner, Miraj 2022, belongs to Visjal Auwerx. K&K Sound make natural-sounding acoustic amplification products and affordable pickups. Their Pure Pickup for acoustic guitars, installed on the guitar’s bridge plate, is a very good choice for achieving a rich, natural guitar sound —…
Sitanpura in F
Another very good looking but cheap and inferior sitar has been transformed into a tanpura, giving it a new life. It is an old and beautiful body with a nice and big tumba. This time I converted it into a regular 4-string female tanpura, tuned to F. The mounted…
Juma Mankas
I’ve made a set of mankas and one tarav ghoraj for Zach Ferrara. They are made out of golden dragon snake Juma® blocs. Juma® – the name stands for independently developed and very modern processing material made from a mixture of various mineral base materials, bound in a resin…
Tumba Horror
A while ago, I received this mail: Hallo, I got the chance to buy an old Rikhi Ram GP Sitar for 40€ only (the 60yo sellers dad died and she kept it since~30yrs ago so I would guess 1970s or 80s). The sitar looks very good and has the…
Baritone sitar – lute on a visit
Recently, David Keustermans visited me @ Sitarfactory. He came to Belgium to show his latest sitar with some pride, and rightly so. Please read on for more details about his wonderful sitar. David started building it in october 2017 @ CMB (Centre for Musical Instrument Building – Puurs, Belgium),…
Rudra Veena repair
This anonymous rudra veena was found by my friend Guillaume CZLT in Bombay Pekin Bruxelles, a shop for second-hand furniture in Brussels. It was quite badly damaged. One of the tumbas was badly broken, the main bridge had been torn off and lost, and all the frets had been…
Tiny Tanpura
A tiny tanpura tuned in F. She almost fits in your inside pocket. Doing jawari & mounting new strings as usual… (note jawari without threads). The scale measures 59cm only and the string set is: 1: 0,58mm brass RW string tuned to C3 2: 0,37mm bronze string tuned to…
Kunti Hole Bushing
A sitar tuning peg or “kunti” works on the basis of friction. The peg is conically ground and is clamped into a conical hole. After some time, the surfaces will wear out and the peg will go deeper and deeper into the hole. Eventually it comes out deeper and…