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.
The 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…
