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Tag Archives: Kunti

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Kabul 1900 sitar restoration – Pt1

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Thursday, 1 May 2025 by AnandaMonday, 12 May 2025

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.

Posted in curiosity, repair | Tagged Kunti, neck, Restoration, varisitari | 1 Reply

New Narka series

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Wednesday, 11 September 2024 by AnandaSaturday, 15 March 2025

I made a new set of narkas, this time from the wood of an old broomstick (aspen wood). They are done in different colours and a new SiTAR FAcToRY logo is burnt on them. My dear neighbour girl Felien Swillen is very handy with a small wood burner. She burnt the new logo into the wood with razor-sharp precision. The result is impressive.


The mouth of the narka is inlaid with recycled African buffalo leather. This way, the kuntis are not damaged. The outside is finished with shellac polish.

Read a report on making a stagghorn narka here.

Posted in making, varia | Tagged Kunti, narka, tarav, tuning | Leave a reply

Staghorn Narka

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Monday, 21 August 2023 by AnandaSaturday, 24 August 2024

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’ homes: deer horn antlers as hunting trophies. You can’t do much with them, but for a sitar player you can make a beautiful and useful tool with them.


First choose in a nice and fitting piece, and cut the end generously. Then I make a tapered slot corresponding to the width of the taravs to be operated. A hole is then drilled into it to fit the ornamental tip of the tuning knob, and then I also make the tapered slot suitably concave so that it fits nicely over the tuning knob.


At the end, the edges are gently rounded.

Posted in curiosity, varia | Tagged Kunti, narka, tarav, tuning | Leave a reply

Kunti Hole Bushing

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Thursday, 14 April 2022 by AnandaSaturday, 16 April 2022


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 deeper on the other side.

Usually the sitar pegs are made of a hard wood (ebony or rosewood or sheesham) and thus the hole in the neck, which is made of a softer wood (tun or teak), will wear out.

Time to mount new pegs that are a bit thicker. But actually there is nothing wrong with the original tuning pegs. A solution is to provide the holes with a new layer: the kunti bushing.
For this you can use sandpaper of a good quality. The back side, which is made of strong paper, can serve as a layer of wood while the rough sanding side provides an excellent adhesion inside the hole.

It is a matter of cutting out a well-fitting piece of sandpaper and gluing it properly into the hole. Make sure that the sandpaper fits perfectly and does not overlap. Also make sure that no glue gets between the kunti and the bushing. The glue should only be sitting between the rough sandpaper-side and the hole in the neck.

You can use the peg itself to fit the sandpaper in the hole and as a clamp to keep the sandpaper in place while drying.
When everything is dry, you can cut away the excess piece of sandpaper with a sharp chisel.

In this way, the original pegs can continue to be used.

Keep in mind that this bushing will have to be replaced after a while. The paper will wear out faster than the wood of the neck. It is best to look out for professional quality sandpaper. Then you will be at ease for a long time!

 

See more at this new Repairs-page: Kunti Bushing

Posted in repair | Tagged Kunti, neck, SitarRepair, tuning | 3 Replies

Kunti Bushing

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Thursday, 14 April 2022 by AnandaFriday, 15 April 2022

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 deeper on the other side.


Usually the sitar pegs are made of a hard wood (ebony or rosewood or sheesham) and thus the hole in the neck, which is made of a softer wood (tun or teak), will wear out.
Time to mount new pegs that are a bit thicker. But actually there is nothing wrong with the original tuning pegs. A solution is to provide the holes with a new layer: the kunti bushing.


For this you can use sandpaper of a good professional quality. The back side, which is made of strong paper, can serve as a layer of wood while the rough sanding side provides an excellent adhesion inside the hole.
It is a matter of cutting out a well-fitting piece of sandpaper and gluing it properly into the hole. Make sure that the sandpaper fits perfectly and does not overlap. Also make sure that no glue gets between the kunti and the bushing. The glue should only be sitting between the rough sandpaper-side and the hole in the neck.


You can use the peg itself to fit the sandpaper in the hole and as a clamp to keep the sandpaper in place while drying.


When everything is dry, you can cut away the excess piece of sandpaper with a sharp chisel.

In this way, the original pegs can continue to be used. Keep in mind that this bushing will have to be replaced after a while. The paper will wear out faster than the wood of the neck. It is best to look out for professional quality sandpaper. Then you will be at ease for a long time!

2 Replies

Surbahar Kunti Repair

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Friday, 4 April 2014 by AnandaMonday, 9 June 2025

Photo report of a Kanailal & Brother surbahar kunti repair. 

The main kuntis of this surbahar are very specific. The surface is smooth and only cut with a saw. Original Kanailal replacement kuntis are hard to find. When it is broken, repair is the most obvious solution. In this case it affects a cikari kunti. Note the peculiar position on the neck: it is mounted between the first and second tarav kunti.

Kuntis are made out of sheesham (sissam) wood. This is a variety of Indian rosewood (Dalbergia sisso) which grows in the Himalayan foothills to Central and South India. Surbahar kuntis are rather long. I used a 18cms long piece for this work.

1. Start with looking for a suitable piece of wood.

2. Cut the ball with a saw, sand the surface smoothly and mark the center precisely.

3. Drill a hole exactly in the center. (8mm diameter)
4. Make this hole square with a chisel.

5. Make one end of the piece of wood square as well (8x8mm) and make it fit exactly into the ball.

6. Apply wood glue and lock it into a clamp. Give sufficient time to completely dry out. (24hrs min.)
7. Remove the clamp and start making the shaft round.

8. Finish the joint and make the kunti fit nicely into the instruments neck.

9. Apply some new lacquer (Shellac) over the joint and fix the original deco pin on top.

See more kunti repair here.

Posted in repair | Tagged Kanai Lal, Kunti, SitarRepair, Surbahar | 2 Replies

Sitar Mod: adding 4th cikari, the alternative way…

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Tuesday, 24 April 2012 by AnandaTuesday, 5 January 2016

Another young and dedicated Ashok Pathak sishya came to me with this old Hiren Roy sitar. The question came up again: Can you add an extra cikari string to this precious vintage sitar in order to meet the Balaram Pathak Garana style specifications?Since I am not so much in favour of starting to drill holes in old and valuable instruments, I decided to introduce an alternative way. Just as I did before with an old and beautiful Kartar Chand surbahar, I proposed to use the first tarav kuti to mount the 4th cikari string (high SA). This sitar came with 13 tarav strings. So then now 12 are left, which finally should be a good compromise…?

Doing so, the workflow is highly reduced to the making and installing of a new cikari pin which can hold 2 cikari strings & re-organising the existing cikari string positions and adding an extra cikari string slide on the jiwari. Also the original last cikari string post (high SA) has to be replaced by a new pin.

Also read: Sitar Mod: adding 4th cikari.

Posted in making, playing | Tagged cikari, Hiren Roy, Kunti, Pathak, SitarMods | Leave a reply

Sitar Mod: adding 4th cikari

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Tuesday, 1 February 2011 by AnandaTuesday, 24 April 2012

On a special demand from a young and dedicated Ashok Pathak sishya I’ve been adding an extra cikari string to his Rikhi Ram sitar in order to meet the Pathak Garana style specifications.

Here is the workflow: 1) Selecting and preparing a new kuti. 2) Marking and drilling the holes. 3) Fine tuning and fitting the new kuti. 4) Re-organising the existing cikari string positions and adding an extra cikari string slide on the jiwari.

5) Making and installing a new cikari pin which can hold 2 cikari strings. 6) Installing the string.

The general 4 cikari tuning is Pa Sa Sa Sa, but this can alter according to the raga you’ll play.

Posted in making, playing | Tagged cikari, Kunti, Pathak, SitarMods | Leave a reply

Kartar Chand sitar restoration

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Wednesday, 5 January 2011 by AnandaThursday, 21 March 2013

This early 70’s original Kartar Chand sitar just left the restoration booth. Complete body check-up and new polish has been done by late Kartar’s brother Hari Chand in New Delhi in march 2009 while I was there on a visit. The celluloid mother of pearl imitation parda lanes have been renewed. My part of the job was to refurbish the original pardas and fit them again on the new lanes. I also made and fit new stagghorn jiwaris for main strings and taravs. The original tuning pegs were used again but some taravkuti-holes needed a new bushing.

Note the very fine finger grips on these taravkutis and also the remarkable cherry-round tumba-shape which is very typical on all Kartar Chand’s sitars.

This sitar sounds amazingly bright and has a vivid tarav response. The meends play very easy and the instrument is very light-weighted.

Posted in repair | Tagged Hari Chand, Kartar Chand, Kunti, Restoration, SitarRepair, tumba | 1 Reply

Broken Kunti

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on Wednesday, 2 January 2008 by AnandaTuesday, 31 December 2024

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It happens that a kunti, old or new, breaks. Most of the time, these can be repaired easily…

See the new page on Kunti Repair at “blog pages / repairs”.

Posted in repair | Tagged Kunti, SitarRepair | Leave a reply

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