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),…
Engravings on Elforyn
Elforyn™ is a modern synthetic ivory substitute and can easily be engraved. The technique is identical to traditional decorative engravings on real ivory, bone, celluloid and plastics. You only need a “pencil” with a hard and sharp end, coloured wax and a scraper. The pencil can be made out…
First Karasek sitar
Tony Karasek, an american performing artist and technician with 30 years experience in instrument repairs and maintenance has finally made his first sitar. He writes: “Due to increased market demand, the quality level of Indian instruments currently being produced has suffered significantly. (I made a living for years repairing…
Indian floor bench vice
Ever seen these low, rigid and robuste wooden tables with a vice ? It’s a clever and easy idea… to provide your universal bench vice with a stable and ergonomic base. It makes this handy basic tool so much more versatile. It’s a very useful tool for lots of…
Sitar factory near Kolkata
Watch this video from Mr Simonggill about present-day sitar making in Calcutta. Here the real work is done…!! These small factories almost cover the worldwide production of sitars. They produce prefab sitarbodies for all well-known sitar makers such as both Rikhi Ram’s, Hiren Roy, Srishty Musical, RA Sitarmaker, Hari…
Gibson EB-3L
During my learning school at Centrum voor MuziekinstrumentenBouw, CMB, at Puurs, Belgium, in 2000 I made a Gibson EB-3L replica. I’ve choosen this electric bass because of the unique and original “slotted head” construction which I applied later to my new style sitars SAS-01 etc… This guitar has a…
Dieter Zarnitz Surbahar
Watch this impressive and beautiful surbahar, made by German luthier Dieter Zarnitz. Neck and body are made from flamed maple, the soundboard is made from old pine, the tuning pegs are from ebony… Download Dieter’s pdf brochure (1Mb) to have a detailed and closer look at the making of…
