White Tanpura
Inspired by the white sitar mod i’ve painted this tanpurabody also in white using Bio Pin™ waterbased organic white paint and Colortone™ high gloss waterbased finish. The patri, jawari and mankas are all made from Elforyn™, a modern synthetic ivory substitute. So also this one became a real “organic…
Right to left hand modification
Modifying a sitar from right-hand play to left-hand play… It is not easy to find a suitable sitar if you are left-handed and want to engage yourself into the world of sitar playing. There are good left-hand sitars for sale, but they are very rare and if you find…
Travel Sitar Mods (3B) … the white sitar
After finalizing the structural rough woodwork on the travel sitar body (see Part 1 = Travel Sitar Mods (3A)) the final acts are: completing the body finish and preparing and installing the sitar hardware such as godi (jawari), machine heads, strings, pardas and eventually an electro-magnetic pickup. I’ve painted the…
Sitar Mods
White Travel Sitar mod, 2012
Sitar Mod: adding 4th cikari, the alternative way…
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…
Surbahar Mod: adding 4th cikari
Adding an extra cikari string to this old Kartar Chand surbahar to meet the Balaram Pathak Garana style requirements. No new cikari kuti will be installed because of the surbahar neck construction. The imposant surbahar’s head is jointed to the neck. Therefore it is not obvious to drill an…
Sitar Mod: adding 4th cikari
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…
Travel Sitar Mods (3A)
Both Rikhi Ram brothers Ajay & Sanjay, and after them many others, make and sell this handy and compact sitar. Some call it “Ovation” sitar, some call it “Studio” sitar and also “Travel” sitar is commonly used for this successful innovative musical instrument. Commercially it is a succes. No…
Travel Sitar Mods (2)
This modification I made to Mark B’s Travel sitar because he was unable to play the jora tar comfortably. The steel wire jora tar, although open correctly tuned, sounded too high while playing a note on the pardas. I added a fibre intonation block to the jora tar, just…
Travel Sitar Mods (1)
I ‘ve made some simple and interesting technical modifications to Frederic T’s new travel sitar. He has bought it last year in New Delhi. 1) I have installed Schaller™ M6 mini machine heads. These run so much more smooth and accurate then the rather cheap and crappy original machines.…
Soundholes
Yesterday I took an exciting decision: drill soundholes, or not …??
Meanwhile there are even some pardas mounted.
Sarod Guitar / modification
Here’s the renewed fretless fingerboard. The first step was to pull out the frets. This precise job was securely done by my colleague Frans Ieven. Many thanks to him !!! Then I filled up the gaps with some plain veneer. The new fretless surface, after sanding and some layers…