Tag Archives: neck

Kabul 1900 sitar restoration – Pt1

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on by

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.

Rikhi Ram necklace 75′ restoration

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on by
[ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]An original Rikhi Ram necklace Sitar from around 1975 needs a complete restoration:

– The neck is bended and needs straightening.
– There is a crack in the top of the neck that needs repair.
– A large tuning peg is broken and needs to be replaced.
– The optical condition of the instrument needs to be renewed.
– All the frets should be re-tied.
– The instrument needs to be completely re-stringed.
– Any faults found should be fixed.
– And, of course, jawari needs to be done on the instrument.[/ezcol_1half_end]

Here then is a photo report of the work carried out:

 

More neck bend repair can be found here.

Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt2

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on by

Foto from left to right: Idris Khan – sitar, Ustad Ilyas Khan – sitar, Tadahiro Wakabayashi – tanpura.
Foto © T. Wakabayashi 

This is the follow-up report to a project on the restoration of a special Hiren Roy sitar. Click here for the  first part. Below is the second part concerning the result:

The original second tumba is missing. This is very unfortunate for a sitar that is around 60 years old. It is easy to see from the photos that this is a fairly large second tumba. Not surprising for sitar of this class. I myself do not have any tumbas in stock, nor can I make them just like that. But for some time now, I have been working regularly with Mohammad Waseem Maner, a young and talented sitar maker from Miraj. I asked him if he could then make a replica of this missing second tumba for us. “Yes. Sir I will do the needful” was his prompt reply and so it happened.

The new second tumba arrived just in time to still be mounted on the fully repaired instrument. And, Waseem did a sterling job. The cut-outs in the woodwork match those of the original perfectly.

Following are some photos of the finished instrument.

Time to dwell for a moment on the unusual bridge on the head of the neck.

It is widely known that traditionally built sitars do easily suffer from anomalous intonation. This is especially noticeable with the Laraj Kharaj strings. Modern western instruments are often equipped with options to adjust the length of each string separately so that one can achieve quasi-perfect intonation. But that is not easy to achieve on a simple construction like a sitar.

Many sitar maestros started experimenting with an extra bridge added to the bridge at the head of the neck. The construction found on this instrument takes the crown. At first, only the length of the Laraj Kharaj string was adjusted. In principle, that should have sufficed, but apparently it could have been even better. An extra bridge was added later. This time, the Jora string was included in the adjustment.

The result is impressive, though. The intonation of this sitar is one of the cleanest I have ever heard. Once the new strings were fitted and the instrument was given a first tuning, it was noticeable that all the strings can be played quasi right on the fret. Very special, especially then with the Laraj Kharaj….

Only drawback Matyas quickly found was that the Kharaj, when played open, easily tended to go into an excessive buzz. This is not surprising given the actual width of this extra bridge on the headstock. The problem was remedied by turning in the accompanying screw a little deeper, though. But whether this will hold up in the longer term Matyas can tell us soon….
In any case, this sitar is ready for a new start with a promising young sitarist Matyas Wolter. And they lived happily ever after together…. 😉

Those who would like to hear this sitar in the hands of its master please visit Matyas playlist of Ustad Ilyas Khan’s music on his archival YouTube site:

Ustad ILYAS KHAN: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvP9MFDf6jaLLvf-4xvUVTsIEkpm3hOsL

Those who would like to hear this restored sitar in the hands of Matyas himself listen here:

Matyas Wolter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SA9T4OYYrI

Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt1

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on by

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 Roy sitar now belongs to German sitarist Matyas Wolter. In spring 2023, he sent me for a list of problems:

A. Structural Issues:
> Open the tabli and neck plate and tighten all loose points
> If it is opened once anyways, maybe it could be tried to straighten the neck???!!!
B. Cosmetics:
> Spot repair of torn polish spot in front of lower bridge leg on the tabli
> Spot repair of gourd pimples
C. Setup:
> All obvious works: fret binding & setting, new strings etc
> Original Horn bridge adjustment, and (possibly after neck repair) heightening

Since this is a larger project, I have split the report into 2 parts. Below is the first part concerning basic repair:

The sitar almost fell apart by itself. It had once been glued with rohlam, a traditional wood glue made from a mixture of wheat flour, lime and copper sulphur. After a (long) time, it came apart easily.

So taking the instrument apart wasn’t too bad. The neck came off easily with a couple of scrapers inserted and almost immediately the whole tabli came off too.

Matyas had noted earlier that the tabli was probably loose, and that was no overstatement.
The joint on the other hand was still firmly attached, but once the 4 screws were loosened, it too came apart perfectly.

By special request from Matyas, I have put a message to the inside of the neck plate:

“This sitar was made by Hiren Roy of Calcutta in the early 1960’s for Ustad Ilyas Khan of Lucknow and was his main sitar until he passed away in 1989. Thereafter his son Idris Khan took care of it. After Idris’ demise in 2013 Ilyas Khan’s nephew Ustad Irfan Khan of Calcutta took over. He passed the instrument on to his German disciple Matyas Wolter in 2023. It was completely restored for a new life by Klaas Janssens at Sitarfactory / Belgium in 2023.”

The various parts were then well cleaned and cleared of rohlan residue. I then glued them back together with modern hide glue. First up was the neck as it was slightly warped. Then the tabli was put back on. Everything was fixed and held as per the traditional way, with rope…

After a few days of drying, the next step came: the tumba. Matyas had noticed strange bulges, gourd pimples, on the surface and now a little later I came to a peculiar discovery. There were screws under the surface. Due to the effect of rust, and probably also the metal expanding and contracting, slight bulges formed on them over time.

I had never experienced this construction before and still wonder about the purpose of these screws. I can only imagine that they served to help improve the natural shapes of the harvested pumpkin so that it could be made nice and round. The screws probably served to hold the various cuts firmly together again. This is no longer necessary with today’s modern wood glues, which make a good solid joint.

As you can see from the photos, quite a few adjustments were made. I then removed all the bulges, cleaned them well and then gave them a new coat of wood glue/wood dust mixture.

Finally, after this exceptional job, the finishing procedure follows: tumba colouring, body polishing, fitting frets and bridges and finally new strings on… Because the neck is now nicely straight again, the height of the strings changes and so the height of the bridge has to be adjusted as well.

A second report will come soon with more info and photos of the final result.

This sitar still has a mystery… click here for the second part.

Kunti Hole Bushing

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on by


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

Neck bend repair

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on by

This sitar which belongs to my friend Chico has a problem: the neck has bended too much. The playing string is tilted 14mm above the last pardas’ surface. The neck came up 5mm at the tar daan position. See the photo (left) with the red line. (click on the photo to enlarge)

Bended neckStraight neck

To fix this problem, the sitars neck has to be opened and glued again. The result is yet to be seen on the photo (right) with the green line. (click on the photo to enlarge)
You can see more photos about this surgery on a new page added to the repairs chapter.

unloaded picture, try CTRL + F5

Neck Bend Repair

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on by

This sitars’ neck has bended too much. The playing string was tilted 14mm above the last pardas’ surface. The neck came up 5mm at the tar daan position.

First thing to do is to remove the hardware and the celluloid decoration strips.

Then the glue line which marks the separation between the upper en lower parts is visible.

Put a chisel exactly on this line and give a gentle push. The glue will break and the 2 parts will get separated.

With the help of a homemade chisel, also used as a scraper, we can split the neck completely.

Now first we will check the cracks’ surface and remove the remaining old glue.

After this we add fresh glue to the 2 parts and fix them together again with a rope. Use hot glue or titebond. These glues become strong and hard and are not elastic.

Finally we hold a strong, straight and flat board against the freshly glued neck and tie it up with the rest of the rope.

After sufficient drying, the board and rope are removed and the glue lane is cleaned. Now we already can see the result: a straight neck !!

Now it is time to put the decoration strips back to its place. Glue is applied and then they are fixed with bamboo nails.

After the leftover pieces of the bamboo nails have been removed, the sitar is ready for reftretting…

Double Neck Electric Sitar

SiTAR FAcToRY Posted on by

Where will it end ??? “We need a sitar … a double neck actually … with humbucking pickups … and a Floyd Rose bridge … and it all has to function properly.  We need some mock-up renderings by tomorrow and the finished product completed in the next couple of weeks”  This is the phone call that David Hill received some months ago from the production company of Mike Myers’ new movie “Love Guru”.

Read the rest of the story and see some unique photos about the making of this extravagant sitar by David Hill & Brady Milloy at the “12 fret” website …