Hiren Roy 70’s refurbished…
Peeling tumba & crack repair with color change…
before 
after 
New jawari ghoraj mounted…
Dieter Zarnitz jawari ghoraj with Cumaru top & Angelim Amargoso feet installed.
Pardas added…
Added RE komal & DHA komal, 23 pardas in total.
… the ultimate guitar for sitarists …
Frédéric t’Serstevens is a young and talented sitarist and disciple of Shubhendra Rao and Kushal Das. Since in the beginning he was a dedicated (bass) guitarplayer, he came up with this rather common idea to convert a sitar into a guitar. But now in a suitable and really original way: why not make the accompanying strings, jora, laraj & kharaj, entirely playable on the full neck area?
On traditional sitars, it is common that these strings only can be played (without meend) up to the 4th, 5th, … 7th parda. From then onwards, very frequently, intonation problems occur due to a continuously and significantly increasing strings action. This means that the distance between the string and the frets (pardas) increases too much, and thus the played notes become higher… until unplayable.
The solution is very simple: reduce the strings action by changing the shape of the pardas.
original shape (Rikhi Ram)
hybrid shape (Sitar Factory)
With this kind of new hybrid pardas, mounted on a raised parda lane, the action on the strings is higly reduced. And as such coming very close to a near perfect intonation, comparable to a guitar:
Now even chords can be played perfectly on this instrument… making it the extreme sitar for guitarists, or,… reverse ?? Or just: the ultimate hybrid sitar… 🙂
For more details, please read (on this site): The modification of an acoustic travel sitar into an electric hybrid guitar-sitar.
The modification of an acoustic travel sitar into an electric hybrid guitar-sitar.
Specifications Materials Drawings The modification process
This instrument has been made on demand
The original idea comes from Frédéric t’Serstevens (March 2016)
Design & drawings by Klaas Janssens @ Sitar Factory (April 2016)
Completion by Klaas Janssens @ Sitar Factory (June 2016)
Specifications
Dimensions: 1060mm x 300mm x 130mm (L x W x H)
Neck width: 89mm
Scale: 831mm
Strings action: String configuration: custom sitar (Baj, Jora, Laraj & Kharaj), tuned as guitar
Pardas: 24 custom hybrid shaped
Taravs: 11 traditional with wooden kutis
No cikaris installed
Materials
Body: teak wood
Parts: white fiber & metal
Pardas: Nickel Silver wire 5,0mm diameter
Machine heads: M6 Mini / Schaller
Pickup: Neck & Bridge single coil Telecaster™ guitar pickup / Seymour Duncan
Strings: Silver plated steel N°3 (0,30mm) & N°0 (0,23mm) / Pyramid
Nickel flatwound Jora N°26 (0,46mm) / Pyramid
Nickel flatwound Laraj N°24 (0,56mm) / Pyramid
Nickel flatwound Kharaj N°22 (0,76mm) / Pyramid
Drawings
1 Parda lane raised
2 Parda custom shaped
original shape (Rikhi Ram)
hybrid shape (Sitar Factory)
The modification process
1 The original body, removing the original pardas
2 Fitting a raised parda lane, made out of maple & celluloïd
3 Creating a new shaped parda: the hybrid parda
1 = Hybrid parda 2 = Rikhi Ram parda 3 = Traditional parda
4 Mounting a full set (24 pcs) of hybrid pardas
5 Fitting compact electronics control & pickups
This old Hiren Roy sitar, brought to me by Arnoud E. needs new pardas and some small repair work. Arnoud provided a full set of new pardas made by Hiren Roy Company, but some of them were made too short. Thus I decided to reuse a selection of the old pardas and fitted them at the end (the last 4, nearest to jiwari).
Also some body cleaning has been performed and together with new strings and fresh jiwari this sitar is ready for another life… finally almost a complete restoration.
Here we go again …
Day 41 en 42: Making and glueing the parda lanes. These are long and thin strips located on the sides of the neck to hold the pardas.
