Rikhi Ram necklace 75′ restoration
Here then is a photo report of the work carried out: More neck bend repair can be found here.
Tabli info
Dear friends, please hereby find some info about different styles of tabli. Clicking on the pictures will show up a drawing presenting the thickness (in mm) on different locations of the tabli and a zoom showing details of the surface finishing on the backside. Notice the increased thickness at…
Tumba Horror
A while ago, I received this mail: Hallo, I got the chance to buy an old Rikhi Ram GP Sitar for 40€ only (the 60yo sellers dad died and she kept it since~30yrs ago so I would guess 1970s or 80s). The sitar looks very good and has the…
Rikhi Ram 70’s restoration
Early 1970, Michel Dumont (Musician, flutist, graduate of the conservatories of Brussels and Valencienne, who became a theatre and opera decorator at La Monnaie/De Munt) together with his wife Martine Mergeay (journalist and music reviewer at La Libre Belgique, Le Vif/L’Express and Musiq3) went to India to explore and…
Hybrid Sitar, a real 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…
Travel Sitar Mods (3B) … the white sitar
After finalizing the structural rough woodwork on the travel-sitar’s body (see Part 1 = Travel Sitar Mods (3A)) the final acts are: completing the body finish and preparing and installing the sitar’s hardware such as godi (jawari), machine heads, strings, pardas and eventually an electro-magnetic pickup. I’ve painted the body…
Kartar Chand Hari Chand history
In 1940, young Rikhi Ram Sharma was making harmoniums in Kartar Music House in Lahore. One day a casual customer gets Rikhi Ram Sharma interested in a sitar. He finds and opens a simple 7 string sitar to find out how it is made and starts learning making sitars…
Hari Chand is closing shop
This time I returned from India with rather mixed feelings. My best friend, and sitarmaker – teacher Hari Chand is seriously considering to get retired. He is now nearly 77 years old and suffers from pain in his hands, his knees and other joints. The daily trip from his…
Sher Mohammad vintage sitar
This sitar was made in the “Sher Mohammad & Sons Sitar Makers”- shop in Bansanwala Bazaar, Lahore 1940 – 1950 by early sitarmaker Sher Mohammed. At that time, before the Partition, he taught sitar making to, amongst others, Rikhi Ram Sharma and Kartar Chand Sharma. At Partition time, both…
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.…