The See-Tar
Last week Friday, 19/06/2015, I’ve delivered this electric plexiglass sitar to Purbayan Chatterjee. One year has passed since he had asked me to build this instrument for him (May 2014). Initially I found it a weird idea and honestly, I didn’t favour the choice of plexiglass because of the…
See-Tar, the Plexiglass Electric Sitar
The See-Tar is a fully transparent solid-body electric sitar made from plexiglass (PMMA), created for Indian sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee. The original idea came from Purbayan in 2014; I developed the design and technical drawings at SiTAR FAcToRY and completed the instrument in 2015. Combining traditional sitar elements with modern…
SAS-01 “Black buffalo” edition
Since the good old stagghorn becomes more and more rare, we are in constant seek for a valid alternative. One of the contenders is the black buffalo horn. Buffalo horn plates are used as material for engraving, for pocket knives, tang blades and japanese cooking knives. The plates are…
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…
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…
SBS-03 & SBS-04 ready
The 2 bodies have undergone the finishing strokes : fine sanding, Danish oil treatment, parda making & setting, stringing and jiwari. And after assembling the hardware I could finally mount the pickups and electronics. A Kent Armstrong Slimbucker™ Jazz guitar pickup is on one of them, together with two…
SBS-03 & SBS-04 coming…
Since the end of march 2009 I started constructing 2 new solid body sitars after the example of SBS-02. It is a tremendous improvement in time because plans are now available and I have a steady work experience. Bodies and head are made from honduras mahogany leftovers. The neck…
New style sitars SAS & SBS
Semi Acoustic Sitar & Solid Body Sitar SAS-01 (–SOLD–) SAS-02 (–SOLD–) SBS-02 SBS-03 (–SOLD–) SBS-04 Most pictures made by Luc De Gezelle 08/2009. In december 2008 these 3 first unique new style sitars were completed. Click on the pictures to read the specs…
Jora tar intonation on SAS & SBS sitars
Many sitars suffer from an improper intonation. Mostly affected are jora and laraj kharaj strings. If you are lucky you should be able to play comfortable on the first couple of frets only. After this, immediately pulling meend to correct the tone becomes a must. It is almost a…
SAS-02, the Jazz Sitar “light”
Finaly, the third new sitar SAS-02 is also ready. The same Slimbucker™ Jazz guitar pickup, made by Kent Armstrong, as with the SAS-01, Jazz Sitar is used. The only difference with SAS-01 is that on this sitar the taravs and taravbar are not installed. So, I call it the Jazz Sitar “light”…
SAS-02, body finish and assembling
Day 63: Removing the hardware to be able to finish the body: Sanding with grid 240 & 400 followed by 2 x pumice powder treatment, which is applied with alcohol and shellack. Ultimate finish counts 4 layers of Danish oil subsequently rubbed with 000 steel wool and drying periods during the following days.