Surbahar Head Repair
A hiding fracture One day, a problem arose with Kees Verbeek’s Hiren Roy surbahar. The instrument had previously been repaired at the headstock. It had probably been dropped or suffered transport damage at some point, but had been repaired very neatly. The instrument had always remained stable, but suddenly…
How to Tie Frets
How to Tie Sitar Frets – A Practical Guide for Makers and Players Properly binding sitar frets (pardas) is an essential yet often underestimated aspect of the instrument. The position and fit of the pardas determine not only the playability but also the intonation and tone of the sitar.…
Parda Binding – how to tie sitar frets
How to Tie Sitar Frets (Pardas) Tying frets is one of the most characteristic aspects of the sitar. Unlike fixed frets, sitar frets are movable and are fixed to the neck with thread. This allows for extremely precise adjustment but also requires the right technique. In this instructional video,…
Kanailal joint repair
A very fragile part of the sitar is the joint. It is the connection between the neck and the resonator. The neck (dandi) itself consists of two large parts: the flat top plate and the round bottom part. The resonator consists of three large parts: the gourd (tumba), the…
Barun Roy broken joint
One day London based sitarist & composer Jonathan Mayer drove with his car straight from London to SiTAR FAcToRY in Belgium (+/- 8hrs drive). His favorite sitar, recently made by Barun Roy, has a severe joint problem. At first sight the joint has only loosened. A friend of him…
Tom Thumb sitar
A person encounters all sorts of things in life, and so too in the sitar world. I knew that there are children’s sitars (mini sitar or baby sitar) that can also be played, but I had never seen such a gem before. What would you call it? A tiny…
Rikhi Ram necklace 75′ restoration
Here then is a photo report of the work carried out: More neck bend repair can be found here.
Hemen tumba repair with K&K Big Twin internal mount
Yet another Hemen sitar crosses my path. This time with a seriously broken tumba and damaged lacquer. There is a big hole in the tumba and fortunately all the pieces are still in it. It will be “puzzling” again. Because the hole is so big, it seems like an…
Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt2
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…
Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt1
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…
Another tumba horror
Very similar to this previous “tumba horror” case, I received another one. The tumba has been broken into several bigger parts and then glued together with an unknown compound. I have no idea what happened to this beautiful instrument but it is clear that the defect has not really…
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…