Cavitied G.Rosul gourd
The second tumba of this brandnew beginners G.Rosul sitar has been affected by worms. When the instrument fell down to the ground one day, the gourd got severely broken. Close examination revealed that a big worm has been digging a lot of tunnels through the gourds soft & dry…
Tuning problem: Cracked wood
On a traditional sitar, tuning is established by pressing a wooden peg (kunti) into a hole. Unfortunately the wood on this Barun Ray sitar is cleaved. There is a long and deep split line between the baj and jora kunti. Both strings were not keeping tune anymore. The pegs…
Tarav Mogara repair page
I’ve added an illustrated report about the repair of tarav mogaras. These are small, round ducts which lead the tarav strings through the neck towards the tarav kutis. They are usually made out of bone or horn. Sometimes plastic is used. Due to a very high tension coming from…
Tarav Mogara Repair
Here is a worn tarav mogara. The string is deeply ingrained into the bone rim… this needs to be repaired. Start with removing the bad piece with a tight-fitting metal pin. Pry it out gently by turning round and round with the metal pin. Clean up the hole… Select…
Surbahar Kunti Repair
Photo report of a Kanailal & Brother surbahar kunti repair. The main kuntis of this surbahar are very specific. The surface is smooth and only cut with a saw. Original Kanailal replacement kuntis are hard to find. When it is broken, repair is the most obvious solution. In this…
Kartar Chand vintage sitar repair
In 2009, Hari Chand presented me an old sitar which has been originally made by him and his brother, late Kartar Chand, in the 1970’s. The sitar suffered severely from a loose joint due to “an unfortunate fall from a kitchen table”…, dixit the former owner. How peculiar that…
Naskar tun sitar
Old Naskar so called “teak sitar…??” turns out to be a regular tun sitar. This sitar has been repaired from a loose joint and twisted neck. Also the tabli has been lowered and the neck has been finished in an open pore look with 6 layers of Danish oil.…
Naskar teak sitar…??
before and during restoration, a few “inside” views…:
Easy loose joint repair
This unknown sitar suffers from a loose joint. The playing string came to almost 18 mm above the last parda. In normal conditions this distance should count only 8 – 11 mm. The reason why the joint became loose is not determined, but most probably “a small accident” during…
Kartar Chand sitar restoration
This early 70’s original Kartar Chand sitar just left the restoration booth. Complete body check-up and new polish has been done by late Kartar’s brother Hari Chand in New Delhi in march 2009 while I was there on a visit. The celluloid mother of pearl imitation parda lanes have…
New pardas on Hiren Roy
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…
Tanpura damage
This small instrumental tanpura has been damaged during transport from Calcutta to Belgium. Frederic tS. has bought it new at Hiren Roy and shipped it by air with Jet Airways. The parcel arrived in Belgium with a slight crack in the fiber case and the instrument itself was pretty…