New Narka series
I made a new set of narkas, this time from the wood of an old broomstick (aspen wood). They are done in different colours and a new SiTAR FAcToRY logo is burnt on them. My dear neighbour girl Felien Swillen is very handy with a small wood burner. She…
Staghorn Narka
I made a narka out of Belgian stag horn. This is a tuning aid to comfortably and finely tune the taravs, the sympathetic strings on a sitar. A deer antler hung on the wall. You can find them at old flea markets, or nailed to the wall at hunters’…
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…
Steel Tarav Mogara…?
On the SAS-01 I use ordinary mini steel nails (diam. 1mm / lenght 8mm) as tarav mogara. They sound very good at the moment but I think this can be improved one day. But how? By bone, or horn, or… ? Anybody a suggestion ?
SAS-01, with taravbar
Day 53: Assembling the body after sufficient drying (pardas, cikari- and tarav machine heads, jiwaris & strings). Day 54: Mounting the cikari pins and strings, and doing jiwari. Mounting the taravs and tarav jiwari. Now this semi-accoustic sitar is ready for a first play. Who wants to … ?
Tarav strip
Day 50: Mounted all 24 pardas on this SAS-01. It’s a very delicate and time-consuming job: first accurate bending and height adjustment followed by binding the pardas. Day 51: After tuning the sitar properly, I put the pardas to their regular position. Then I draw a map, localizing the…