Tag Archives: tumba

Hemen tumba repair with K&K Big Twin internal mount

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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 excellent opportunity to also build a transducer internally in this sitar. 🙂
We are already going for a K&K sound Big Twin internal.

The jack connector will be built a bit further up the tumba to achieve more comfortable accessibility.


Because the tumba is rather thin and weak, I make a rounded wooden support that is glued firmly to the inside of the tumba. This way, the connection can take a bit of rough handling….


Then the two transducers are glued to the tabli on the inside. I provide a small piece of white cotton soaked in white wood glue to secure the wiring.
Once this assembly is successful, the various tumba parts are glued until the puzzle is complete. However, one small piece is missing. The hole is filled with a mixture of wood dust, plaster and wood glue.

This is followed by further finishing of the tumba with colour and the whole instrument is given another coat of finishing shellac polish.


The pardas are polished and re-tied, kuntis are cleaned and treated with chalk, new strings put on and jawari done… and there we go.

Read here an article about mounting K&K Big Twin internal external

Read here an article about mounting K&K Pure 12-String internal

Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt2

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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 part concerning the result:

The original second tumba is missing. This is very unfortunate for a sitar that is around 60 years old. It is easy to see from the photos that this is a fairly large second tumba. Not surprising for sitar of this class. I myself do not have any tumbas in stock, nor can I make them just like that. But for some time now, I have been working regularly with Mohammad Waseem Maner, a young and talented sitar maker from Miraj. I asked him if he could then make a replica of this missing second tumba for us. “Yes. Sir I will do the needful” was his prompt reply and so it happened.

The new second tumba arrived just in time to still be mounted on the fully repaired instrument. And, Waseem did a sterling job. The cut-outs in the woodwork match those of the original perfectly.

Following are some photos of the finished instrument.

Time to dwell for a moment on the unusual bridge on the head of the neck.

It is widely known that traditionally built sitars do easily suffer from anomalous intonation. This is especially noticeable with the Laraj Kharaj strings. Modern western instruments are often equipped with options to adjust the length of each string separately so that one can achieve quasi-perfect intonation. But that is not easy to achieve on a simple construction like a sitar.

Many sitar maestros started experimenting with an extra bridge added to the bridge at the head of the neck. The construction found on this instrument takes the crown. At first, only the length of the Laraj Kharaj string was adjusted. In principle, that should have sufficed, but apparently it could have been even better. An extra bridge was added later. This time, the Jora string was included in the adjustment.

The result is impressive, though. The intonation of this sitar is one of the cleanest I have ever heard. Once the new strings were fitted and the instrument was given a first tuning, it was noticeable that all the strings can be played quasi right on the fret. Very special, especially then with the Laraj Kharaj….

Only drawback Matyas quickly found was that the Kharaj, when played open, easily tended to go into an excessive buzz. This is not surprising given the actual width of this extra bridge on the headstock. The problem was remedied by turning in the accompanying screw a little deeper, though. But whether this will hold up in the longer term Matyas can tell us soon….
In any case, this sitar is ready for a new start with a promising young sitarist Matyas Wolter. And they lived happily ever after together…. 😉

Those who would like to hear this sitar in the hands of its master please visit Matyas playlist of Ustad Ilyas Khan’s music on his archival YouTube site:

Ustad ILYAS KHAN: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvP9MFDf6jaLLvf-4xvUVTsIEkpm3hOsL

Those who would like to hear this restored sitar in the hands of Matyas himself listen here:

Matyas Wolter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SA9T4OYYrI

Ustad Ilyas Khan’s HR sitar restoration – Pt1

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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 Roy sitar now belongs to German sitarist Matyas Wolter. In spring 2023, he sent me for a list of problems:

A. Structural Issues:
> Open the tabli and neck plate and tighten all loose points
> If it is opened once anyways, maybe it could be tried to straighten the neck???!!!
B. Cosmetics:
> Spot repair of torn polish spot in front of lower bridge leg on the tabli
> Spot repair of gourd pimples
C. Setup:
> All obvious works: fret binding & setting, new strings etc
> Original Horn bridge adjustment, and (possibly after neck repair) heightening

Since this is a larger project, I have split the report into 2 parts. Below is the first part concerning basic repair:

The sitar almost fell apart by itself. It had once been glued with rohlam, a traditional wood glue made from a mixture of wheat flour, lime and copper sulphur. After a (long) time, it came apart easily.

So taking the instrument apart wasn’t too bad. The neck came off easily with a couple of scrapers inserted and almost immediately the whole tabli came off too.

Matyas had noted earlier that the tabli was probably loose, and that was no overstatement.
The joint on the other hand was still firmly attached, but once the 4 screws were loosened, it too came apart perfectly.

By special request from Matyas, I have put a message to the inside of the neck plate:

“This sitar was made by Hiren Roy of Calcutta in the early 1960’s for Ustad Ilyas Khan of Lucknow and was his main sitar until he passed away in 1989. Thereafter his son Idris Khan took care of it. After Idris’ demise in 2013 Ilyas Khan’s nephew Ustad Irfan Khan of Calcutta took over. He passed the instrument on to his German disciple Matyas Wolter in 2023. It was completely restored for a new life by Klaas Janssens at Sitarfactory / Belgium in 2023.”

The various parts were then well cleaned and cleared of rohlan residue. I then glued them back together with modern hide glue. First up was the neck as it was slightly warped. Then the tabli was put back on. Everything was fixed and held as per the traditional way, with rope…

After a few days of drying, the next step came: the tumba. Matyas had noticed strange bulges, gourd pimples, on the surface and now a little later I came to a peculiar discovery. There were screws under the surface. Due to the effect of rust, and probably also the metal expanding and contracting, slight bulges formed on them over time.

I had never experienced this construction before and still wonder about the purpose of these screws. I can only imagine that they served to help improve the natural shapes of the harvested pumpkin so that it could be made nice and round. The screws probably served to hold the various cuts firmly together again. This is no longer necessary with today’s modern wood glues, which make a good solid joint.

As you can see from the photos, quite a few adjustments were made. I then removed all the bulges, cleaned them well and then gave them a new coat of wood glue/wood dust mixture.

Finally, after this exceptional job, the finishing procedure follows: tumba colouring, body polishing, fitting frets and bridges and finally new strings on… Because the neck is now nicely straight again, the height of the strings changes and so the height of the bridge has to be adjusted as well.

A second report will come soon with more info and photos of the final result.

This sitar still has a mystery… click here for the second part.

Another tumba horror

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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 been properly repaired

People then think that ordinary wood glue is not strong enough and use modern synthetic glues to get things solid again. Unfortunately, this is not really the way to go. It is important that the various pieces are put together properly and as quickly as possible with ordinary white wood glue.
So, in this case it was back on. The whole thing has to be taken apart again, the synthetic stuff removed and the pieces made to fit again.
Since several large surfaces are involved, the job has to be done in several stages.
The tabli was also well loose and was the first part to be separated. Then the larger parts were taken apart. In the end, not really much remained…

A spectacular image, though…

Piece by piece, the tumba regained its original shape. Because the parts no longer fit 100% well, reinforcement was applied along the inside in the form of strips of cotton cloth soaked in white wood glue. Holes were filled with a mixture of wood glue and sawdust.
Then the tabli came back on.

The transitions between the different tumba parts are made smooth with some sanding and plastering with wood glue.

Finally, the whole tumba gets a new coat of colour and lacquer. Ready for a new life…

Tumba Horror

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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 white/gold Rikhi Ram label, but the gourd is broken on two positions or more. Some parts of the gourd they kept, some parts are missing. Someone unfortunately already tried to repair it without any success, the repaired pieces look extremely shitty glued 😀
I would like to get the sitar repaired, but I wouldn’t trust me to do it so I thought Ill contact you as I follow your blog enthusiastically for some time now.

Can I maybe send you some pictures to get you an impression of the damage? Since the sitar just stood around for 30ish years, I would like to get a full facelift done of everything plus jawari of course.

Sören, from Germany

A while later, the sitar has arrived…
Terrible what happened to this sitar:

It is difficult to find out what product was used. I think it must have been a hard synthetic glue on the inside, and then overlaid by a hard hot glue on the outside.

The good news is that the construction on the inside is well done firmly, so that is a good point. I can remove the hard glue on the outside with a chisel and make it smooth again. The tumba is definitely repairable. It does have a few pieces missing, but I can repair them with pieces from another broken tumba I have lying around here.

Once the tumba is ready, I can remove the remnants of that shitty glue on the outside with sandpaper and smooth the surface. A new black wax bond is also applied.

Followed by a finish with new colour & shellac lacquer layers.

The rest of the sitar looks fine. All the pegs are ok but turn very stiffly, the frets are oxidised but of fine quality, a good bridge in horn is present and intact and the joint is tight.


Finally frets repolishing and binding, new strings, doing jawari and tuning etc…

I think this sitar is definitely worth all the work. It is a common good quality Rikhi Ram Gandhar Pancham 70-80’s model that has potential to be a good sounding & reliable sitar. So be it! 🙂

Rudra Veena repair

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This anonymous rudra veena was found by my friend Guillaume CZLT in Bombay Pekin Bruxelles, a shop for second-hand furniture in Brussels. It was quite badly damaged. One of the tumbas was badly broken, the main bridge had been torn off and lost, and all the frets had been worn away. The fretboard looked more like a pattata field. All the frets were loose and crooked on the neck. A cikari pin was broken… and one day there must have been strings on the instrument…?The work started with repairing the broken tumba. I counted 27 pieces (or small pieces) and 3 appeared to be missing. The puzzle was put back together in 5 stages. Fortunately, everything still fitted well and the transitions are usually smooth. A few coats of varnish over the whole finished this part. Colour matching was not done at this stage.After that, the frets were taken in hand. The old aluminium strips were easily lifted out of the holder. I ordered a set of 24 new pre-cut pieces of fret wire Wagner 9671 Nickel Silver Frets, Large/Jumbo, with dimensions (W x L x H): 70 x 2,75 x 3,2 mm. But first the fret holders all had to be made equal and properly attached to the central guiding shaft. And this one was crooked and irregular too. With a little trick I could get all the frets nicely in one row and fix them firmly in place. After that, I made the top even and flat and finally installed the new frets. That looks good!The last part is the new ghodi. A round base that is glued to the neck gets a nice straight surface. On top of that comes a removable ghodi that is firmly held in place by two metal pins. Quite a construction, but in the end it fits nicely on the whole. Because the upper part is removable, you can easily do jawari at any time. Now all that’s left is to put new strings on it…I think Guillaume will be pleased… 😉

Technical info on strings & tuning according to Asad Ali Khan style:

The scale measures 945cm & the instrument is tuned to G#
Cikari’s: steel 0,30mm (N°3) tuned to G#3 (SA) & G#4 (SA)
Baj tar: steel 0,40mm (N°6) tuned to C#2 (MA)
SA tar: bronze 0,56mm (N°24) tuned to G#2 (SA)
PA tar: bronze 0,72mm (N°22) tuned to D#2 (PA)
Kharaj: flatwound bronze 0,92mm (N°20) tuned to G#1 (SA)
Laraj: bronze 0,56mm (N°24) tuned to G#2 (SA)

 

For more info about rudra veena you can visit www.rudravina.com and www.rudraveena.org

Hiren Roy 70’s refurbish

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Hiren Roy 70’s refurbished…

Peeling tumba & crack repair with color change…

before

after

New jawari ghoraj mounted…

Dieter Zarnitz jawari ghoraj with Cumaru top & Angelim Amargoso feet installed.

 

Pardas added…

Added RE komal & DHA komal, 23 pardas in total.

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Drowned Sitar

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More than one year ago, an awfull sitar was brought to me. At first sight it looked like it was burnt, but actually it was only drowned for some time. This sitar was stored in a basement which has been filled with water due to an inundation. Only after some time it has been rescued and luckily it was protected by a good fiber case. All the strings and hardware got ruined. The damage to the tumba was horrible but the neck seemed to have endured the misadventure well.


I removed all the hardware and pegs and started to let the sitar rest and dry up completely for almost one year. Then, after some time, the tumba’s lacquer finish started to peel off. So, I removed everything which was hanging some loose and made a new build-up. Fortunately it was a decent tumba, sturdy and round. Then colouring and a fresh full-scale shellac finish finally made it look like a new… real good Srishti Musical sitar.

Tumba cosmetics repair

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It began with an ordinary crack. Yet another case of overzealous luggage handling at airports. Very regrettable, but in this case it revealed an underlying and overwhelming problem.

A tumba is made out of a gourd, which is a natural product. As it grows on the field, the shape becomes more or less irregular, as squiggly as nature can be. But in a musical instruments setting this isn’t always very usable or good-looking…

Thus here and there some cosmetics are necessary to give it a more practical, handsome round shape. To obtain this, in general, plaster is applied. But sometimes regular plastering isn’t adequate. When more than a couple of millimeters difference in levelling needs to be adjusted a heavier and stronger filler is needed. Then sawdust, wooden dust, water and woodglue are well mixed and applied prior to the plaster mixture.

On this sitar it seems that the mixture has been made with a persistent shortage of glue. And, secondly, really a massive amount of this poorly mixed material has been used. The obvious reason for this is that the original tumba was of a critical quality. Now it is clear that it is just too thin and weak. At several places the tumba is hardly 2mm thick.

Thus, when repairing the crack, more and more chunks of almost already pulverised wooden dust filler simply fell off from the tumba. Finally, almost the complete surface seems to be covered and more than 50% became loose.

In order to obtain a better bonding the plaster is mixed with woodglue as well. A lot of work…, a lot of drying time needed…, sanding, filling, drying, sanding, filling, drying, sanding…, fine sanding, sealing, colouring and finally the finishing touch with shellac.

Read more about tumba repair : click here

Cavitied G.Rosul gourd

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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 flesh. At some points only the very thin outer peel (hard crust) has been left making this tumba extremely fragile. Where and when this worm got in and out the gourd is hard to find out. But certainly we don’t want this kind of destructive parasites inside our beloved instruments, nor in our house…

The repair of it started with filling up most of the tunnels with a mixture of fine wooden sawdust, water & woodglue. After that the outer shape could be restored using a mixture of wooden sanddust, plaster, woodglue & colourpigment. Finally came the sanding, colouring & the finishing with lacquer.

At this point I would like to notice that nowadays on more and more (cheap) sitars a synthetic sprayed lacquer finish is applied. The problem is that these synthetic solvents react very different with colourpigments that are used in the traditional shellac finish procedure (french polishing). Even worse, shellac doesn’t attach well to these chemicals. One is obliged to start determinating the kind of chemicals used in this spray, and look for eventual available alternatives which can be applied succesful to it. And I didn’t even mention the bad health aspects which might come along when working with these cheap synthetic mixtures…
But, what to do ? Just don’t buy it ?!! At least ask for traditional finish !!