Intonation on the sitar (& surbahar) is a very complex aspect for players to master due to its unique structure and intricate tuning system. Unlike Western stringed instruments with standardized frets, the sitar’s pardas (frets) are movable, allowing players to adjust the intervals between notes to suit different ragas or tonal structures. This flexibility, while beneficial for musical expression, also creates a challenge in maintaining acceptable intonation. Even slight misplacement of a parda can alter the pitch and compromise the player’s comfort and impact the performance.
Achieving nearly perfect intonation on a sitar & surbahar requires a lot of attention to detail, advanced tuning skills and adjustments. In consultation with Jan van Beek, I designed intonation blocks for his sitar & surbahar. They are made of Elforyn™ and fully tuned to his instruments.
Elforyn™ is a modern synthetic ivory substitute that is very hard-wearing and at the same time easy to work with. Moreover, it has a very natural appearance.
Besides greatly improved intonation, these special blocks have an additional advantage. The distance from the first parda to the meru (comb or nut) increases, making the string longer there. In this way, it becomes possible to play more comfortable and thus more accurate meend on the highest pardas, and especially on the first.
Another case of intonation can be read here.
Lost Paloma
This old Paloma sitar had been found in an attic. How long it stood there is not clear, but it may have been a while…. Paloma is a registered brand of Haribhau Vishwanath Diwane who distributed sitars from various builders under it. They are rather somewhat cheaper mid-range sitars for everyone. But there are also hidden gems among them. Who eventually made this sitar I don’t know, but it is definitely well made, and fitted with full decoration.
She has undergone a full restoration and is ready to please another sitar player. She is also very suitable for the committed beginner.
Now for sale on this site (click here).
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 burnt the new logo into the wood with razor-sharp precision. The result is impressive.
The mouth of the narka is inlaid with recycled African buffalo leather. This way, the kuntis are not damaged. The outside is finished with shellac polish.
Rikhi Ram necklace 75′ restoration
An original Rikhi Ram necklace Sitar from around 1975 needs a complete restoration:
– The neck is bended and needs straightening.
– There is a crack in the top of the neck that needs repair.
– A large tuning peg is broken and needs to be replaced.
– The optical condition of the instrument needs to be renewed.
– All the frets should be re-tied.
– The instrument needs to be completely re-stringed.
– Any faults found should be fixed.
– And, of course, jawari needs to be done on the instrument.
Here then is a photo report of the work carried out:
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 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
K&K Big Twin external mount
I mounted a K&K sound Big Twin internal transducer on a Raj Musicals sitar by Joël Van Roode (Alpacas Collective – Flugzeug Music Art Design). Since it is not always obvious to open a tabli, we chose to do an external mount. That is, the transducers are mounted on the outside (top) of the tabli. An advantage of this installation is that it is easy to look for an optimal positioning of the elements to obtain a good and balanced sound.
The disadvantage with this kind of rather simple set-up is that the jack connector connection is usually very sloppy and not very reliable. Therefore, I gave it some thought and opted to mount the jack connector on the taardaan (tailmount). This way, it is very firmly attached and there is also a very good grounding with the strings, which greatly reduces possible interference signals. The complete assembly is therefore relatively easy to do with this.
First, I drilled a hole in the taardaan and then drilled through into the tumba accordingly. Then a small hole was drilled in the tabli to route the wires to the connector.
Finally, the two transducers were glued in place, the retaining wires routed through the holes and soldered to the connector, the taardaan put back in place and the strings put back on. Done!
Here is the result. Joël is very happy with it!
Slimbucker on Studiositar
I mounted a Kent Armstrong Slimbucker™ Jazz guitar pickup on a beautiful new Waseem Maner vintage style studiositar. The sitar sounds very natural, with an extra warmth due to enhanced low frequency response typical for this kind of humbucker electro-magnetic pickups. The pickup is tilted to meet the cikaris and adjusted in height between the taravs and playing strings to balance the taravs response. All strings are Pyramid strings, and in particular Jora, Laraj & Kharaj are Nickel Flatwound strings.
Sound sample:
Slimbucker™ Jazz guitar pickup on AER Compact 60 amp
Specifications of the Slimbucker™ Jazz guitar pickup:
Alnico bar magnet / DC = 8K / humbucker made by Kent Armstrong.
Size : 0,95cm (.375”) thick – 6,8cm (2.68”) long – 2,8cm (1.10”) wide.
Strings made by Pyramid:
Silver plated steel Baj & Pancham .012 (0,30mm)
Silver plated steel Cikari & Taravs .009 (0,23mm)
Nickel flatwound Jora .018 (0,46mm)
Nickel flatwound Laraj .022 (0,56mm)
Nickel flatwound Kharaj .030 (0,76mm)
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 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
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 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.
My Last See-Tar
A random photoreport on the making of my latest and last plexiglass See-Tar.
