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 toy sitar? But it seems more then only a toy designed to me, which you can then actually play on (if you want to). Calling it a “Tom Thumb sitar” sounds good, I guess…. 😉

Anyway, the little instrument did need some cleaning and repair work before anything could be done with it. The bridge was missing and a few tuning pegs were broken. Other than that, it wasn’t too bad. So, I made a new bridge out of a tarav bridge and found some old matching tarav kuntis.

Tom Thumb has 10 pardas, 5 taravs and possibly up to 7 main strings. The scale is only 36cms, the body is 55cms long and the tabli 14cms wide. The neck is only 5.4cms wide. The ‘tumba’ is probably all wood, with a good bit of plastering to get it nice and round. Otherwise complete with simple decoration on celluloid, just like its big brothers & sisters!

Tom Thumb sitar string set / tuning chart (example):

1. steel wire 0,28mm / N°2 tuned to A#4
2. bronze wire 0,37mm / N°28 tuned to C#3
3. bronze wire 0,46mm / N°26 tuned to G#3
4. steel wire 0,23mm / N°0  tuned to G#4
5. steel wire 0,19mm / N°000 tuned to C#5
6. steel wire 0,19mm / N°000 tuned to C#6
Taravs: steel wire 0,19mm / N°000