lutherie | SiTAR FAcToRY

Gibson EB-3L

Posted on Monday, 9 November 2009 by AnandaMonday, 16 November 2020

During my learning school at Centrum voor MuziekinstrumentenBouw, CMB, at Puurs, Belgium, in 2000 I made a Gibson EB-3L replica. I’ve choosen this electric bass because of the unique and original “slotted head” construction which I applied later to my new style sitars SAS-01 etc…

This guitar has a Honduras mahogany body and neck with Indian rosewood fretboard and head top plate.
Because the original instruments sound wasn’t very inspiring I decided to replace the pickups with some modern and better performing types made by Di Marzio. Their DP145 Will Power™ neck model is very deep-sounding with great low-end definition. Its dimensions are the same as the original replacement Model One™, but it’s a little louder and fatter-sounding, and pole piece spacing is slightly wider for better string alignment with long-scale basses.

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pictures made by Luc De Gezelle 2009

Dieter Zarnitz Surbahar

Posted on Wednesday, 18 February 2009 by AnandaWednesday, 18 February 2009

Watch this impressive and beautiful surbahar, made by German luthier Dieter Zarnitz. Neck and body are made from flamed maple, the soundboard is made from old pine, the tuning pegs are from ebony…

Download Dieter’s pdf brochure (1Mb) to have a detailed and closer look at the making of this innovative surbahar.
And see some more Dieter Zarnitz sitars and surbahars here.

Niladri Kumar on electric sitar

Posted on Wednesday, 11 June 2008 by AnandaSaturday, 1 May 2021

Playing an electric sitar gives some weird possibilities.

Watch this Niladri Kumar on the electric highway.

Dieter Zarnitz

Posted on Wednesday, 9 April 2008 by AnandaMonday, 17 June 2024

A very special and most beautiful series of sitars and surbahars made by Dieter Zarnitz.

The tumba is replaced by a wooden construction as used in traditional western lute making. Neck and body are made from flamed maple, with old air-dried pine soundboard. The head and curl are made of rosewood, the tuning pegs are made from ebony.

Jay Scott Hackleman

Posted on Sunday, 16 March 2008 by AnandaMonday, 23 March 2015

Jay Scott Hackleman and late Kartar Chand Sharma

21 years ago Jay Scott Hackleman was so very lucky to be able to spend a whole year in the very special company of some of the world’s finest traditional sitarmakers, Kartar Chand & Hari Chand Sharma.

He wrote a profound article about his apprenticeship in the shop of Late Kartar Chand which has originally been published in The Journal of The Guilds of American Luthiers N°67 in 2002.

Hari Chand often talked to me about this “very fine young American person”. He showed me many pictures in his much used and thumb marked album. And during one of my last visits Hariji proudly presented me a beautiful copy from this unique article written by Jay. It’s a real extensive documentary (4,13Mb pdf), made with sincere care and love. Thank You So Much, Jay.

Today Tineke found a website about his present-day work.

Read the full Kartar Chand Hari Chand history here.