I ‘ve made some simple and interesting technical modifications to Frederic T’s new travel sitar. He has bought it last year in New Delhi.
1) I have installed Schaller™ M6 mini machine heads. These run so much more smooth and accurate then the rather cheap and crappy original machines.
2) Also mounted a Kent Armstrong Slimbucker™ Jazz guitar pickup which brings it very close to the sound of a full scale Jazz Sitar.
Finaly, at the end of july we were lucky to have had at least a couple of days good weather with nice sunshine. One of these days I succeeded to finish the polishing of this sitar. I’ ve been making some fresh new polish ready during a previous (short) visit of our much beloved sun at the end of june…
A couple of days later the polish has been drying sufficiently. Time to complete the sitar again by mounting the pardas, jiwaris and strings.
Playing an electric sitar gives some weird possibilities.
Watch this Niladri Kumar on the electric highway.
The joint has been fitted and glued again. On the left hand side you can see some adjustment strips sitting between the joint and the body.
Then the tabli is glued to the body. A rope is used to keep the tabli fixed and under sufficient pressure at regular points along its contour.
Now this sitar body is ready to get some new polish. But unfortunately we have to wait for the good weather to come…
… after some time the glue became softened and the joint can be removed.
Now, the wooden parts need some time to dry thoroughly.
This old Rikhi Ram is having a problem: the joint got loose.
I handled the same problem before on another (left – handed) RR sitar. On that occasion I made a new joint which took a lot of work to make it fit perfectly. Now I turned an old pressure cooker into a steam generator which is used for removing and loosening the animal glue.
First step is to open the sitar :
Then I drilled a fine hole in the corner area of the joint in which the needles will blast their steam.
I add water to the pressure cooker and have the power switched on …
Page added documenting the repair of a joint… Take a look here !!
Is “sitar” masculine or feminine?
Paul came to collect his sitar. It was a left-handed sitar.
Made in the Rikhi Ram factory in the late 1960s.
It concerned a joint repair.
Decoration sobero
Bonjour cher Denis…
Merci Beaucoup !!