A random photoreport on the making of my latest and last plexiglass See-Tar.
Tag Archives: varisitari
Juma Mankas
I’ve made a set of mankas and one tarav ghoraj for Zach Ferrara.
They are made out of golden dragon snake Juma® blocs. Juma® – the name stands for independently developed and very modern processing material made from a mixture of various mineral base materials, bound in a resin component. Just like Elforyn® is Juma® excellently suited for the production of components and artistic objects such as knife handles, jewelry, eyeglass frames, or music instrument parts. “Produce your own custom items and delight in genuine one-of-a-kind pieces that no one else will be able to imitate.” the website says.
The material is indeed easy to work with and the result feels very natural and pleasant. The optical effect is stunning and has a nice impression of depth. It is definitely very suitable for decorations, mankas and possibly a tarav ghoraj. But I think it has too little resistance to wear to be suitable for a main ghoraj. Elforyn®, on the other hand, does well. Follow this link for Elforyn® examples.
In any case, it looks impressive on Zach’s beautiful sitar. The manka of the main string is made a little bigger than that of the other strings.
Baritone sitar – lute on a visit
Recently, David Keustermans visited me @ Sitarfactory. He came to Belgium to show his latest sitar with some pride, and rightly so. Please read on for more details about his wonderful sitar.
David started building it in october 2017 @ CMB (Centre for Musical Instrument Building – Puurs, Belgium), starting with the mould which he made together with the mould for his lute project. He then continued working on it at home in the basement until his departure to the Vercors, France, in July 2018. From August that year, he continued to work on it passionately there and by September that year the shell was finished. 
The neck had been hollowed out and attached to the shell by November. That hollowing out gave him a good tendinitis, he was unable to play guitar for six months…. and by December the fingerboard was on. He deliberately kept that one completely flat.
In February 2019, he started working on the tabli, which finally got ready in April (finished with the fish holes instead of F-holes, it’s based on Art-Nouveau carp designs, but people sometimes see sharks or whales in there 🙂 )
By September he finished the parda rails, he put in the tuning pegs in January 2020 with the help of a friendly violin maker who borrowed his reamers. By March 2020 the sitar was completed with the pardas on, but no taravs yet. In June, the tarav rail was added, deliberately opting for a system with cithar tuning pins: The neck is from Limba, a type of wood that is quite stringy, and it seemed dangerous to drill about fifteen holes in a single line along the entire length there and then to start pushing tuning pins into it…?
David based this instrument on the Dieter Zarnitz designs during a visit there but he modified Dieter’s plan a little. Dieter Zarnitz’s sitars are symmetrical, while David has given the neck on a slight angle upwards and also a slight twist opposite the tabli.
The tabli is 400mm wide. The neck is 94mm wide. The scale is 920mm (3cm longer than a standard sitar).
This baritone sitar is tuned lower then a regular sitar. It is tuned in B#, which turns out to be the Helmholz frequency of the shell. The extra bass string sounds very good.
Info about the wood of this instrument:
Merisier (from Vosges) is used for the shell, given to him by his father.
The reels are made out of Linde.
The neck and fingerboard are made from Limba.
The tarav rails are made out of Indian Rosewood.
The tabli is Epicea from near Grenoble, given to him by a violin maker (it was a piece meant to make a cello).
The langoot is made from moose antlers reinforced with steel nails
The ghodi is made out of Rosewood
A surbahar string set is mounted.
Have a look
It’s a beauty !!!
2 more Plexitar sitars
This year I’ve completed 2 plexiglass sitars. They are 100% See-Tar cloned replicas according to the original Purbayan Chatterjee copy as seen here on this site.
Sound sample:
Plexitar on AER Compact 60 amp
Comes with a solid AUER CP 12416 Protective case Pro with locks & wheels in beautiful “blutorange” (vermilion) color.
Hybrid Sitar mod
… the ultimate guitar for sitarists …
Frédéric t’Serstevens is a young and talented sitarist and disciple of Shubhendra Rao and Kushal Das. Since in the beginning he was a dedicated (bass) guitarplayer, he came up with this rather common idea to convert a sitar into a guitar. But now in a suitable and really original way: why not make the accompanying strings, jora, laraj & kharaj, entirely playable on the full neck area?
On traditional sitars, it is common that these strings only can be played (without meend) up to the 4th, 5th, … 7th parda. From then onwards, very frequently, intonation problems occur due to a continuously and significantly increasing strings action. This means that the distance between the string and the frets (pardas) increases too much, and thus the played notes become higher… until unplayable.
The solution is very simple: reduce the strings action by changing the shape of the pardas.
original shape (Rikhi Ram)
hybrid shape (Sitar Factory)
With this kind of new hybrid pardas, mounted on a raised parda lane, the action on the strings is higly reduced. And as such coming very close to a near perfect intonation, comparable to a guitar:
Now even chords can be played perfectly on this instrument… making it the extreme sitar for guitarists, or,… reverse ?? Or just: the ultimate hybrid sitar… 🙂
For more details, please read (on this site): The modification of an acoustic travel sitar into an electric hybrid guitar-sitar.
Hybrid Sitar, a real Guitar Sitar
The modification of an acoustic travel sitar into an electric hybrid guitar-sitar.
Specifications Materials Drawings The modification process
This instrument has been made on demand
The original idea comes from Frédéric t’Serstevens (March 2016)
Design & drawings by Klaas Janssens @ Sitar Factory (April 2016)
Completion by Klaas Janssens @ Sitar Factory (June 2016)
Specifications
Dimensions: 1060mm x 300mm x 130mm (L x W x H)
Neck width: 89mm
Scale: 831mm
Strings action: 
String configuration: custom sitar (Baj, Jora, Laraj & Kharaj), tuned as guitar
Pardas: 24 custom hybrid shaped
Taravs: 11 traditional with wooden kutis
No cikaris installed
Materials
Body: teak wood
Parts: white fiber & metal
Pardas: Nickel Silver wire 5,0mm diameter
Machine heads: M6 Mini / Schaller
Pickup: Neck & Bridge single coil Telecaster™ guitar pickup / Seymour Duncan
Strings: Silver plated steel N°3 (0,30mm) & N°0 (0,23mm) / Pyramid
Nickel flatwound Jora N°26 (0,46mm) / Pyramid
Nickel flatwound Laraj N°24 (0,56mm) / Pyramid
Nickel flatwound Kharaj N°22 (0,76mm) / Pyramid
Drawings
1 Parda lane raised
2 Parda custom shaped
original shape (Rikhi Ram)
hybrid shape (Sitar Factory)
The modification process
1 The original body, removing the original pardas
2 Fitting a raised parda lane, made out of maple & celluloïd
3 Creating a new shaped parda: the hybrid parda
1 = Hybrid parda 2 = Rikhi Ram parda 3 = Traditional parda
4 Mounting a full set (24 pcs) of hybrid pardas
5 Fitting compact electronics control & pickups
The See-Tar
Last week Friday, 19/06/2015, I’ve delivered this electric plexiglass sitar to Purbayan Chatterjee. One year has passed since he had asked me to build this instrument for him (May 2014). Initially I found it a weird idea and honestly, I didn’t favour the choice of plexiglass because of the rather unknown and synthetic nature of this material (modified PMMA / Polymethyl methacrylate). In general I prefer working on wood, rather than with plastics. But the unique challenge seduced me completely and I plunged into this venture which took me a year to accomplish.
The moment I finally passed this sitar into Purbayan’s hands was very exciting, for me as well as for him, because this is really the first sitar ever made completely out of plexiglass. The instrument has a breathtaking look. The transparency is 100% and makes it look quite unreal… But, as this is meant to be a professional musical instrument, I was especially wondering how it will behave on stage, how it will sound, will the material withstand the constant changing and heavy tensions caused by the powerful play of an extremely talented professional sitarist like Purbayan Chatterjee…? 
Soon after handing over the instrument I went back home and kept my mobile close to me. That same afternoon Purbayan tested the sitar profoundly during the rehearsal for a concert the next day in Brussels with Slang, the impressive jazz/rock band (with flute virtuoso Manuel Hermia) from Belgium. 
To my relief no alarm call came, not in the evening, and not in the following morning. A few hours before the concert on Saturday I received an sms from Manuel Hermia writing: “Purbayan loves your sitar!!” and, indeed, a few moments later, when we met in front of the concert stage, his big smile welcomed me,… and,… the concert was marvellous and blew away all my initial questions. Purbayan named the instrument “The See-Tar”, a see-through sitar.
Must read (on this site): The making of a solid body electric sitar in plexiglass.
See-Tar, the Plexiglass Sitar
The making of a solid body electric sitar in plexiglass, the See-Tar.
Specifications Materials Drawings The making of Press Video
This instrument has been made on demand
The original idea comes from Purbayan Chatterjee (May 2014)
Design & drawings by Klaas Janssens @ Sitar Factory (September 2014)
Raw plexiglass body is made by Patricia Stoops & Alexander @ Plexi Reine (Januari/April 2015)
Assembly & completion by Klaas Janssens @ Sitar Factory (May/June 2015)
Specifications
Dimensions: 1070mm x 300mm x 105mm (L x W x H)
Neck width: 90mm
Scale: 822mm
Weight: 3,25kg
String configuration: Ustad Vilayat Khansahib
Parda setting: traditional (20 with no Komal Dha or Re)
Materials
Body: modified PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate) = plexiglass
Parts: Black Buffalo horn & modified PMMA
Pardas: Nickel Silver wire 5,0mm diameter
Machine heads: M6 Mini / Schaller
Pickup: Slimbucker™ Jazz guitar pickup / Kent Armstrong
Strings: Silver plated steel N°3 (0,30mm) & N°0 (0,23mm) / Pyramid
Nickel flatwound Jora N°26 (0,46mm) / Pyramid
Drawings
click on the pictures for zoom or alternative view
The making of
1 The plexiglass body, as coming from Plexi Reine
2 Making the main parts out of black buffalo horn
2.1 taardan
2.2 langot
2.3 jawari
3 Assembly
3.1 taardan & machine heads
3.2 langot
3.3 pardas & cikari posts
4 Installing electronics for sound reproduction
4.1 pickup mount
4.2 potmeters & jack
5 Installing electronics for light effects
6 Amazing color effects
Press
Video
Carbon sitars in production
Harry Shaffer, a creative sitar maker living in Asheville, North Carolina, USA, has been developing an all carbon fiber acoustic sitar over the past couple of years. He began designing plywood guitars as a child and discovered his fascination with the sitar and the music of India in 1993. Because of his frustrating experiences with his first no-name sitar, he put his lutherie skills to work and began ripping sitars apart in order to figure out how to make them work better. In 2013 he founded Carbon Sitars and he actually begun taking orders for custom made carbon fiber acoustic sitars.
This extraordinary version called “The Suibokuga Sitar” was inspired by the art of Japan, in particularly, the sumi-e, or ink wash painting. The main pegs lack the traditional sitar designs, opting for a more Japanese design.
Here is a concept drawing of the main bridge. Harry Shaffer wanted something that reflected the aesthetic of Japanese architecture, so he chose a design that invokes a “torii” or gate to a Shinto shrine.
His new website is now online at http://carbonsitars.com.
A similar project has been developed some 10 years ago by Pramodan Gmeiner & Harkara Urmoneit at the Shri Shinmoy Center, Germany, in june 2004. See their full report here.
Belgisk – Dansk Veena Guitar
Here is another unique combination: a fusion between a guitar and a veena. The concept has been developed and build by Shintai who was born in Belgium and now lives in Denmark. He frequently plays meditative concerts on this remarkable instrument.
Shintai on his Veena Guitar
Basically the instrument consists of a bass guitar-neck fitted on an acoustic guitar body. It has 7 main strings, 12 taravs & 23 specially shaped pardas. The 5 highest notes, located on the soundboard, are fixed while the remaining 18 are moveable. The instrument’s impressive head accommodates 17 tuning keys. Amongst them are 4 banjo-type tuners pointing to the backside and 2 extra machine heads are mounted on the neck for tuning the cikari strings.
On Shintai’s request I’ve added a regular sitar jawari (Elforyn™) and an extra wide tarav jawari (bone) and also 6 moveable tarav moghara (Elforyn™)
