Tag Archives: varisitari

Carbon sitars in production

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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

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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.

 

 

Play 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™)

Travel Sitar Mods (3B) … the white sitar

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After finalizing the structural rough woodwork on the travel-sitar’s body (see Part 1 = Travel Sitar Mods (3A)) the final acts are: completing the body finish and preparing and installing the sitar’s hardware such as godi (jawari), machine heads, strings, pardas and eventually an electro-magnetic pickup.

I’ve painted the body in white using Bio Pin™ waterbased organic white paint and Colortone™ high gloss waterbased finish. The patri, jawari, cikari machine head mount and cikari posts are all made out of Elforyn™. So it became a real “organic & vegan” sitar,… 100% suitable for vegetarians… 🙂

Installing 7 Schaller™ Mini M6 machine heads and 20 bronze pardas N°6.

Main strings gauges :
1) Baj tar : steel, 0,30mm (N°3)
2) Jora tar : nickel flatwound, 0,46mm (N°26)
3) Laraj tar : nickel flatwound, 0,56mm (N°24)
4) Gandhar tar : steel, 0,30mm (N°3)
5) Pancham tar : steel, 0,30mm (N°3)
6) & 7) Cikari tar : steel, 0,23mm (N°0)

Some details :

First Karasek sitar

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Tony Karasek, an american performing artist and technician with 30 years experience in instrument repairs and maintenance has finally made his first sitar. He writes:

“Due to increased market demand, the quality level of Indian instruments currently being produced has suffered significantly. (I made a living for years repairing them in California). Recognising this fact, I moved to Pune, India with my wife and family in April, 2003 to re-establish the high quality standards for instrument production. My intention is to produce a line of Sitars and Tanpuras based on those of the mid-20th century.”

After this adventure, he resides in Charlotte, North Carolina and made his first own handmade sitar. It took about 18 months and 3 rewrites to produce the “Karasek Sound Domestic Custom Sitar Number 1”. Tony writes about it:

“The priority was first and foremost – sound with finest quality materials, components, joinery and consistant fit and feel. To that end, this sitar came into being. The body is made of mahogany with padouk wood trim. Indian rosewood pegs, Arizona grown gourds, delrin bridges and faux tortoise shell trim finish off the rest of the instrument. Internally, there have been many new innovations that have not only produced a far more solid instrument but greatly enhanced the tone and resonance.”

I would love to see  and feel this unique and most promising instrument in real and play it. Meanwhile for me there are only a couple of impressive pictures to see, and a youtube demo. All the above pictures are from Tony. You can find more of them and also a lot of very detailed and unveiling info at his website Karasek Sound here.

Sitar made by Alan Arthur Suits

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I’ve added a page to Sitar Making Links about this beautiful  and unique sitar made by Alan Arthur Suits. He has sent me some pictures and info about the construction of this sitar. Click here.

Alan writes on his website:

“The sitar was built to concert level quality, using the highest grade materials and craftsmanship. The body is a natural gourd as is the top tumba (gourd resonator). The main body is Spanish cedar (virtually identical to Himalayan cedar or Tun wood). All the ornaments are real ivory recycled from 70 year old piano keys. The bridges are African blackwood, a species of rosewood, one of the hardest known woods and considerably harder than ebony, with rosewood feet. The pegs are turned of Bolivian rosewood.”

“The sitar plays with excellent action and has a truly superb tone with great overtones, sympathetic response, and a Nikhil Banerjee style jawari. It will fit in standard fiberglass sitar cases.”

More info see Coyote’s Paw Gallery Ltd.

Sher Mohammad vintage sitar

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This sitar was made in the “Sher Mohammad & Sons Sitar Makers”- shop in Bansanwala Bazaar, Lahore 1940 – 1950 by early sitarmaker Sher Mohammed. At that time, before the Partition, he taught sitar making to, amongst others, Rikhi Ram Sharma and Kartar Chand Sharma. At Partition time, both Rikhi Ram Sharma and Kartar Chand Sharma left Lahore and headed for Delhi where they both settled their own sitar shop (only 800 m. away from each other). Rikhi Ram’s shop became world famous due to Ravi Shankar and the Beatles. Kartar Chand, joined by his younger brother Hari Chand, remained low profile and continued making high quality professional sitars at Paharganj. They developed their own style of sitars and got specialised in repair work. Amongst their main customers was late Pt. Balaram Pathak, and his son Ashok Pathak. In januari 1993 Kartar Chand passed away, and thus leaving the shop to his brother Hari Chand.

The original stringing (before main artists commenced to change details as per their own requirements) put on this sitar is:

Main strings gauges :
1) Baj tar : steel, 0,28mm (N°2) or 0,30mm (N°3)
2) & 3) Jora tar : brass, 0,37mm (N°28) or 0,40mm (N°27)
4) Pancham tar : brass, 0,37mm (N°28) or 0,40mm (N°27)
5) Pancham tar : steel, 0,28mm (N°2) or 0,30mm (N°3)
6) & 7) Cikari tar : steel, 0,21mm (N°00) or 0,23mm (N°0)
Taravs : steel, 0,21mm (N°00) or 0,23mm (N°0)

REMARK: Depending on style and/or raga the 4th string should change.
In the rare situation you are using a DHA/NI (= A#/B#) then the original string gauge can be used. However, in a more appropriate tuning, when the string’s pitch is raised to GA (= E#) this brass string tends to break easily. So, nowadays, a steel string, 0,28mm (N°2) or 0,30mm (N°3) is used more commonly.
Also, in my personal experience with Hari Chand, since long time the brass strings (#2-3-4) aren’t used any more. They are replaced by bronze, which alloy is much stronger and has a warmer sound.

Practical tuning of the 7 main strings is:
1) tuned to MA (F#) : steel, 0,28mm (N°2) or 0,30mm (N°3)
2) & 3) tuned to SA (C#) : bronze, 0,37mm (N°28) or 0,40mm (N°27)
4) tuned to GA (E#) : steel, 0,28mm (N°2) or 0,30mm (N°3)
5) tuned to PA (G#) : steel, 0,28mm (N°2) or 0,30mm (N°3)
6) & 7) tuned to SA (C#) : steel, 0,21mm (N°00) or 0,23mm (N°01)

This sitar has very simple decoration, old style round kutis and a beautiful tumba. Also note that the cikari kutis are not different from the tarav kutis. The shape of the neck is rather rectangular and this tiny instrument is ultra lightweight… Very special on this sitar is that the tabli is made of spruce wood. The sound of this sitar is particularly clear, warm and with a strong tarav response.

See this article about musical heritage: “The last of the sitar makers” by Sonia Malik, published in The Express Tribune, 24/09/2011.

Read the full Kartar Chand Hari Chand history here.

Sitar Shopping

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Do you want to buy a (new) sitar ?

For sure when it is your first sitar then you might feel somewhat uncertain…??
Because very frequently this question has been put to me, I’ve decided to make a “check list” with 10 tips to help you to decide if the sitar which is laying in front of you is ok to buy or not.

If you really want to minimize the risk, then always go to a shop yourself and check the instrument thoroughly before you buy it. And, take your time for this. Buying a sitar online, with only a good looking picture and dito description on a fancy internet shop is looking for trouble. Sitars are always handmade and the overall quality varies very much. They are also very fragile. Unless you invest in a good fiber case, shipping a sitar by air or sea will almost always end up on arrival with a broken tumba (pumpkin) and / or broken kuntis (tuning pegs), or even worse…

You can find the Sitar Buying Tips here. It is also linked under Resources.

Another interesting article about this on the web can be found here.

Good luck.