Buying any instrument without playing it first is
nerveracking for anybody. We encourage anyone who can to visit our Store in person. There
are practice rooms upstairs where you can sit and play any and all sitars to your heart's
content. For some people this might well be worth the price of plane fare and car rental
(we are 1 hours drive from the San Francisco Airport). If you can't do that, we will help
you find an instrument to match your needs.
Buying a new sitar
Many things go into making a good sitar. The quality of the
materials, the wood for the face and neck, the gourd for the body and the bone for the
bridge are all important. More important is the skill with which they are all put
together. Most of the best instrument makers are small, family operations. The knowledge
and tricks of the trade are passed from father to sons or a few chosen workers. (We see
this with sarodes, too. Many craftsmen try to make copies of a Hemen sarode, but none
sound like a Hemen sarode.) You will pay more for a sitar from a well-known maker. Yet you
are assured of a certain quality and resale value.
Naturally then, the pedigree of the instrument is important.
Below are brief biographies and descpritions of the makers we deal with. There are
thousands of sitar makers all over India. Certainly some that we have never heard of are
capable of making a great sitar. This is simply a crystallization of what we have learned
in 30 years of importing, selling, playing and talking with professional players in India
and the U.S. We have no exclusive arrangement with any maker nor a vested interest in
pushing one over another. All feedback is welcome.
What to look for in a new sitar
If you are holding the actual instrument check to
see there are no cracks in the gourd and that the neck is not bowed. Observe the grain of
the wood on the face. If you can, make sure all the frets (including the moveable Re and
Dha) are in, or can be moved to the right place. One hallmark of a cheap sitar is that the
sympathetic pegs interfere with correct fret placement. You can often tell the character
of a good instrument just by plucking the open strings. Or gently tap the sitar on the
bottom of the gourd a few inches below the tailpiece. A good sitar will resonate
nicely. A well tuned good sitar will resonate even more nicely.
You should be able to pull a fifth on the Ma string of
any sitar. Play middle Re on the fret and see if you can pull it up to Dha. If you can't,
it's not a decent sitar. You can often tell the quality of a sitar by how much the
overtones ring out on the Kharaj (bass) string. Tune the sitar nicely and pull a Ga or Ma
on the low string. On a good sitar you will get whole bouquet of overtones ringing out.
If you are just looking at pictures then you are on
thinner ice. Fancy decoration does not make a good sitar any more than tons of makeup make
a beautiful woman. Here is a picture of a sitar that we used to sell as the "Bombay
Student Sitar". We stopped carrying it because each one took at least 5-6 hours
to get into playable shape.
 |
You see sitars similar to this all over the Internet under
different names. We've even seen them on E-bay advertised as "antique"sitars. So
we'd advise against something like this unless you know the seller has put hours of setup
into it. |
To assure yourself of quality, we
urge you to buy a sitar made by a known maker with a reputation in India. These days
there are many internet dealers selling sitars with fancy names like "Professional
Deluxe Model #1" that they say are made especially for them. Now, some of these could
very well be decent instruments. And some of them could very well be generic sitars with
fancy names.
Buying a Used Sitar
Obviously all the same things apply. If you can find a
maker’s name, you will know something of the pedigree. If not, you should check for:
1) Cracks
in the gourd and neck. (These can be fixed by a skilled repair person)
2) See
if the neck is bowed. This is tell-tale sign of age. A bowed neck will effect the
intonation, and ultimately make it
unplayable.
3) Check
to see if there are grooves worn in the bridge. If so, the jawari will have to be
done to give you a good sense of what the instrument sounds like. The truth is, a cheap
sitar with a top-class jawari can sound decent, and a first rate sitar with a badly done
or worn jawari can sound mediocre. |
