Coral Sitars & Sitars in General

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Just found in my storage a 4 cd set of Ravi Shankar gems called In Celebration!!!!

Gooood stuff

Ravi & his daughter Anoushka when she was younger:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KXk_8_8oLY&feature=related

[Pilgrim]

I've got a gig playing sitar at a show in Sac in May. Yay
Gonna play 5 songs or toons

ALWAYS loved that Burden song!

[gweimer]

I found another one.  I didn't remember this having sitar, but I'm pretty sure the break about 2:00 is one.

[felig]

I've got a Jerry Jones & a Raja Zeetar.  The Zeetar was made in Japan in the '60s and was designed around the traditional sitar.  I had mine restored in the late '90s & really have not used it much...the gourd bodies on these things are fiberglass, not a real gourd.  They have seven main strings & a series of sympathetic strings running under the arched frets.  When I had mine restored, I had the screw mounted arched frets removed & replaced with tie-on frets.  I also had it set up in E to E guitar tuning with the 7th fret being an additional high E running next to the low E.  The electronics are stereo, so that you can split off the sympathetic strings & send to another amp.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

I've got a Jerry Jones & a Raja Zeetar.  The Zeetar was made in Japan in the '60s and was designed around the traditional sitar.  I had mine restored in the late '90s & really have not used it much...the gourd bodies on these things are fiberglass, not a real gourd.  They have seven main strings & a series of sympathetic strings running under the arched frets.  When I had mine restored, I had the screw mounted arched frets removed & replaced with tie-on frets.  I also had it set up in E to E guitar tuning with the 7th fret being an additional high E running next to the low E.  The electronics are stereo, so that you can split off the sympathetic strings & send to another amp.

AWESOME!! I'd love to hear how that sounds!

YES!

[felig]

I've not messed with mine very much.  It's a pain to tune & even more to keep in tune...the wooden pegs are the same friction pegs as on a traditional sitar...chalk helps but still tuning is a touchy deal.  Also, I'm always worried about breaking a string...I'm not sure it all sitar strings have a ferric component that are needed with the magnetic pickups.  I've not yet tried electric guitar strings to see how compatible they might be for installation.