Sitar Tumba Repair |
The Patient:
I have owned this Gayaki-style sitar for a number of years now. This instrument has been through a lot, including a sloppy refinishing job, but she's sturdy and has a sweet mellow sound so she's a keeper. Recently I had her worked on by Tony Karasek, a well-known and very talented sitar designer and technician who had worked for Ravi Shankar for several years. Tony installed a new bridge and updated my old plasic tuning beads with carved ones with non-slip leather bottoms. |  |
 | Tony also re-routed the 5th string out of the way to facilitate playing low notes on the 4th string. This improvement works great for me since I tune and play this instrument as if it were a Kharaj style sitar.
Note how the 5th string now runs under the bridge and is supported by the 1st post which also carries the lower chikari string.
Very clever! |
| Whoa! What happened here? |
Not long ago, I had some friends over for a drum banging party. We all had a great time making music together and at some point I switched to sitar while the other guys drummed.
My little music room was cramped with the extra people around and at the end of the party a big conga drum got knocked over & it hit the sitar, cracking it wide open. |  |
 | The point of impact was on the tumba (large gourd) just near the instrument's tabli (face or top). She took a hard whack in that spot! You can see the dent and several loose pieces there.
Luckily, nothing critical to the tone and functionality of the sitar was broken. A cracked or smashed tumba can be repaired without too much trouble. On the following pages you'll see how I fixed her up. | |