Found this interesting Sitar FAQ at http://aacm.org/shop/SitarFAQ.html You can buy instruments from this website.
Sitar FAQ
"What is Jawari?"
The characteristic buzzing sound of a sitar or tanpura is produced by the string vibrating on a flat bridge with a gently curved surface. "Jawari" literally means "glimmering" or "jewel-like". The art of jawari is the shape, the angle, and the curve of the angle at which the bridge is filed. How much of the string rests on the bridge, and how steep are the curves in the back and front of that area of contact all affect how much buzz there is and how clear the sound is.
We usually think of there being three kinds of jawari.. There is the "open" jawari sound of Ravi Shankar, which is the most "buzzy". There is the more closed sound of Nikhil Banerjee, which is less "buzzy". And there is the very closed sound of Vilayat Khan, which is the least "buzzy". As you play, you wear grooves in the bridge and start to loose whatever original jawari sound you had.. This is the biggest bugaboo of sitar players. The ratio of sitar players to artisans capable of doing jawari is thousands to one. Ravi Shankar used to bring Nodu Molluck on tour with him to do jawari. People try to get around this by having several grooves on their Ma string, one for practice and one for playing. Hardcore practicers put something (plastic, film negative) under their bridge when practicing scales to save their jawari. The point is that the jawari of a sitar can radically affect the sound. A mediocre sitar with an excellent jawari can sound good. An excellent sitar with a worn or badly done jawari can sound bad or uninspiring .
"What kind of setup do you do on your sitars before shipping?"
Every instrument that comes from India needs some prep work to be in its best playing condition. After all, they are coming halfway around the world, from a place with a very different climate. Also, as a new sitar (like a guitar) settles in and adjusts to the tension of the strings, its neck draws up a little from when it was first made. Good makers will place the frets and do the jawari with this in mind. But it always good to check.
So, on all the new sitars the we sell we:
Completely restring them. The strings used in India are not as good as what is available in this country. As a matter of fact we used to always bring wire to Hemen and Hiren Roy. Visiting musicians from India always stock up on strings from us.
Check the fret placement. (see above)
Check the jawari. It's not a perfect world. Even sitars from the best makers sometimes sound better if we fiddle with the bridge a little. We are fortunate to have Brian Godden as our ultimate authority on all repairs. Brian's knowledge and skill are famous to all ICM afficiandos. If the customer has a specific jawari request, we will honor it.
Play it for an hour our two, to make sure there are no kinks we have missed
"Does the upper gourd make any difference?"
If you unscrew the top gourd, chances are you will not notice much difference in sound. Perhaps this gourd brings a little more bass sound back to the player. These days in concert Ravi Shankar uses a sitar without the upper tumba at all.
"Does a natural gourd upper tumba sound any different that a spun wood one?"
Traditionally the top tumba was a gourd just like the main tumba. These days some are made of spun wood, due to a shortage of materials. Again, we feel the difference is minimal. There is an aesthetic beauty to a nice large, natural gourd upper tumba, but you would be hard pressed to notice a sound difference if you did a blindfold test.
"Is teak better than toon?"
Most sitars (and tanpuras and sarodes) are made from toon wood. Teak is getting harder and harder to get and consequently is much more expensive than toon. Setting aside the mystique of teak wood, we don't find teak instruments to sound any better than those made of toon. Everyone always says about teak instruments that they need to be played for a while to open up. In our experience, sometimes no matter how much they are played, they never open up.
"What about these newfangled plastic bridges?"
Traditionally, sitar bridges are made of horn. Like a lot of things, horn is becoming harder and harder to come by. So the craftsmen have been scrambling for the last few years to come up with a replacement. When we first started seeing plastic bridges, we cringed. Now, they are a fact of life. Interestingly, all the serious sitar players that we have talked to about this, both here and in Calcutta, like these bridges for the simple reason that the jawari lasts a lot longer.
"Are Hiren Roys sitars as good as they used to be? I know a lot of big-time musicians play or played Hiren Roys, but Hiren Roy himself died over 10 years ago. Are the ones made by his sons just as good?
We will grant that in some cases, when sons take over the business from their fathers, the quality goes downhill. But to say; this is categorically so is ridiculous. You have to look no farther that Manoj Kumar Sardar or P. and Brothers, two other makers we deal with, to see that the sons can preserve or even raise the standard. We believe the quality of the current Hiren Roys is as good as it ever was. To recap the history: Hiren Roy died in 1992. Due to failing health he didn't do much work in the last 5 years of his life. Most of the work then was done by oldest son Himangshu. So a Hiren Roy from the late 80s on was made by Himangshu, who always had everyone's respect. Sadly, Himangshu ( a good friend of ours) died in 1997 and his younger brother Barun took over. We admit he had a rocky first year. The sitars had some finish problems, peg problems - nothing major, but some cause for worry. Within a year, Barun was back on course. Lately, we have been receiving some excellent sitars from him, some of the sweetest sitars we have seen or heard.
Kumkum Bhagya
Anupamaa
