Haüfcut Instruments
mrjonthehat's collection of handmade instruments, with descriptions, video clips and guides to building Cigar Box Guitars, Canjos, Dulcimers, Cajons, Whamolas and other fun items. To buy an instrument - Leave a message here, or on facebook, or e-mail mrjonthehat@yahoo.com - Please browse the older posts in the archive. Cheers.
Sunday 30 April 2023
PSYCHEDELICATESSEN - A selection of Haufcut Instruments
PSYCHEDELICATESSEN
- A selection of Haufcut Instruments:
Thursday 6 April 2023
Some Sitar Sounds
Haufcut Sitar
Sitar Stringing
Sitar Stringing
Pulling the string through the peg hole. |
Unlike a guitar, the highest string is to the left, if the instrument is upright.
The most conventional (D) tuning of these 13 strings, from low to high is D C# D E F# G G# A B C# D E F#.
Each string is tuned by a removable, wooden peg. Holes are drilled in the back, curved section of the neck, to secure these pegs. The pegs have small holes in them.
So... The string needs to be threaded through its neck hole, then pulled through the neck peg hole (I use tweezers. A hook was too fiddly). The end of the string gets threaded through the peg. Wound anticlockwise, then threaded through again. Then the peg goes back into its hole, aligned with a corresponding hole on the other side of the neck, and tightened / tuned with anticlockwise turns.
Chalk, or wax can be used to make the pegs turn more easily, but they should be pushed tight, so they don't de-tune.
Part 2 - The main 5 strings.
They are 'unwound' wires , that are also looped over the tail peg and tailpiece. They then pass through fine tuning beads, (Swan and egg(s),
and go over the big bridge, lleaving two grooves on the left for the side strings. The strings go above the curved frets, over the curved nut, (using cut grooves) Then through holes in the upper, string guide nut.
My sitar has geared tuners. Traditional sitars have pegs. These strings are different thicknesses and are strings 1 and 5 are steel, (as are the chikari side strings - 6 and 7) Strings 2,3 and 4 are bronze. Conventional (D) tuning. is G D A D A (The last two being the bronze, bass pancham and karaj strings)
The tail beads can be tightened by pushing them nearer the tail. This fine tunes the strings. Geared tuners really make this unnecessary though.
Part 3 - The 2 chikari side strings.
These strings have side tuners at the top of the neck, (mine have geared tuners on an attached wooden section.) They are loop ended and slot over the tail peg, tailpiece and grooves in the large bridge. They travel above the frets, but unlike the main 5, get slotted in to their respective posts, between fret 5 and 6 for the low string, and
fret 13 and 14 for the high one. From the slots, they go to their tuners or pegs. In conventional (D) tuning, they are tuned to a low D and a high D.
Part 4 - Fret positions.
The frets are moveable, curved steel, attached by thread loops. This makes setting up a bit more complicated than other instruments.
It may help to think of the 11th fret as the mid 'octave' point, where you'll get a harmonic note, in the same way the 12th fret on a guitar is the octave point, but there are three octaves on a sitar neck. The nut to fret 6 is the low octave. 7 to 16 is the middle octave. 17 to 20 is the upper octave.
The frets sit between the side peg positions, but need to be adjusted to achieve the following notes, when the first (right hand side) G string is fretted: Moving the fret towards the tail makes the note higher. Note that there is (normally) no D# or A# fret in the middle octave, and no D# or F# in the upper octave.
Conventional (D) Fret Positioning -
Open - G. Fret 1-G#. 2-A. 3-A#. 4-B. 5-C. 6-C#. / 7-D. 8-E. 9-F. 10-F#. 11-G. 12-G#.13-A. 14-B. 15-C. 16-C#./ 17-D. 18-E. 19-F. 20-G.
This guide is mainly for my quick reference. Hopefully of interest to anyone with a sitar, or anyone thinking of making one.