piano tuning / Indian music scales...?

[Grant Richter]

Richard Franecki of F/i has built quit a few
electric Indian instruments. By accident we
discovered that the gently rounded oak molding
used for door frames makes a great tambura/sitar
bridge. At first it seems like a straight line segment
tapering to the bridge would be best. In practice
a gentle curve like the molding produces more
sustain.

----------
> From: Don Tillman <don at till.com>
> To: martin.czech at intermetall.de
> Cc: harrybissell at prodigy.net; synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl
> Subject: Re: piano tuning / Indian music scales...?
> Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2000 2:09 AM
> 
>    Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 07:59:13 +0100 (MET)
>    From: Martin Czech <martin.czech at intermetall.de>
> 
>    :::This was done on an instrument called the Coral Electic Sitar
>    :::(by Danelectro in the 60's) It has a six string neck... and
>    :::twelve drones beneath it that had a separate pickup  
> 
>    I always thought that a major part of the sound is "snare", ie.
>    the strings touch something on the instrument body when exited.
>    Something similar to electro slap bass playing.
>    Is it a special bridge?
> 
> Yes, that's correct.  I've been playing an electric sitar for years(*)
> and it's surprising how little the sympathetic strings contribute to
> the sound.
> 
> Most of the characteristic sound of the electric sitar is in the
> bridge, which is made of a block of hard rubber and slopes off at a
> gradual angle so that, no matter what amplitude the string vibrates
> at, some of the string is always slapping against the bridge.  It's
> similiar to the fretless buzz that Jaco Pastorius gets in his bass
> playing, but much brighter.
> 
>   -- Don
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> (*) You're starting to expect bizarre stuff like this from me, eh?
> Specifically I have the Jerry Jones copy of the Coral Electric Sitar:
> http://www.jerryjonesguitars.com/electric%20sitar.htm
> 
> It's very close to the original and improved in several ways.  Also,
> check out the "junior" version, without the sympathetic strings:
> 
> http://www.jerryjonesguitars.com/baby%20sitar.htm