I was asked to build a cigar box sitar and this is what I came up with. No sympathetic strings but I kind of got the sitar sound out of the bridge. I used super jumbo frets. If do another one I think will scallop the fret board so I can get the extreme bends like on a sitar with its raised frets. The body is two Arturo Fuente boxes, face to face with the lids removed. This gave a nice thin plywood soundboard with a decent size body cavity: volume is pretty good. The reason it has 8 strings instead of seven is because I started building it before I finished researching. It is tuned (ceiling to floor) c,g,c,g,c,g,c,f.
I'll post a video if I can figure out how. Can it be done without a Youtube account?
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Thanks. I considered doing sympathetic strings also but it seems like it is more trouble than it is worth. Even if they work the difference is probably subtle. The distinct sitar sound comes mainly from the bridge.
That is a seriously cool instrument. What was your inspiration? More importantly, do you play Sitar?
I can just see Ravi Shankar now........
Thanks for the great photos.
No I don't play sitar. I just did a little research. I'm trying to get a video up to sample the sound but keep getting an error message.
Hi Joe, well thought out and executed, looks great.
i built a regular CBG with sympathetic strings going through the body and tuned at the tail end. Sympathetics did not work though and I have not had time to look in to it.
Taff