Okay, I own two pakhawaj, and one is wonderfull and tunes beatifully, but the other one just doesn't want to tune. I know all about lacing and reheading and everything, so that is not an issue. When I hit the na stroke and turn the daya side around as I do it, it goes from sa, to dha, to sa, to dha, in that pattern. I trying working with the gajara and still no luck at all. . .any suggestions?
Beenkar Ted Ceplina
See, it doesn't want to tune at all, when I hit the gajara, even gently, it completely changes the pitch of the drum when I hit the tu stroke. Mabye it is just a bad head, it looks more like a tabla head than pakhawaj head anyway.
Beenkar Ted Ceplina
If it is a tabla head it'll be tuning more like a C or C sharp, depending on the size, than a G sharp or A, Sa tuning for Dhrupad vocal or Subrahar. Before you take the head off check to see that that both heads are seated evenly. Then carefully mark the treble head with a pencil and the drum with a piece of tape where it's high and low tuning (they should be exactly opposite each other. If only one spot is low then you may have a damaged head. But if that is the case then your tuning would be off more than one or two steps. Is it the tuning or the timbre that's off? Sometimes a bad head will tune but it won't have any sustained note (flat) where it's damaged. I think you would know immediately if the head was torn because there would be no tuning at all. My guess is that the shell is warped or cracked.
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