I'm trying to sell my Radha Krishna Sharma Sitar, with its carrying case. It's priced at $750 at http://www.aacm.org/shop/product9.html . You can see a picture I've taken of my sitar at: http://www.geocities.com/ikomm2001/sitar.html . Help! I'm moving out of San Francisco and can unfortunately not take it with me. Please reply via email at ikomm2001@yahoo.com.
Note: Peter was right, I updated this posting so that it approprietly shows my sitar.
Hi Val.
Pardon me, but his sitar is incorrectly identified.
If it is a Radha Krishna Sharma, it is a sitar #104, or as AACM would put it a number 2 sitar. So the list price on it would then be $750, not $650 and this aacm link needs to be changed in your message.
This often happens with Radha Krishna Sharma sitars but usually people think they have a number 1 (105) sitar when they actually they have a number 2 (104) as the fronts look identical but the carving on the rear gourd area is quite different. The 105 has continuous carving down the curved neck block into the leaves on the gourd, where the 104 has a smooth, polished curved neck block with a ring around the bottom of it and leaves leading out from this on the bottom gourd. There are other differences in the top tumbas, but the bottom gourd design is the easiest to spot right away, and most reliable as it can not be easily changed or removed from the sitar, as the top tumba could be.
A Radha Krishna Sharma number 3 (103) sitar is easy to tell by the rather simple ornamentation on the front and the 11 plain tarraf (resonant string) pegs. . both other models (104 and 105) have 13 ornamented tarraf pegs.
I see that the screw-in top Tumba (wooden round resonator) is missing from your sitar. Do you have this?
If so perhaps you'd like to show this in another photo as the lack of this will devalue your instrument to many people as it can cost a bit to replace.
I also notice that the Radha Krishna Sharma badge seems to be missing between the string retainer and bridge at the top of the sitar. Are there holes in the wood that show removal?
Without this badge there is little to assure anyone that this is a Radha Krishna Sharma sitar as many generic sitars are made that look very, very, much like this one.
Also, looking at the photo again and seeing 11 plain pegs, which should be 13 in number and the penwork which looks different in style, this "feels" less and less like an RKS sitar to me.
If it isn't a Radha Krishna Sharma sitar then it is worth rather less. . perhaps, oh, $300 to $400 or so as a pure generic student sitar. One would need to play it to know more about this.
If anyone else wants to look at the photos from aacm and the one of her sitar they should knock the period off the link in Val's message, then the browser will correctly reference the link.
You can do this in the Address bar (IE) or Location bar (Netscape) by placing your cursor after the period at the end and deleting it. Then press enter and the link will work correctly.
Sorry if I may have brought less then happy news to you re. the identity of your instrument.
Best of luck with your sale, Val, and with your move.
Peter Cutchey, Buckingham Music.
http//:www.buckinghammusic.com
