Hi, the jawari has to be done with the particular sitar. I think there's a place/site from England that sells them with "jawari" but they're just shaped a little bit and you could get lucky. Most of the mass produced sitars have bridges done this way. To get a perfectly open jawari this way, forget it. You may end up with a semi-closed or closed jawari but there will be dead spots on certain notes. You could get one of these bridges and then file the legs down to adjust the angles possibly but keep in mind that 1/2 millimeter can completely change the sound so it's a little tedious but give it a try if you're up to it!
Another option is to wait until someone is near that can do it. The next time Sanjay Sharma is in the west I'll post the info for everyone.
Brian at Silverbush music may still do jawari but he's selling the business last I heard. . . You would have to send your sitar out to him but he does a very good job. . . . . .
Also, the book by Manfred Junius has an article on jawari that's very useful. . .
I'd almost think they could make a Jawari/Nut combination, and instead of adjusting the height of the Jawari by filing its legs, it might be more accurate to adjust the height of the nut, which would result in the strings being at a different angle on the bridge. The nut would have to begin too high, so you would have something to work with; once you file it down, if you go too far, you'ld end up having to put shims underneith it to raise it back. Obviously, adjusting the height of either would depend on the space between the strings and the frets. There may not be a whole lot of leeway (I remember once playing around adjusting the height of a bridge just a little on one of my Mountain Dulcimers, and ended up having to replace it.) As for filing the legs to adjust the angle, that might make more sense, but it does seem it could be problematic. I doubt there's any real shortcut either way.
The reason I ordered the Manfred Junius from you was for the Jawari information. I look forward to getting it. From the Jawari information I've seen thus far, its incredibly hard to adjust, but with so few qualified Jawari people around, it might be a good idea to learn how to do at least basic adjustments. In my case, on my sitar string #4 seems to be having a bit of a problem, probably not enough to risk making an adjustment right now, but maybe in the future.
