The groove on my bridge is so bad, I couldn't stand listening to it. So, while I am waiting for my new bridge, I decided to try a bit of jawari and fix up the "wet sock" sound of my Ma string. This was a fair bit of fun, I spend most of the day trying to fix my mistake!
At first I sanded down the nasty grove evenly, but it sounded really bad; a wet sock was preferabl. So, I used a chisel and shaped it :-) Actually, it took quite a while and many fix-it, ruin-it trials. I think the chisel is the better route as you have more control. Now it is fully closed, and is playable. I was hoping to get fully open, but every time I got close, I hosed it up again. I think a big part of it is that the bridge I have is cheap and not very big, so it magnifys the slightest mistake.
Anybody have better luck that me the first time?
Pb
The only thing is that after all that chiseling, the action is much lower now and kind of feels strange, but faster. I can see this eating up countless hours to get good at it!
An easy way to determine the correct action was shown to me by Hari Chand when he was working on my sitar (it also had a too high action): he stuck his pinky between the main playin string and the highest fret. the space between it is an exact fingerthickness.
Hey PB,
I just did a full jawari on my RKS Ultra Pro about a week ago. I followed the "Manfred Junius" book instructions to a T.
I first ground down the entire surface flat then marked a grid as instructed. I then used a 5mm "bastard?" file and filed the curve near the string slots. Then I sawed the string slots a little deeper as needed. Next I sanded a parabolic curve onto the front of the bridge useing a flat board with sand paper glued to it then strung up the sitar and made some adjustment "sandings' under the Ma string and the 3 heavier strings, the chikaris didnt seem to need adjustment sanding. Then I tuned it up good and it sounded like CRAP! This all took me about 6 1/2 to 7 hours straight. I'm pretty sure I did everything correctly so I think this sitar just doesnt sound good regardless, but I could very well be wrong, this was my first attempt but everything looks good.
I dont think doing jawari is as hard as some people say it is now that I tried it. I just need a little more practice and I think I could do very good jawari in a few more tries, maybe even my next try.
I've looked at and studied this particular sitar for quite awhile. I dont see anything wrong with it on the outside, it just happens to have bad tone I guess or I did something wrong. I'll find out on my next try on a different sitar
