Hi Remco,
Always enjoy visiting your site. .Uh, I covered this at length some two years ago but the thread seems to have been lost. I don't know the rightness or the wrongness of this but dressing and polishing frets is a common improvement amongst guitarists. Before wet sanding, loosen up your main strings one turn so that you can pull them out of the way while your working instead of removing the strings (which is entirely unnecessary but does facilitate the fret work). I cut 8.5" X 11" regular bond paper into strips which are a hair wider than the fingerboard underneath the frets and wedge them up there. I use 600 wetpaper to get out the hammer marks or flat spots. All of the unsightly black drippings fall on this paper and make cleanup a breeze. I fold the paper two or three times so that it will take the shape of the fret while still exerting enough pressure to calm down or remove the damaged areas.
When I am done with the wet sanding each fret will now have a perfect "satin" appearance which shows any imperfection in the fret as a shiny spot. I go over these areas a bit more with the paper. Once this is done it's time to drag out the dremel tool with a felt wheel and some jewelers rouge. Buff each fret until you can see your face in it like a little mirror. Now try a meend . . . ooooh so smoothe. Good luck. . . . uncle ken
[quote]johnnysitarwhatson (Nov 28, 2003 12:20 p.m.):
That ony doesnt look like a very expensive sitar?
Really, do you think not? I don't know, but I
thought it could possibly be a quality sitar. For
one thing it's claimed to be "inlaid with bone
and ivory", and in the close-ups the inlay isn't
as glaringly white as celluloid, so maybe this is
true. For another thing it has ebony pegs, which
I would think would be more expensive than the
brown wood that's more often used, shisham I
guess. I personally prefer the appearance of the
dark black ebony pegs to the brown ones. On
the other hand, it looks as if it might be painted
and I hate seeing wooden instruments painted.
Though I can't tell for sure from the pictures. It
might just be red stain.
Look at the big kuntis (pegs, a word with a certain history here), the look like painted black (!?), ebony wouldnt be the easiest wood to carve pegs from. The main gourd isnt glued from pieces to a nice shape. Inlay is simple made, same for bridge and string holder. Celluloid doesnt have to shimmer. Painted wood, maybe even mango; maybe Lucknow style campfire sitar. Compare overall look to Ravis Sitar or any other professional one in the 60es, youll see the differences in detail and shape.
You can get better at mid-east man, It isn't that great, It will need alot of work, the sitar wood just from picture looks very brittle, I've work on one that looked very much like that one, It came apart very easy, I turned it into a tambora. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Peace
It didn't look worth the money to me. Maybe it looks better in person, but it looks average from the web. The wood is aged, depending on how it was kept, it may sound good. I'd buy a new one anyway, it looks a bit delicate.
[quote]johnnysitarwhatson (Nov 28, 2003 05:17 p.m.):
> Look at the big kuntis (pegs, a word with a
> certain history here), the look like painted
> black (!?), ebony wouldnt be the easiest
> wood to carve pegs from.
Oooh! I see that now. They're lighter where
they enter the neck.
