Hey new guys (and gals) with your new sitars. Save yourself a lot of aggravation and slip a piece of celluloid (the stuff photo negatives are made out of) under your strings at the bridge to save your precious jawari.
I was told by a few people here to do that but I was to lazy and stupid to listen, so when I got my nice new sitar I just played the crap out of it and wore out my bridge pretty quickly. So I swapped it with my spare bridge (my sitar came with an extra made for it) and started banging away again. Low and behold I noticed another "groove" forming a few weeks later and I basically stopped practicing so I wouldnt wear out the new bridge. Then the other night the advice given to me here on this forum popped into my head. Double "DUH" I slipped on the celluloid and I'm back to practicing. It doesnt sound bad either, I'd say the sitar lost about 10% of its tonal quality if that,,, so that aint bad.
So my sitar loving friends, dont be stupid like me, use that photo negative of Aunt Matilda or Grammom and save your jawari for another day!
OR,,, you can learn to do jawari, which you will eventually, hopefully, but for most of us thats down the road a ways.
Jeff
Re:Message to You New Guys and Saving Your Jawari.
Mar 02, 2004 02:02 p.m.
You groved your new one in a short time! Man you are hard on them, I remember the last time. I tried the negative trick a while back but it sounded so bad, I took it out from shame. Maybe I'll try again.
My next bridge will be plastic for sure. I have one in my old sitar and love it. It is a pain to set up (days and days), but worth it. It is very resilient to riyaz.
Pb
Jeff (Mar 02, 2004 12:06 a.m.):
Hey new guys (and gals) with your new sitars. Save yourself a lot of aggravation and slip a piece of celluloid (the stuff photo negatives are made out of) under your strings at the bridge to save your precious jawari.
I was told by a few people here to do that but I was to lazy and stupid to listen, so when I got my nice new sitar I just played the crap out of it and wore out my bridge pretty quickly. So I swapped it with my spare bridge (my sitar came with an extra made for it) and started banging away again. Low and behold I noticed another "groove" forming a few weeks later and I basically stopped practicing so I wouldnt wear out the new bridge. Then the other night the advice given to me here on this forum popped into my head. Double "DUH" I slipped on the celluloid and I'm back to practicing. It doesnt sound bad either, I'd say the sitar lost about 10% of its tonal quality if that,,, so that aint bad.
So my sitar loving friends, dont be stupid like me, use that photo negative of Aunt Matilda or Grammom and save your jawari for another day!
OR,,, you can learn to do jawari, which you will eventually, hopefully, but for most of us thats down the road a ways.
Re:Message to You New Guys and Saving Your Jawari.
Mar 02, 2004 07:11 p.m.
Hey PB, the groove formed under the MA (second) string rather quickly even with pencil graphite on the bridge. My sitar sounds fine with the celluloid, open MA sounds kinda dead though but everything else sounds OK. Had to fool with it a few times to get it to sound good. I dont have it under the chikaris though, they were totally muted with the celluloid underneath of them.
I'm just wondering if the celuloid will wear out. Also frm what I've read the plastic bridges sound good, have never heard one though. :-)
Jeff
Re:Message to You New Guys and Saving Your Jawari.
Mar 03, 2004 06:26 a.m.
You can also use thin fish skin or even cigarette paper for a little preservation. And you can saw grooves to the bridge and nut near to the existing ones for the main string, so you have some more runs for the string before jawari work is needed. And if ans string (typical the second) is to loud or aggressive, you can tame it with a little silk thread between string and bridge.
