Section 8 – Tightening the Strings

Tuning and Stringing the Dilruba or Esraj

by David Courtney

STRINGING AND TUNING THE DILRUBA AND ESRAJ Section 1 – Introduction Section 2 – Basic Concepts of Tuning Section 3 – Overview of Strings Section 4 – Dilruba/Esraj Strings Section 5 – Tools Section 6 – Stringing the Base Section 7 – Stringing the Tuning Pegs Section 8 – Tightening the Strings

When one is tigh­ten­ing the strings there are a few things to keep in mind.  Here we dis­cuss which way to turn the pegs as well as the topic of the settling in of the strings.

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Counter Clockwise or Clockwise?

One should be attentive as to whether a string is tightened by a clockwise or a counter-clockwise turn of the key.  There are plenty of peo­ple who will tell you that one way is better than an­other.  I have tried all ways, and it seems to me that a counter clockwise turn of the pegs is best for tigh­ten­ing the sympathetic strings.  I do not believe that it makes much of a difference for the mechanical tuners.

I have seen a num­ber of cases where the default tuning of the mechanical keys is op­po­site the tuning for the sympathetic strings.  If one looks very closely at the mechanisms used, there is a cer­tain logic be­hind this.  How­ever, I feel that having some keys turn clockwise and others turn counter-clockwise is just too awkward.  This is es­pec­ially the case when you have seve­ral dilrubas and esrajs.  When you are on stage, you al­ready have so many things to con­cern yourself with that you really do not need the added con­si­dera­tions of which keys, on which in­stru­ments, turn in which di­rec­tions.  I have standardised all of my in­stru­ments to tighten with a counter-clockwise turn of the pegs.  This works for me but you are cer­tainly free to pursue any ap­proach that you like.

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Settling In

Whenever you replace a string, any string, for any rea­son, it takes a cer­tain amount of time for the string to settle in.  You can minimise this time by pulling the string sharply up as you tune it for the first time.  Admittedly this does put strain on the string and carries some risk of breaking.  But the time saved in re­du­cing the settling-in time, more than compensates for this risk.

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Positioning the Sympathetic Strings (Esraj)

It is impor­tant that the sympathetic strings be cor­rectly posi­tioned for the esraj.  This is one con­sideration that esraj players have to contend with that dilruba players do not.  As the sympathetic strings wind around the friction peg, there is a cor­rect posi­tion that one must be attentive to.  If a string wraps around the friction peg too high, it will hit ag­ainst the num­ber 4 (drone) string.  Conversely, if it winds around too low, then it will hit ag­ainst one of the frets.  Neither si­tua­tion is accept­able, be­cause the sympathetic strings must traverse a fairly narrow space bet­ween the frets and the play­ing strings.

There is a trick that works very nicely; it will allow you to posi­tion the sympathetic stings in what­ever posi­tion you want and do it quite neatly.  For this trick, all you need to do is to hold the small wooden pick in what­ever angle you wish the strings to go to, then roughly tighten the pegs.  You can move the pick alternately to the top side, as well as the bottom side.  This will allow you to ease the strings into both their cor­rect pitch, as well as their cor­rect posi­tion.

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Winding the Sympathetic Strings (Esraj)

Winding the Sympathetic Strings (Esraj) – The esraj has an­other issue to deal with when tigh­ten­ing the strings; that is the exact man­ner in which the strings wrap around the friction peg.  We must not forget that the sympathetic strings of the esraj do not have an upper bridge; for all practical pur­poses, it is the friction pegs which are the upper bridge.  It only stands to rea­son that the con­di­tions of the strings as they wrap around the friction pegs will have a major im­pact upon the sound that the sympathetic stings provide.

The bottom line is simple.  Do not let the sympathetic strings wind around the friction peg in some random fash­ion, or your sound from these stings will be unpredictable.  We must make sure that the sympathetic strings are unimpeded by any other string at the point where it comes off of the peg.  A good ap­proach is to first wind the strings around the peg in a normal fash­ion, but just before the string begins to traverse the span to the lower bridge, at that point, pull the winding away form the other loops.  If you can keep the string away from the winding at that point, you increase the chances of ob­taining a good clear sound.

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Conclusion

we looked at the tools and techniques used for tuning an esraj or a dilruba.  When these points have been con­si­dered ag­ainst related topics of the strings as well as the ap­proach to tuning, then we have a fairly comp­lete grasp of the sub­ject.

STRINGING AND TUNING THE DILRUBA AND ESRAJ Section 1 – Introduction Section 2 – Basic Concepts of Tuning Section 3 – Overview of Strings Section 4 – Dilruba/Esraj Strings Section 5 – Tools Section 6 – Stringing the Base Section 7 – Stringing the Tuning Pegs Section 8 – Tightening the Strings