Tar Shehnai Conversion:

How to Build a Tar Shehnai from an Esraj

by David Courtney

Introduction

This page will show you how to modify your esraj into a tar-shehnai.  It will all be handled in an easy step-by-step fash­ion.

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Purchasing the Tar-Shehnai Kit

The first thing that we need to do is to purchase a tar-shehnai upgrade kit.  I am only aware of two sour­ces, Raj Musicals and Manoj Kumar.  Here are their contact par­ti­cu­lars:

Manoj Kumar is based in Calcutta and is one source of tar-shehnai kits:
Their website is at http://www.monojkrsardar.com/
 
Their office address is:
6, Rabindra Sarani, 1st floor,
Kolkata – 700 001, West Bengal, India
Phone:91-33-2237 5835
 
Their showroom address is:
8A, Lalbazar Street,
Kolkata – 700 001, West Bengal, India
Phone: 91-33-2248 4519
 
 
Raj Musicals is an­other source of kits.  Their address is:
2188/6 Main Road West Patel Nagar,
Opp. Metro Rail Pillar No. 225,
New Delhi-110008, INDIA
 
Their website is https://rajmusical.com/
Their telephone num­bers are:
Tel. (Shop) : +91 11 25700413, +91 11 65492392
Tel. (Res.) : +91 11 25393877
(Mob) : +91 9810230320 (S. Raj), +91 9899272572 (Sanjeev)

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Gather Your Materials

The next step is to gather the neces­sary materials and tools together.  These are shown in the following illustrations:

Here are the parts you will need.

Refer to the table below for the parts

This is a break­down of the re­quired materials:

• A. Esraj
• B. Horn
• C. Soundbox
• D. Locking Screw
• E. Mounting Block
• F. Needle
• G. Wood Screws (not shown)

Additionally we will need some basic tools.  This are:

• Drill with bits
• Screwdriver
• Pliers

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Temporary Assembly

We must temporarily assemble all of the parts.  The pur­pose of this is to find the cor­rect place to drill the holes that are neces­sary to attach the mounting block.  There is a fur­ther advantage of this step in that it acquaints us with the var­ious parts and how the en­tire tar-shehnai func­tions.

Let us first screw the locking screw into the mounting block.  This is shown below:

Next we place the mounting block and locking screw over the spike.   Secure this only to the ex­tent that it will not fall off.  It should be free enough to be moved up down or rotated.

Next we attach the horn.

Insert the needle, and gently tighten the screw.  Again it should only be tight enough to keep the screw from falling out.

We now place every­thing on the esraj and posi­tion the var­ious compo­nents as close to a final form as we can.  Try and engage the needle to the string at just less than a cm. from the bridge, (approx 1/4 of an inch).  You will have to experiment at this point, but there is defin­itely a “sweet spot” that you have to find.

A few words are in order con­cerning this “sweet spot”.  It is a narrow zone roughly 5-12 mm from the bridge where you wish to engage the string.  You can experiment with dif­fer­ent posi­tions in this range and you will find con­si­der­able variation in tone.  You own par­ti­cu­lar tastes may veer closer to the bridge or they may veer fur­ther form the bridge, but still 5-12mm is prob­ably a good zone to work within.

Once you have found how every­thing should be laid out, make a special note to yourself as to the posi­tion of the mounting block.

Remove the mounting block from the spike.  Now just take the mounting block and lay it ag­ainst the esraj in the posi­tion that you previously determined.  Mark the holes with a pencil or marker.

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Attaching the Mounting Block

We must now attach the mounting block.  This involves drilling the pilot holes and attaching the block with woodscrews.

Look at the wood screws and select a drill bit that is appropriate for the pilot holes.  If the pilot holes are too big, the tar-shehnai assembly may pull it­self loose.  If the pilot holes are too small, you run the risk of splitting the wooden resonator of the esraj.  Drill the pilot holes in the posi­tions that you previously marked.

Now you permanently attach the mounting block with the wood screws.

Now fix the horn, and sound box to the mount.

Now try it out.

Invariably at this point something will not quite be right.  Very often the posi­tion of the tar-shehnai attachment inter­feres with proper bowing.  Sometimes the needle just does not engage the string in its “sweet spot”.  For what­ever rea­sons, you identify what is wrong and mentally decide what needs to be done.

These last minute cor­rections will be made by gently bending the spike to alter the way that the tar-shehnai attachment connects to the esraj.  When bending the spike it is very impor­tant to hold the spike firmly with one hand and bend with the other.  do not attempt to put any pres­sure ag­ainst the place where the spike attaches to the sound box.  Putting undo pres­sure ag­ainst this part will cause the spike to break away from the sound box, thus necessitating fur­ther repairs.  (Trust me on this point, I KNOW what I am talking about here 😉

When every­thing is done your tar-shehnai should look something like this.

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