Sitar-kulele?

ukebeatsguitar

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I was looking At Mid-East Music's website, and found a sitar-kulele. It say's they're set to come out late 2010. I've always loved sitars, and I would KILL to own one. I also saw that some one had seen them at the a NAMM show. Here's the link to the website:

http://www.mid-east.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=USSNGP&eq=&Tp=

I'm just wondering if anyone here has played one. There's a few videos up on youtube of them. How would you tune all the little strings though?
 
That looks really interesting... list price $199! Looks complicated. I know nothing about sitars. How do those frets work?
–Lori
 
oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god. I absolutely love sitars, have always wanted one, if they had one with a scale similar to tenor I would be EXTREMELY interested. But Nylon strings? That doesn't sound very sitar-ish. And is it just me or are there no secondary strings? And I hope the frets are move-able.
 
Unless they've changed, it's only a soprano model. Given the nature and design of a sitar, I think a longer scale is probably much more appropriate. I played a sitar back in my 20s, and wish I had kept up with it (as well as kept the instrument, which was a beauty):
sitar_01.jpg

The buzzing/droning sound of the sitar derives from three main features: the sympathetic strings, which vibrate in tune to notes played on the main strings, the drone strings which are struck during play to accentuate a phrase, and the bridges, which have a flat surface that the strings touch when struck (which creates the buzzing sound).
bridge1.jpg

Nylon strings won't work for this because of this bridge. They don't buzz properly and the material tends to dampen the energy. Has to be metal. I'm sure you'd wear nylon strings apart pretty quickly, too.

There are secondary (sympathetic) strings underneath. Six from the pictures. Not sure how they are tuned but likely four are an octave apart from the main strings. There are no drone strings, however.

The sympathetic strings have their own, similar bridge, underneath the main strings. You don't actually play these strings, just leave them to vibrate on their own. They need to be in proper tune else they won't vibrate.

Strings are high and not pressed against a fretboard, but rather against the frets which are arched pieces of metal that stand high above the neck. This means new callouses. Frets are strapped on, and moveable, not fixed.

Check the Chandrtakantha site for more details on standard sitars. It looks like an interesting experiement, but so far the videos haven't impressed me. The tonal depth of a sitar is missing - that may be just the recordings, but may also be the small size of the resonator.

Several years ago, I tried various homemade bridge extensions under the strings of my guitars to get this sort of effect. Didn't sound too bad. I've often thought I could do better with a 3 or 4-string cigar box guitar or even a dulcimer. I did tinker a bit with this idea on my Strumstick, but didn't quite make the right kind of extension and sold it before I found one.
 
PS. If you've never seen him, Ashwin Batish is an amazing sitar player and this song rocks...

An inspiration to any would-be sitar-kulele players.
 
Get real! What a ridiculous instrument! I'm gonna invent an electric saxophone-ukulele-foghorn-accordion, and sell it to people.

@ichadwick: That video of Ashwin Batish literally made me crap in my pants. I bet you he bought the "sitar power" hat (at a gas station), and then learned how to play the instrument. He kind of looks like Ron Jeremy.
 
Thanks for the link, getting a GOOD sitar can take some effort and $$$ from what I researched before, I don't think the internet has even helped much in that regard But lets just say that if I were to choose I would get a real sitar. And it would be awesome to get a traditional teacher (not too traditional, I respect the instrument but I don't want to sit in a room with it and not play it for years.)
 
Unless they've changed, it's only a soprano model. Given the nature and design of a sitar, I think a longer scale is probably much more appropriate. I played a sitar back in my 20s, and wish I had kept up with it (as well as kept the instrument, which was a beauty):
sitar_01.jpg

The buzzing/droning sound of the sitar derives from three main features: the sympathetic strings, which vibrate in tune to notes played on the main strings, the drone strings which are struck during play to accentuate a phrase, and the bridges, which have a flat surface that the strings touch when struck (which creates the buzzing sound).
bridge1.jpg

Nylon strings won't work for this because of this bridge. They don't buzz properly and the material tends to dampen the energy. Has to be metal. I'm sure you'd wear nylon strings apart pretty quickly, too.

There are secondary (sympathetic) strings underneath. Six from the pictures. Not sure how they are tuned but likely four are an octave apart from the main strings. There are no drone strings, however.

The sympathetic strings have their own, similar bridge, underneath the main strings. You don't actually play these strings, just leave them to vibrate on their own. They need to be in proper tune else they won't vibrate.

Strings are high and not pressed against a fretboard, but rather against the frets which are arched pieces of metal that stand high above the neck. This means new callouses. Frets are strapped on, and moveable, not fixed.

Check the Chandrtakantha site for more details on standard sitars. It looks like an interesting experiement, but so far the videos haven't impressed me. The tonal depth of a sitar is missing - that may be just the recordings, but may also be the small size of the resonator.

Several years ago, I tried various homemade bridge extensions under the strings of my guitars to get this sort of effect. Didn't sound too bad. I've often thought I could do better with a 3 or 4-string cigar box guitar or even a dulcimer. I did tinker a bit with this idea on my Strumstick, but didn't quite make the right kind of extension and sold it before I found one.

That's really interesting. I'm looking at sitar prices, and I couldn't afford one for the life of me! Not only that, but if I can't find a ukulele teacher in southern rural Iowa, then there is NO way I'm gonna find a sitar teacher. I do know that my bass teacher used to play, but I'm not sure how much.

I still think I want one, more for the novelty than the tone though.
 
Just an update.

The man on Youtube who has the video of the Sitar-kulele informed me that the secondary strings aren't that usable because of the short scale. He also says that they should be coming out next month. I'm very excited now! I'll have to convince the parents that a sitar won't ruin their lives. :)
 
Yeah, but it's still cool to have a tiny sitar, right?

Yeah but then it's just novelty to me, I want a sitar, just in ukulele size, not a ukulele in sitar shape. I just got excited when I first saw it and didn't really think about it. I think it would be cool to have perhaps if I had extra cash laying around, but I can't justify the purchase with it being novelty to me.
 
Yeah but then it's just novelty to me, I want a sitar, just in ukulele size, not a ukulele in sitar shape. I just got excited when I first saw it and didn't really think about it. I think it would be cool to have perhaps if I had extra cash laying around, but I can't justify the purchase with it being novelty to me.

I agree with this. The sound will be a little different because of the body shape, but it won't be even close to the sitar sound. Although I have to admit, I think these sitar-ukulele things are very cute.
 
Gee, I can imagine how long it must take to tune those things.....or even worse changing the strings and breaking them in....Whew....
and I thought my six string was bad.....
 
Gee, I can imagine how long it must take to tune those things.....or even worse changing the strings and breaking them in....Whew....
and I thought my six string was bad.....

If you could even FIND strings for it! I hope the company offers strings.
 
Get real! What a ridiculous instrument! I'm gonna invent an electric saxophone-ukulele-foghorn-accordion, and sell it to people.

@ichadwick: That video of Ashwin Batish literally made me crap in my pants. I bet you he bought the "sitar power" hat (at a gas station), and then learned how to play the instrument. He kind of looks like Ron Jeremy.
Batish is a well-recognized master of the sitar who has released several albums of classical Indian and modern music. Lots of his stuff on YouTube, e.g.:


There are several short-scale sitars around already - more in the baritone-scale length, which makes the sympathetic strings workable. Mid-East sells both half and 3/4 size sitars. The halfsize is only $269. I personally think this is a better choice than a soprano scale instrument which has decorative but non-working strings.
 
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