Blank sitar bridge?

ichadwick

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Any UU luthiers have access to a blank sitar bridge like this?

www.ebay.com/bhp/sitar-bridge

I want to try an experiment with my ukuleles and tenor guitar to see what sort of effect a droning bridge will create.

I've found several on eBay but the new eBay shipping app makes it oppressively expensive to order.

Thanks
 
Interesting idea but I think the short scale length of a uke would just make a short buzz instead of sustained sitar sound.
You could try making a sitar saddle for a regular bridge. Remove the regular saddle and use something like a 1/2" wide wood saddle that would notch into the bridge saddle slot. Highest point at the back with a very slight taper down toward the front. Easy to try different saddle widths and shapes to get the sound you want
 
Why not get a normal uke with a bad setup- which is the end result for the sound your after.

You could just take out the saddle and have the strings on the wood of the bridge to get that wide area.

All those delightful buzzes result from the 20 sympathetic strings on a sitar. Im not sure the wide bridge lends more to the sitar sound- it does buzz, but not louder then the 20 strings- at least not the sitar I bought in India.

Also, not sure about the nylon strings' ability to give that sitar sound. Not sure- be interesting to hear the results though! :)
 
Ian,
If you're handy at all, I'd recommend having a go at making one yourself. I recently made a cigar box tanbura (tampura) for another forum member and in my search for info on the bridge I came across this very helpful article on making jawari:
http://www.buckinghammusic.com/sitar/sittut/jaw.html
I ended up using a very hard tropical hardwood scrap and it works very well. It was a bit tricky to get the best sound, but the article gives very good direction on how to go about it. Here's what I ended up with:
IMG_4044.jpg
Best of luck,
Chester
 
Cool trick with the pennies Coitmusic

Thanks....it's from that DIY aesthetic of using readymade and at hand parts to solve a problem. You have to use all copper pennies from before 1983, though; ones after that have a zinc core and will break.
 
Thanks for the ideas. It's really for my metal-string ukes (Risa tenor and Jupiter baritone). But another idea is the Ravish sitar pedal - just more money that I want to spend at present...
 
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