The Sitar Makers

jp_nyc

jp_nyc

Kick Henry Jackassowski


I know these people are dirt poor and endure lives of hardship and deprivation. But I’ll be damned if carving and building instruments by hand doesn’t look like satisfying work.
 
Musician’s Mall in Berkeley has a nice selection of sarodes across a range of prices. It’s an Indian owned company and the instruments are set up by luthiers with decades of experience.
https://www.musiciansmallusa.com/sarodes/

Rain City Music in Seattle has a small selection of sarodes and nothing under $1100. But he includes nice cases and his instruments are air-shipped from India to the USA to limit exposure to temperature and humidity fluctuations.
http://raincitymusic.com/sarod.htm
 
jp_nyc said:
Musician’s Mall in Berkeley has a nice selection of sarodes across a range of prices. It’s an Indian owned company and the instruments are set up by luthiers with decades of experience.
https://www.musiciansmallusa.com/sarodes/

Rain City Music in Seattle has a small selection of sarodes and nothing under $1100. But he includes nice cases and his instruments are air-shipped from India to the USA to limit exposure to temperature and humidity fluctuations.
http://raincitymusic.com/sarod.htm
Click to expand...

yes, Rain City Music is great. But they have stopped carrying the higher end sitars and sarods in recent years. Not sure if that's a supply issue or Hiren Roy and Rikki Ram and Hemen taken over by family members and not retaining the same quality.

Musician's Mall used to be the Ali Akbar College of Music Store and still has high-end stuff. But the prices have sky rocketed.

I think some great deals are found on this forum from forum members selling used instruments:
forums.chandrakantha.com
 
rickenvox said:
yes, Rain City Music is great. But they have stopped carrying the higher end sitars and sarods in recent years. Not sure if that's a supply issue or Hiren Roy and Rikki Ram and Hemen taken over by family members and not retaining the same quality.
Click to expand...

Rain City carries some very high end stuff. Those Mohan Lal Sharma and Radhey Sharma instruments are killer. But the supply is limited.

Hiren Roy has been dead for decades and his son Barun Ray is running the firm now. QC at Hiren Roy stinks and the defect rate is high. To quote Lars (Rain City) “Over the past year we've been running at about a 50% defect rate from Barun and I have had to throw out several instruments. This is not to detract from his abilities, he's a great instrument maker however he relies on others to make his stuctures/bodies and his long time structure maker retired. This along with non-existent quality control has led to our canceling regular imports of them. ”

Rikhi Ram prices are too high for Rain City to compete with people who just order direct from Delhi. Musician’s Mall still carries some Rikhi Ram, but after import the cost for many of them is higher than a surbahar from Barun Roy. I think they’re selling to wealthy people in the Bay Area, because most of the Rikhi Ram stock sold out as soon as they posted it.

Hemen quality is notoriously bad these days. I don’t think anyone outside India still sells new Hemen instruments. If you poke around online even some of the Indian resellers have stopped carrying Hemen.

rickenvox said:
Musician's Mall used to be the Ali Akbar College of Music Store and still has high-end stuff. But the prices have sky rocketed.
Click to expand...

Northern California is an expensive place to do business. The college shut the store down and some members of the Bharghava family took over. That family owns of India’s biggest instrument distribution and retail company. And they’re not using Musician’s Mall to sell their own Indian products. Aside from the Rikhi Ram instruments the prices aren’t terribly high. They have a master tech on staff who restrings and sets up all of the instruments, which can take two or three hours on a sitar. And while they charge for cases, if you buy an instrument you’re getting it below cost. I have no doubt that the Bhargava family is losing money to subsidize the tiny Indian music scene in the USA.
 
I started out with a Hiren Roy. It was student model and physically too small for me. I now have a Sarat Sardar from the 60s, it's big and sounds beautiful. The jawari is set for a slightly more closed sound than the typical Ravi Shankar setup.

I would recommend anyone looking for a sitar or sarod to check out the Indian Music Forums for members selling older instruments.
http://forums.chandrakantha.com
 
Buying a vintage sitar is a crapshoot. Sitars don't age well; loose glue and warped necks are common. And there are loads of fakes coming from India now. Somebody buys a vintage junk instrument, slaps on a fake nameplate, and resells it to a tourist. You should only buy one if you know you're working with a reputable and knowledgeable seller like Musicians Mall or Rain City.
 
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