HEMEN & CO SITAR | ca.1960

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A large size Hemen kharaj-pancham sitar from the 1960ies. It came in with a completely smashed gourd. The tabli had a broke-off piece and a crack as well. I painstakingly restored it with all its original pieces and added a new set of modern-style taraf phulias (eyelets for the resonant strings) as the old ones had a lot of wear. It plays and sounds fantastic now. The low-end is especially pleasing in this sitar. Toon-wood, original horn bridges, 11 taraf strings, kharaj-string hook on last fret, no upper resonator.

SPECIFICATIONMEASUREMENT
Total length127 cm
Scale length89.6 cm
Bridge height2.4 cm
String height over last fret11 mm
Neck width8.8 cm
Tabli diameter35 cm
Toomba circumference112 cm
Weight2.53 kg
Meend range (at C# tuning)S → P ; P → R‘

I documented the restoration in this video:

Matyas Sitar