Buying A Sitar Part 3

Googling around one day, I found The sitar forum, where I found out that there were many others, who just like me had found out the hard way that it is very difficult to find a good sitar. This was a great find. I learned so much, just reading the archives and asking questions. I still wasn't ready to shell out $1200+USD for a fancy sitar yet. It was just too much for me to justify at the time. Instead, I found a music teacher in Montreal (about 4 hour round trip) who had some high end "Bina" sitars (yes, Bina, I was a sucker for Bina). This sitar was about $800 CAN and was a good beginning sitar. Some work had to be done to talor it to my liking, but you have to do that with any sitar anyway. I brought my teacher with me to look at it and we played several. I had learned my lesson from my first sitar, right? At least this time, I knew what a sitar was, and had someone to play it for me. That is the key.

Upgrading Sitars

This turned out to be a decent sitar. It wasn't perfect, but held up to merciless riyaz for a few years. Now that I was a regular member of the sitar forum, I had learned a lot from the more senior sitarists. The time was right for me to upgrade my instrument. The main issue with my Bina was that it was a bit small for me and I was developing a bit of an RSI. Due to the smaller tabli I had to play with my wrist in a less than ideal position.

Taking The Leap Of Faith

As my wife reminds me, I had spent $1100 CAN on sitars at this point. I was finally ready to take that "leap of faith" and order the fancy sitar on-line. I asked questions, researched and delayed for a year, partly because the CAN$ wasn't doing to well, but also because I wanted to make the right decision. One of the guys (Lars) from the forum was starting a on-line business called Sitars Etc. and he had great connections with musicians in India. The construction of these sitars was overseen by a musician and a lot more time was spent on them than most. The cost was around $1200 USD and up, but they had heavy duty fiberglass cases and were air-shipped from India (which is ideal). In fact, that cost is very reasonable compared to some other on-line retailers. When I said "leap of faith" it is because I couldn't drop in and play the sitars, Lars was across the continent. I would have to buy it on-line! I spoke with Lars for hours and he patiently played a bunch of instruments and knew exactly where I was coming from because he had been there too. So, I ordered it (when the CAD was doing well). It was an excellent purchase. I have played a lot of sitars and I have rarely found one as well made as this one. Don't get me wrong, I had 'to play the sitar in' like everyone else does, and now 2 years later, it has a wonderful tone.

In Retrospect...

I could have saved myself a lot of trouble by buying the sitar from sitarsetc the first time, but I didn't know the business or what to look for. So, I ended up buing 3 sitars until I found the one I wanted.