Dilip Mondal Full Deco
Professional quality at a low price in the style of Nikhil Banerjee or Kushal Das.
The Full Deco Sitar by Dilip Mondal is ideal for musicians with high quality standards who prefer a round, warm and powerful tone with good sustain and great dynamics. The top (tabli) produces a relatively loud sound even with medium-strong strokes and also responds to very delicate strokes with fine differentiation. The demo video recorded in Kolkata by Ayan Sengupta in 2024 speaks for itself. The ebony bridges are a special feature.
- toon wood top & neck
- lower resonator pumpkin
- upper resonator wood
- ebony bridges
- upper saddles, manka & chikari posts bone
- polished shellac finish
- 20 nickel silver frets
- brass tailpiece
- 7 playing strings & 13 sympathetic strings
- Celluloid inlays with dark brown coloured engravings
- neck joint & upper resonator joint with applied carvings (gulab patta)
- main pegs blossom heads
- last fret with 2 hooks for optional blocking of the 2 bass strings
- sympathetic string guides into the neck with mini bridges
- bridge surface (jovari) rather closed
- powerful, clear, round sound à la Nikhil Banerjee or Kushal Das
The angle at which the bridge surface (jowari) has been sanded down has great influence on the sound of every sitar. If the curvature of the surface permits strong partial vibrations of the string on the bridge, a buzzing sound rich in overtones is created, which is called an open jowari. Ravi Shankar made this sound popular and Westerners often feel that this is the typical sound of a sitar.
A so-called closed jowari creates less overtones, however, its sound is more clear, concise and singing. Most Indian sitarist prefer this sound today. As a standard feature our branded sitars therefore have a somewhat closed jowari.
If played regularly and intensely, the strings dig grooves into the surface of traditional horn or bone bridges in course of time due to abrasion and thus change the relative openness or closedness of the jowaris. If sanded down later in a specific manner, the original sound can be restored or the instrument can be adjusted to a different sound. Since approximately the turn of the millennium sitars feature modern plastic bridges as standard. Their tone quality is at least equally good as traditional horn bridges. However, they show considerably less signs of abrasion and therefore don't require legg sanded down so often.
DILIP MONDAL is one of several little-known instrument makers from Uluberia, a rural south-western suburb of Kolkata. He learnt sarod making from Dulal Kanji and sitar making from Jayant (JK) Sengupta in Kolkata. Dilip Mondal trained his son Tanmay in instrument making from an early age and works together with him today. Most of their instruments are delivered as a shell to renowned workshops in India or finished to shops. We are getting fine sitars directly from Dilip Mondal under his own label since 2024. Dilip Mondal stands for fine quality at lower prices.
Measure: length cm, width cm, depth cm, weight: kg
Each instrument is individually hand-crafted and might differ from our description.