P. & Brothers Male Tanpura
The male tanpura of P. & Brothers is a noble brand-name instrument with an especially attractive price-performance ratio. The instrument has a very balanced, powerful, full sound rich in overtones combined with premium materials and workmanship.
The clear varnish beautifully highlights the natural wood grain. The decoration is plain and elegant. Standard tonic is C - D.
Toon wood, synthetic bridge, four strings, high-gloss polished shellac surfaces, pumpkin sound box, engraved celluloid inlays.
The string vibration on the bridge (and thus the audible overtones) depends upon the curve of the bridge and the tension, thickness and material of the strings. A thread between the string and the bridge allows subtle manipulations of the contact angle. By moving the thread position the buzz of each string can be adjusted individually.
P. & BROTHERS is a very small, relatively little known family business in its third generation in Calcutta. Originally, the company was founded in Dhaka, in today’s Bangladesh. After India became independent and divided, the three sons of the founder Gopal Karmakar moved to Calcutta. Initially they worked with other musical instrument manufacturers and finally opened up a joint business under the present name in 1953. Among their customers were, e.g. Nikhil Banerjee, Kartik Kumar and Manilal Nag.
Today, Suman Karmakar is running the business, a grandson of Gopal Karmakar. Especially in a small company like this every instrument is made and checked with great individual care. As we have been continually working together with P. & BROTHERS since setting up India Instruments in 1994, they supply us with rather high quality instruments at a relatively favourable price.
P. & BROTHERS is specialised in excellent sitars and tanpuras. Suman Karmakar has been taking advice from Hiren Roy's son Barun Roy, and his sitars come as close to Barun's as one can get. After 2010 P. & BROTHERS has also taken to making wonderful harmoniums, and we carry their harmoniums since 2015.
Measure: length 142 cm, width 45 cm, depth 39 cm, diapason 99 cm, weight: 3.1 kg
Each instrument is individually hand-crafted and might differ from our description.