Ektar / Gopi Yantra
Ek means 'one' and tar means 'string'. The ektar or gopi yantra is a very simple folk instrument mainly played by Baul singers in Bengal.
The single string is plucked openly with one finger or a plectrum. The pitch can be lowered considerably by pressing both halves of the forked bamboo neck together, thus reducing the tension of the string. The fixed 'tonic' is in this case the note of the open string when the neck is not pressed. All other notes are lower than this. Apart from the open string note it is very difficult to produce any precise pitch. However, it is very easy to produce typical floating wobbly sounds that's what this instrument is made for!
Wooden resonator with goatskin bottom, bamboo neck, single steel string, wooden peg.
The spherical resonator is traditionally made from dried pumpkin, wood or coconut into which a split bamboo rod is fitted as neck. A piece of skin is stretched across the open bottom of the resonator with a string attached to it in the centre. This string runs through the inside of the spherical resonator - between the forks of the bamboo rod - to the upper end of the closed neck where it is wound around a peg.
PALOMA is the international brand name for instruments made by Haribhau Vishwanath from Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Haribhau Vishwanath was founded in 1925 as a small repair business and developed into one of the leading Indian harmonium manufacturers in the course of decades. In addition, Haribhau Vishwanath makes shrutiboxes, santoors, swarmandals and some drums. Haribhau Vishwanath is also an active musical instrument trader and supplies us with some rarely demanded instruments where a direct purchase from the manufacturer is not profitable. Thanks to his good infrastructure and long experience with instrument manufacturing, trading and international shipping, Haribhau currently supplies all common harmonium models and many other instruments constantly in a high quality regarding workmanship. In addition, he excels through attractive innovations, like e.g. the harmonium Compactina or a particular silk-mat finish. Haribhau Vishwanath is a partner of India Instruments since 2005. Today the company is run by Ashish Diwane.
Measure: length 63 cm, width 14 cm, depth 14 cm, diapason 53 cm, weight: 0,2 kg
Each instrument is individually hand-crafted and might differ from our description.