# Sitar Effect



## Beatles (Feb 7, 2006)

I was looking to get a decent sitar effect for a recording I want to do, but I didn't want to invest in nan electric sitar or the EHX Ravish Guitar pedal. So I came across this: http://aaronlumguitar.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-diy-sitarcaster-revisited.html
Its quite a convincing sitar sound. Cheap to make too. Too bad I suck at woodworking, but I'm going to give it a try.


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2015)

Interesting. Sounds pretty authentic too. Good luck with your project. 
I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Pic and vid from link.










[video=youtube;MzmcXzBHJ0c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzmcXzBHJ0c[/video]


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The "sound" of a sitar comes from three primary sources: the droning tone from the bridge, the sympathetic fixed-pitch strings, and the raised frets that allow for a very particular type of bending. Depending on what it is one is attempting to do, all your needs can be met by the bridge alone...or not.

Just about any analog octave-up fuzz can produce a reasonably decent "electric sitar" tone if you use a single-coil pickup, set your guitar to bridge-pickup, and pick near the bridge (Telecaster types work great). What will happen is that the harmonics produced by the octave-up unit will die out relatively quickly, by virtue of where you pick and the resulting signal hovering just around the octave-producing threshold of the pedal.

I won't describe it as beautiful, and octave-up fuzzes generally don't respond well to notes below the 5th-7th fret, but one is struck by how well it nails that Coral tone if used just right.

So, if you have a Foxx Tone Machine, Dano French Toast, Dan Armstrong Green Ringer, Fender Blender, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, ZVex Octane, UNivox Superfuzz, or any of the clones/variants, set it appropriately, and have fun. Faster than fabricating a jawari for yourself.

Back in 1966, I discovered I could nail that tone by removing the saddle from the bridge on my floating-bridge+tailpiece acoustic.


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