# Sitar Sound - "Do It Again"



## jlube (Dec 12, 2009)

I'm trying to get the sitar-like sound for the solo on "Do It Again" by Denny Dias of Steely Dan. I always thought it was Jeff "Skunk" Baxter?
Any suggestions on how to get that sound? I tried a chorus and a bit of distortion with the treble way up and thought I was getting close....
I have an RP1000 and usually play a Strat through a Boogie.
Thanks for any help.


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

Buy this pedal...Digitech "The Weapon"...

[video=youtube;Xmx8LrnZUnk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmx8LrnZUnk[/video]

OR...

[video=youtube;NQ9nAifkAhs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ9nAifkAhs&feature=related[/video]


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

or better yet, get an electric sitar.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The secret to the sitar sound is that the traditional bridge (called a "jawari", apparently) does not provide a strong high-pressure pivot point. There is no real saddle so the string pressure is distributed across a wide surface area. That results in harmonics being emphasized, and dying out, in an unusual un-guitar-like way. You can find dissertations posted around explaining the physics of sitar sounds, but we'll set that aside. I do know that way back in the 60's, before I went electric, but after the Beatles had introduced us all to Ravi Shankar and sitar sounds, I found that if I removed the saddle from the bridge of my acoustic (it had a floating wooden bridge and a trapeze tailpiece), it sounded just like a sitar....to my ears, anyway. I'd lie back on my bed with my guitar set to strange tunings, just mesmerized by the drone.

Short of buying a Coral Electric Sitar like that shown, or buying a Line 6 Variax (whose sitar model is probably the single best reason to buy one...just WADS of fun), there are a couple of electronic tricks you can use to fake it.

Almost any octave-up fuzz can sounding very much like the Coral unit if you set it for modest drive/gain, turn the guitar tone down a bit, and pick near the bridge, using the bridge pickup. This arrangement results in roughly the same set of harmonics being differentially cancelled out as occurs with a sitar. Of course one of the major differences between what you'll hear from this arrangement and from an actual sitar is that the acoustic sitar has a much longer string length/scale, so the family of harmonics generated are much richer and sonically complex. The electric-guitar-plus-octave-fuzz works with a subset of that.

I've been able to get an acceptable sitar-like sound from a Foxx Tone Machine (identical to Danelectro French Toast), a Tychobrahe Octavia, a Dan Armstrong Green Ringer, a Roger Mayer Octavia, and several other unique designs. Minimalist effects whiz Tim Escobedo came up with a design (called, aptly enough, "the Jawari") intended explicitly to produce that sound, and it works reasonably well (although I think it needs more filtering). http://www.moosapotamus.net/THINGS/jawari.htm


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