Re: droning questions

["whiteoakstudios" <whiteoakstudios@supanet.com>]

That's one of the models I saw.

>That's the exact arrangement of the original Danelectro Vinnie Bell Coral
>electric sitar, and subsequently the version made by Jerry Jones that was
>based on it, which you can see at
><http://www.jerryjonesguitars.com/Master%20sitar.htm>.

>
Interesting - Some sort of sustainiac arrangement where the source pitches
came from the main fret board but the driver exited the sympathetic strings
could be fruitful. Quick, patent it : )

Gareth

> I've seen this type of guitar and have to chime in (pun fully intended)
that
> these type of strings are not truly sympathetic strings.  That is, they
> don't really resonate when the main strings are plucked.  I think the
> intention of that design is to imitate the multiple strings of the sitar.
> However, when they're located too far from the main playing strings they
> won't begin to vibrate spontaneously from the sound of the main strings.
My
> feeling is that they're included on this type of instrument to simulate
the
> tinkling, cascading zither-like sound called "jhankar" that we associate
> with the rapid brushing of the sitar's sympathetic strings.  As an aside,
> this sound used to be exclusively a "tuning check" of these strings and
was
> never incorporated into the actual music itself until Pandit Ravi Shankar
> began using it as a sort of punctuation device between phrases or 
>sections
> of the raga's development.
>
> >Another type of guitar ran the sympathetic strings at an angle to the
main
> >guitar strings and under them, where they intersected. It had a
protruding
> >pseudo-neck coming out at an angle along which the sympathetic strings
> >ran.
>
> This instrument sounds as though the additional strings really would work
> "sympathetically" due to their resting beneath the main strings.  I'm not
> really sure how effective this would all be on an electric instrument,
> though, since the pickup would essentially replace the resonator.  I have
> half a dozen traditional "ethnic" instruments that use sympathetic 
>strings
> and of course, they're all purely acoustic.  Most have very thin wooden
> faces that emphasize a bright sound and rich harmonics, and some of them
> have skin-covered resonators, which also really liven and expand the 
>sound
> (think banjo vs guitar).  My Indian instruments (sitar, surbahar, 
>dilruba)
> also have specific "twanging" bridges for the sympathetic strings that
> increase their resonance.  I've found that on some of these instruments
it's
> taken a long time (up to 5 years) for the instruments to 'warm up' enough
> that the sympathetic strings really begin to "speak."  I feel that this 
>is
> due to the density of the wood in the neck along which they run,
underneath
> the main strings.  So I wonder how well sympathetic strings would vibrate
in
> the absence of a resonator?
>
> Anyway, my 2 "cents" [monetary, not tuning intervals  :-) ]
>
> James
>