AUTHORIZED 2008 SHANKAR VEENA ACOUSTIC GUITAR-SITAR-VEENA
HANDMADE BY BISHAN DAS
Shankar Guitar is an amalgamation of sitar and guitar. The basic shape is like a
guitar and the body including the neck is hollow and is made from well-seasoned
cedar wood. It is played with a slide and the tone is close to the sound of
veena. It is made from a single block of wood, with thicker walls and no sound
hole. It has four melody strings, four chikari (rhythm strings) and 12
taraf (sympathetic strings)
* SINGLE SOLID CEDAR-WOOD CONSTRUCTION. NO JOINTS. THE HARDEST THING FOR A LUTHIER TO DO. ONLY BISHAN DAS CAN DO IT SO RIGHT*
The Shankar Guitar, a new version of the Hawaiian guitar, has a compact shape and design. The Shankar Guitar has a fully hollow body made of one single piece of solid wood, unlike the plywood, which is generally used for the making of other guitars. It does not have a sound hole of the main board, but this does not in any way diminish the tonal quality of the instrument, which is as good as the other Indian string instruments. Another feature of my guitar is that since it has a flat base, playing it in a sitting posture makes it very comfortable. Again it is made of one-piece, the tuning will hold longer and is resistant to minute jerks and mishandling,
Like most of the string instruments, the original six-string guitar had the problem of being unable to create the meend or the smooth, uninterrupted glide from one note to another. Innovations by masters such as Z Brij Bhushan Kabra and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt solved this defect of the guitar. "Yet I found that it still had a metallic sound. This was what prompted me to try out this new design. It was made for us by Rikhi Ram, famous New Delhi-based manufacturers of musical instruments. And the effect of the new creation was stunning," Shankar says.
Shankar, who was born at Thanjavur, was brought up in the rich musical environs of Varanasi. Initiated into music at the age of six, Shankar later trained under the renowned vocalist Chanoolal Mishra before she decided to try her hand at playing the guitar.
"I was fortunate to have a very understanding guru in Shivnath Bhattacharya, a disciple of the late Nalin Majumdar. The guitar, which was generally used as part of an orchestra, was gradually being recognised, but there were no women in this field. My guru urged me to take up this instrument, also warning me on the risk that I would be taking." To develop the guitar into a singing instrument, to form a gayaki style, Shankar trained under the sitar maestro Pandit Bimalendu Mukherjee. " The training helped me to use the gayaki ang and the Baj, or the characteristic style of playing a plucked instrument, in my presentations," feels Shankar, whose only album, `Music Melody on the Guitar', has been well received.
AUDIO/ VIDEO LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qk4m1KYfoI
