A sitar is not a commodity. Two instruments from the same workshop, built in the same month from the same batch of wood, will not sound the same, and the difference between a sitar you love and one you tolerate has very little to do with the price on the label. This guide is what we tell people who walk into our Mumbai showroom, written down: what actually matters, what does not, and how to buy sensibly whether you are in India or having an instrument shipped abroad.
Decide what you are buying before you look at prices
Which style
The first real decision is Ravi Shankar style or Vilayat Khan style. A Ravi Shankar style instrument (kharaj pancham) has seven main strings, thirteen sympathetic strings and usually a second gourd at the top of the neck, and it gives you a deep, resonant voice built for long alap. A Vilayat Khan style instrument (gandhar pancham) drops the two lowest strings, normally has no upper gourd, and is set up bright and vocal for heavy string pulling. Listen to recordings in both before you spend anything. If you already have a teacher, ask which they play, because your lessons will make more sense on the same kind of instrument.
Which budget band
Broadly there are three. A student instrument is honestly made, plainly finished and properly playable, and it is the right thing to learn on. A concert instrument uses better-seasoned wood, finer fretwork and a more carefully cut jawari, and it is what most serious students move to. A professional instrument is a named maker doing their best work, often built to order. The biggest jump in sound you will ever hear is from student to concert. Beyond that you are paying for refinement and for the maker.
What to check on a new sitar
The neck
Sight down it. It should be straight, and the joint where it meets the gourd should be tight with no gap and no filler. Twenty-odd strings at pitch pull hard on that joint for decades.
The gourd
Tap it. It should sound solid, not papery. Look for cracks, particularly where the gourd meets the wooden face, and for repairs disguised under decoration.
The jawari
This is the one that matters most and the one beginners never check. Play each main string open and listen for the shimmer. If the notes sound dull, short or plain, the curve on the bridge is flat or badly cut. A great sitar with tired jawari sounds ordinary; a modest sitar with fresh jawari can sound wonderful. See our sitar setup page for what good jawari work involves.
The frets
None should rock under a fingertip. Run up the playing string and check that the notes are true, then check the bass string, where a very small discrepancy is normal.
The pegs
Every peg should turn smoothly and hold. A peg that jumps, squeaks or slips means the taper is wrong, and that is a workshop job rather than a quick fix.
The action
Roughly three to four millimetres of clearance at the last fret on the playing string. Pull a note hard and listen for the string slapping the frets.
The weight in your hands
Sit with it properly, gourd on the foot, for five minutes. A sitar you cannot hold comfortably is a sitar you will not practise on, and the upper gourd adds real weight for a modest gain in resonance.
Buying a used sitar
A good old sitar is often better value than a new one, because the wood is long settled and the neck has stopped moving. It is also the easiest way to buy a problem. Check the same points as above, and then these:
- Cracks and past repairs. Look inside the gourd through the sound holes with a torch. Old repairs are fine if they are solid; hidden ones are not.
- Neck relief. A neck that has bowed under years of tension will never fret cleanly, and straightening one is major surgery.
- The bridge. A worn bridge is a consumable, not a disaster, but factor in the cost of recutting or replacing it.
- Peg holes. Holes worn oval by decades of tuning can be bushed, but it is proper workshop work.
- Provenance. The famous Kolkata names are widely copied. A label proves nothing on its own; the quality of the internal joinery and the carving tells the truth.
If you are buying privately, take someone who knows the instrument with you, or ask the seller for a video of it being played. We are happy to look at photographs of an instrument you are considering even if you are not buying from us.
Tuning, and what to expect in the first months
A sitar is tuned relative to your chosen Sa rather than to concert pitch, usually C sharp or D on a standard instrument. A chromatic tuner or a phone app is perfectly adequate. The sympathetic strings are retuned to the notes of each raga, so tuning is something you will do constantly rather than once.
Expect a new instrument to be restless. New strings stretch, the neck settles, and the tuning will shift when you lift the sitar off the floor because the whole structure flexes very slightly. All of that is normal and it is covered in our sitar FAQs. What is not normal is a peg that will not hold or a fret that buzzes on one note, and those are worth sorting out early.
Buying from India
Being in Mumbai is the whole advantage. We are close to the workshops in Kolkata, Miraj and Delhi, we see far more instruments than any overseas dealer, and we can send one back if it is not right. Every sitar we sell is restrung, has its jawari checked and recut where needed, its frets retied and its action set before it is despatched, and it comes with a case, spare strings and mizrabs.
We deliver anywhere in India in seven to ten days and ship worldwide from Mumbai, insured and braced for the journey. You can pay by UPI, card, cash on delivery within India or EMI. Before you commit, ask us for a video of the actual instrument being played, not a representative one; we make these all the time and it is the closest thing to standing in the showroom.
Browse sitars in stock, read about the workshops in our guide to makers, learn how the instrument is built in our overview of the sitar, or write to us with what you are looking for and your budget and we will tell you honestly what is worth your money.