Sympathetic Drones A La Shakti

[gazaa]

hello everyone,

i've been kicking around the idea of building an acoustic with a set a sympathetic drone strings, preferably in the style of John McLaughlin's Wechter-made Shakti, but possibly in a harp guitar format like Todd Mosby's Imrat guitar if that is a more facilitative format.

this is the best resource i've found thus far, although its diagram-less explanation of the bracing is somewhat less than clear to me.

http://www.wechterguitars.com/custom/article-shakti.htm

does anybody have any experience or ideas about drone guitars? any musings are welcome at this point.

this is what i've got so far:

i prefer smaller bodies, but im assuming an ooo is out of the picture for volume considerations (?). i'm leaning towards a dreadnaught. shakti is a j-200, but i have no means of bending jumbo sides, portroppo. i imagine that the upper bout and part of the treble lower bout will be rendered acoustically dead by the drone bridges' supports. ideas?

the 7 drone strings are positioned obliquely to the main strings. the bridge with tuners (zither pins perhaps) is located on the upper bass bout. the anchor bridge is around the waist of the treble side. both are cut through the soundboard and supported by end/tail block style structures beneath (?). the tops of the supports are slightly largely than their bridges, and taper so that the part contacting the back is smaller. additionally, two grafts run on either side of the soundhole parallel to the strings.

on shakti, the soundboard's bracing is patterned after a fan bracing/kasha derivative because the main strings are 10-47's. i have heard very mixed things about kasha bracing, and question the ability of fan bracing to withstand this sort of application. im leaning towards x. thoughts?

any ideas are welcome

thanks,

gazaa

[DFW]

Not sure if you figured this out yet, but I'd recommend checking out Fred Carlson's stuff (www.beyondthetrees.com). His Harp-Sympitars sound amazing, with 12 sympathetic strings running inside the neck and under the top. They tune at the main headstock and anchor at the bridge, with a little jiwari (sitar-esque buzzing bridge) mounted on the inside of the soundboard. The only place you see the sympathetic strings is through the soundhole, and you need a trapdoor in the back of the guitar to access them. The guitars sound crazy, like a band of angels buzzing inside. Hope this helps.

[Myka Guitars]

gazaa,

These sympathetic stringed instruments are something I have thought about for years although I have yet to build one. The way that I think might work best for attaching the strings would be something along the lines of what Fred Carlson is doing:

It appears that there is a piece of material on the edge of the guitar that allows the strings to be anchored to it. This method makes the most sense to me because it also eliminates the need for excessive soundboard bracing. The stresses can be directed more to the side rim of the guitar instead. This could be done at both ends of the string. It looks very elegant as well.

This is just an idea. When I get around to starting my first sympathetic string guitar I will post here. Until then I am still thinking about it all.

If you haven't already check out this forum: Harp Guitar Forum. Especially check out the Makers section. There are many documented builds there. Great stuff and very inspiring.

Thanks for mentioning the Imrat guitar. That is very reminiscent of William Eaton's work.

~David

[gazaa]

thanks for the replies. i did stumble across Carlson's work and the harp guitar forum a while back. The impression I'm getting from people who have played/seen/experimented with the Shakti-style oblique sympathetics is that they are too short and require too much bracing to provide anything audible. Perhaps on an electric with the sympathetic pickup boosted? I'm very interested in the sitar style sympathetics that Carlson has employed though, although I haven't found much information other than what Fred has provided. Are there any recordings of the sympitars?

[Myka Guitars]

I have looked for more information on the sympathetic strings and integrating them into a guitar design but there isn't much available. Fred's work is highly custom and each instrument is built differently so I do not think there will be any specific designs out there. The concept is a simple string running underneath the soundboard but there are many ways this could be implemented. This page is full of great information and photos that could yield some design ideas. I would suggest experimentation and prototyping. You never know what you will come up with.

For recordings check out this page.

~David

Edited September 21, 2007 by Myka Guitars

[DFW]

I'm very interested in the sitar style sympathetics that Carlson has employed though, although I haven't found much information other than what Fred has provided. Are there any recordings of the sympitars?

Alex DeGrassi is a close friend of Fred's and just finished recording a few tracks on the New Dream guitar. He also has some stuff on Fred's older sympitars. Here's some info on those: http://www.beyondthetrees.com/disc.htm