My latest Golden Rudra Veena.

[beenkar]

I have just finished building my Golden Rudra Veena. It was dream project and I am happy to complete it in this life time.

The Pictures are available on my facebook account.

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak- ... 510171.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak- ... 381200.jpg

[cwroyds]

WOW, a very royal looking Rudra Veena.
How fancy.
Is it gold leave over wood?
DId you build it or did you have it built?
A glorious instrument for certain.
Is there a precedent for Golden Veenas (i.e. a legend or famous one)
How does it sound?

[beenkar]

It has daand parts with Golden leaves, rest is gold pigmented and lacquered all done by me.

some parts like toomba (ofcourse) were sourced..........rest of the parts were built in Ludhiana where I am currently residing and a few parts were done with the help of a karigar currently under my apprenticeship.

The final assembling , fretting, stringing, jawari was ofcourse done by me ...the entire thing took more than an year to come to this stage.

In the future I would be doing at least three more Veenas which are in the pipeline........after that I would like to retire from Veena making.........

[beenkar]

There are precedents of Golden Rudra veenas which were commissioned in the past in the Raj Darbars by the Raja........I believe one of them is in the museum at Jaipur....

This is a special Bamboo Veena and has a very sweet sound.

[Surbaharplayer]

Wow!! She looks impressive!!!!! I was wondering why you opt to use the sitar-like layout for the frets (the missing frets after Sa and Dha).

[beenkar]

I am to add 4 more frets after upper Sa.

I prefer Sitar like lay out as it decreases the number of frets and can be done since the frets are not fixed with wax but are movable/adjustable.

[jaan e kharabat]

Very nice instrument, congratulations.

Just on a side note, what shrutis are the frets on a fixed-fret veena tuned to, is there a standardised tuning? And how would this affect the playing of other shrutis as per the grammar of various ragas? I would assume then that most of melody making would be played on one or two frets by use of bending of the string.

[beenkar]

That's a very issue. I have seen a couple of old veenas and from what I could hear, the frets were in that case fixed with wax for i.e. for yaman Scale and komal gandhara & nishad of Kafi scale , Komal Rishabh and Dhaivat for RE and Dha of Bhairav scale.

[povster]

That's a very issue. I have seen a couple of old veenas and from what I could hear, the frets were in that case fixed with wax for i.e. for yaman Scale and komal gandhara & nishad of Kafi scale , Komal Rishabh and Dhaivat for RE and Dha of Bhairav scale.

Suvir - you are well passed me in vina - but the wax frets are still adjustable (just a little more effort). Would the vinkar just adjust the frets based on whatever raga they are going to be playing or practicing?

[beenkar]

"Would the vinkar just adjust the frets based on whatever raga they are going to be playing or practicing?"

Yes, every Raga requires minor adjustment to the frets in order. For example, the Re, Ga, dha and Ni positions in Bilawal and Yaman fret positions are different.

[Sitarfixer]

MAGNIFICENT ! ! ! Congratulations, sir. Your creation is indeed a regal work of art.

[beenkar]

Finally, the Golden Rudra Veena debuted at Dhrupad Samaroh 2009.

[beenkar]

[DrKashyap]

Suvir ji,

New year greetings. Compliments for making such a beautiful piece of craft. Do you think that making so much coating obstructs the natural pores & channels of wood & affects the ultimate tonal quality (in the same hand) ?

Dr. Kashyap

[beenkar]

dr Saheb,

That is an issue with every varnishing job. The trick is to use just enough pigments to varnish the raw surface without adding more to the mass that may damp the vibrational modes of the instrument.