What makes the sitar sound?

[mrjamiam]

When I hear sitars, I think of southwest Asian music and the 60's.

And now the B string on a strat. Well, it's a Legacy. I get that buzzy kind of sitar drone sound on the open B. It's either not there or very much attenuated on fretted notes, which makes me think it has to do with the nut. It doesn't appear to be caused by rattling against a fret, I've got reasonable clearance.

Any ideas on the cause? And how to remove the sitar sound? What I want is a guitar.

[anotherfreak]

a "buzz bridge"

on a guitar the string passes over the saddle at the peak

ie:

on a sitar the "peak" is on the other side

ie:

check your saddles, make sure you have a sharp edge where the string leaves the saddle

[mrjamiam]

Thanks! Well illustrated! I'm guessing that this might mean that someone (not me!) cut the nut slot with some downslope toward the frets, instead of having all the downslope toward the tuners. Now I've got an excuse to get the nut files out. And get my courage up.

[mrjamiam]

Thanks again, anotherfreak. A little filing in the nut slot, being careful to slope slightly back toward the tuners, did the trick nicely. And I didn't change either the string height at the first fret or the intonation in a perceptible manner.

Now that I know how to get the effect, I'll think a bit about whether it would be interesting to set up a guitar like that, at the bridge saddle end of course. But that sound might get old fast. It would probably screw up a set of saddles, too.

[aknapp]

I have a project guitar with the same problem on the G string. This thread could not have come at a better time.

Thanx to both of you. I have something to do tomorrow morning.

[mrjamiam]

Best of luck to you!

[Steve Haynie]

Sometimes a Strat bridge saddle can rattle.

[stonge]

If a saddle height screw backs out of a wilkenson bridge just a little, it can generate a pretty nasty rattle/sitar sound. That is the first thing to check when a Daytona rattles.

[mrjamiam]

Sometimes a Strat bridge saddle can rattle.

If a saddle height screw backs out of a wilkenson bridge just a little, it can generate a pretty nasty rattle/sitar sound. That is the first thing to check when a Daytona rattles.

First thing I checked. However, for my situation the clue was that it happened on the open string note, not on fretted notes. A problem at the bridge would remain present with fretted notes, would it not? We're building a checklist here to trace down a problem, good stuff.

[it's me HHB]

Can be a slight backbow in the neck too, something else to check

[Ting Ho Dung]

When I hear sitars, I think of southwest Asian music and the 60's.

And now the B string on a strat. Well, it's a Legacy. I get that buzzy kind of sitar drone sound on the open B. It's either not there or very much attenuated on fretted notes, which makes me think it has to do with the nut. It doesn't appear to be caused by rattling against a fret, I've got reasonable clearance.

Any ideas on the cause? And how to remove the sitar sound? What I want is a guitar.

Does your strat have a string tree?

[gorch]

Same issue on the open G, partly open B or H. Whatever you call it.

Tightend the screws of the pick guard with partly success. Couldn't identify any issue wig nut and bridge though.

What's the original purpose of the string tree? The guitar is Fender long scale, but no Fender original or copy.

[mrjamiam]

Yes, there is a string tree on the Legacy. I got rid of the sitar-like buzziness that drove my idea to start this thread by carefully filing the B string slot at the nut to peak at the fretboard edge. I've got some buzzing on other guitars to track down, too, but none of those sounds like a sitar to my ear the way this issue did. It sure can be maddening to try to track down some unwanted vibration sources, but in this case I was fortunate that I had a big clue in that it happened only on the one string, and only when played open.

[aknapp]

Can be a slight backbow in the neck too, something else to check

I was sure the issue on my guitar was the rosewood bridge, but in fact, it was more related to this. A proper set was all that was needed.

Sorry George, no more sitar lessons....

Thanx to everyone who contributed to this

[cmatthes]

In my house, THIS makes that sound: