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Posts: 4608
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
Found a Setar (persian instrument) i...
Found this Setar in the basement of my parents.
All I know that it is at least 35 to 40 years old and brought here from Iran. And that my mother went to a master builder (who died shortly after that visit) and asked for one of his best setars. The master then asked my mother if there is a good setar player in our house who is going to play one of his very high end instruments regularly. My mother truthfully said not right now. The master then replied with sorry, I can not sell my best ones, they will die if not played, they have a soul, but instead I can give you a quite good and ok one.
That's basically all I know about this.
I need to bring this back to life, but have absolutely no clue about Setars. Always liked the sound and listened to it from time to time but never cared about the details of the instrument itself.
The bridge on this one is not glued and is compleletly movable ?! I can't even find glue marks on the top, so that I would assume it came off.
On the top side (when you look down) below the finger board, I first thought there is a long crack. But it is too straight and looks like it was carved there on purpose. What purpose exactly, I don't know.
The frets seem to be animal guts and movable. Some of them, towards the bridge are completely loose, others more tight.
Any input is appreciated.
Am watching some videos about restringing and tuning right now.
Here is a video with this type of instrument.
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Posts: 4608
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: Found a Setar (persian instrumen... (in reply to Arash)
Ok so the loose bridge is apparently normal. It should be moved and fixed around 52 mm from the back where the strings holder is, when restringing, as shown here at 03:05
Posts: 4608
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: Found a Setar (persian instrumen... (in reply to Arash)
Ok finding out more. The video shows the process of refretting and also shows that that long indentation is for refretting purposes and to slide the fret material through it and also for the positioning of knots of the frets if wanted. Video is in persian but english subs.
One thing I apparently also need to buy, is baby powder
Also here is a video of a setar luthier (also persian but english subs, if anyone is interested)
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