Sitar pedal

[Mr. Air]

Lately I've been thinking: "Couldn't it be great fun to be able to emulate a sitar?" Indeed it could!

I've done some quick searching on the net and found a few sitar pedals, but most of them haven't got good reviews. Is there anyone who have good/bad experience with sitar pedals or know of some?

To me the Burford Electronics "Reefer Coral" sitar pedal seems interesting. Anyone who knows this pedal?

[James C]

To my recollection the Reefer pedal was reviewed in guitarist magazine, i think it did well, might be worth seeing whether you can track down the review.

failing that, a roland GK 20 and hex pickup would cover the sitar sounds and a whole lot more

[WezV]

maybe a sitar bridge if you have a spare guitar to try it on.  iirc it involves a wooden plate just in front of the saddles

[Denim n Leather]

maybe a sitar bridge if you have a spare guitar to try it on.  iirc it involves a wooden plate just in front of the saddles

It would require sympathetic strings, also. Easier to get an electric sitar, simulation pedal, or use a synth. I have some great sitar patches on my GR-30.

[WezV]

sorry, didnt mean an actual sitar bridge.... i meant one of those bridges from an electric sitar

here is one version
http://www.eyb-guitars.de/Eyb-English/Sitarbridge.html

here is a close up of an old coral electric sitar bridge which is the wooden plate idea.  i thing allparts sell them or they can be made easily.  getting them to work properly is apparently a whole other story
http://fuzz.inrerocknroll.com/images/JJSitar2.jpg

basically its a plate that the strings vibrate against at the bridge... apparently quite hard to set-up but nice once sorted

[_tom_]

Danelectro make a cheap one I think.

[Denim n Leather]

Danelectro make a cheap one I think.

The pedal, yeah -- it sounds pretty good, too.

[Ian Price]

To my recollection the Reefer pedal was reviewed in guitarist magazine

I have that issue somewhere in my collection. There were two burford pedals reviewed and I think both did quite well - I'll see if I can dig it out later tonight.

[AndyR]

I was looking at cheap electric sitars a year or so ago (around the £300-£400 mark), but they seem to have disappeared... One was a Hohner, I think...

And you can get sitar bridges like Wez suggests that directly replace the bridges on current Dano guitars (I considered getting another 59 and a bridge for it - in fact, I hardly play my 59 at the moment, maybe I should do it to that?).

DnL is right about the sympathetic strings bit - but I find I personally don't really want them if I try to use a sitar sound in a rock/pop situation.

Another option to consider is a Line6 Variax - I think the sitar model is pretty good, if I remember rightly it features in a song called "Standing Sideways" if you follow the link in my sig (I'm at work and can't access soundclick to check).

Warning though: a Variax shows you what the world might be like if you owned all the guitars it's modelling - can prove a bit expensive eventually :lol: (Also, they seem to have reliability issues - although my 2, and a bass, have been fine so far...)

[dobbins]

Digitech's Dan Donegan signature pedal - The Weapon - has a Sitar emulator amongst other effects. Hope thats of help

[Sifu Ben]

The Danelectro Sitar Swami got rave reviews, but it wasn't in production for long. Maybe you could get one on Ebay.

[Sifu Ben]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Danelectro-Sitar-Swami-sitar-simulator-pedal_W0QQitemZ120419742164QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar_Accessories?hash=item120419742164&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

[WezV]

i looked at the danelectro pedal a few years back, i seem to remember the reviews saying it was fun but not actually much like a sitar sound and that put me off

[Sifu Ben]

Cool Sitar sound out of the Line 6 MM4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSFw41UOzkM&feature=related