Antique Surbahar made by Damodar Adhikari

One of the finest instruments from India I have ever encountered. I had the honor and pleasure of restoring it to playability. This is an instrument that had been fantastically embellished with silver for a favored musician of a maharaja’s durbar. Entirely built of teak- the resonator was carved just like a natural gourd. The frets have a wheel-and-screw mechanism to set them on a silver ledge attached to the fingerboard- the only example like this I have seen. The pegs for the taraf strings are coiled double nagas. The upper tumba is constructed as a shallow box out of bent wooden strips and 2 turned plates. It is a massive instrument and would not have been easily played. This surbahar has a pride of place display at the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.