We use no. 3 for chikari and tarab. For the laraj string, we prefer either a wound no. 18 string or no. 20, which has a great response. The standard surbahar (in size) is tuned in “G” note and therefore the gauge of strings can be arranged in the order of 5,24,22,20,5,2,2. However, a customised surbahar (bigger in size) is tuned to F# and sometimes to F.
Therefore, string 1 is in gauge no. 6. This gives less sharpness than 5 no. gauge and has more sustain and seems ideal to pull meend for 7 notes.
String 2- (jod) is no. 24 (bronze).
String 3- kharaj Pancham. Earlier some used no. 22 bronze which tends to go out of tune after pulling long meends. To avoid this, now they use wound nickel string. It is used as 4th string in acoustic guitar.
String 4 is laraj Shadaj. Earlier no. 20 bronze strings was used. It had the same problem while pulling meend. Now it is replaced with wound bronze string. It is used as 5th string of acoustic guitar.
String 5- Pancham no. 4. Usually, as principle, 1st and 5th string should be of same gauge so It has to be no.6. But some prefer a light jawari for Pancham and hence use no.4.
String 6 – no. 3.
String 7 – no 3
Tarab strings – no. 3 and first two strings to no. 4.
We know that Ustad Vilayat Khan has played raga Purba on surbahar which was tuned to note E. The jawari played very important role in his surbahar as the size was just as same as G scale surbahar. So in conclusion we could say that one has to customise the size, strings, and scale according to the individual choice.
20. What about strings in surbahar?
What about strings in surbahar?