Did you ever hear a sitar when you were in a cultural show at work and you were like: I wonder if I could do that with a guitar? This guide is the answer you need on how to make a guitar sound like a sitar.
Sitar is one of the musical instruments today that have a growing global fanbase. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a master of the instrument to learn the basic sitar effect for guitars today.
Here’s how you can achieve that sitar guitar musical effect.
Contents
Step 1: Set to E Tuning
The first thing to do in sitar tuning for guitar is to tune it to an open E tuning. This means you have to get the sixth string to the first string into this setting: “”E-B-E-G#-B-E”
What happens here is that you can still play a chord even when you’re just playing with the open strings, as well as play bass lines and melody notes all at the same time.
Step 2: Make Use of a Paper Clip
The next step is you get a paper clip and straighten it out to use it as the sitar guitar bridge. Place this paper clip right between the second string and the first string, stting right on top of the bridge.
Step 3: Slide the Paper Clip to the Second String
To do this, you need to bend the clip to the point that it reaches the second string before securing it to the bridge. You may notice that the one end of the paper clip will fit into the hole of the second string’s saddle.
The other side of the clip will fit into the hole of the saddle of the first string.
For a more detailed guide on that, refer to this video tutorial:
Step 4: Tune the Amp and Guitar
What does a sitar sound like if you don’t tune the amp and the guitar first? To do this, you need to go adjust the pickup selector in the guitar and position it on the bridge.
Then, adjust the amp’s treble control to about 8 or 10 before positioning the bass and mid-range controls to 3 or 4.
Then, you can now play the melody notes using only the second and first strings, while the other four strings are simultaneously played, acting as your drone strings.
The mix between the melody notes and the drone strings will create that distinct sitar sound even more accurately if you bend the strings.
Conclusion
So there you have it: you can now fully experience the rich, beautiful sitar sound effect in your guitar mainly by just making a few adjustments. If your friends want to learn how to make a guitar sound like a sitar, then feel free to share this around.