tambura bridge

Two similar situations on bass: first, a standard fretless bass with low action has the same or similar effect at the fretboard, commonly known as "mwah" sound. Second, there's a more expensive, and convertible to "normal" implementation in the Neuser/ABM bridge.

 

So, maybe a fretless sound, with a fretted bass?

 

What exactly are you looking for in this thread? I don't think anybody has done a jawari bridge on a bass, so if you did this you'd be blazing a trail, which means you'll have to figure some things out on your own. I wanted to do a jawari bridge on my 8-string, which could be defeated when I didn't want it, but it was just too complicated.

You might look into the surbahar, which is the bass range sitar. It might give you some insight into the specifics of the jawari with thicker strings.

 

I don't think they have. Just give it a shot. I can see a couple of potential pitfalls: the strings are likely to wear into the jawari faster than lighter strings on a sitar. This means you might end up having to reshape the bridge a lot more often. Also, you will need to adjust the curve to be correct for each individual string; the variance in bass string gauges is much more than that of sitars or tamburas, so you won't be able to do a uniform curve across the bridge.

 

A metal jawari might give an extremely bright sound, but give it a shot. I've heard of bone being used as well.

 

I thought I had read they ivory was once once used, and has been replaced by camel bone?

 

Sounds like a bass version of a Gotoh Buzz Bridge would work, but I don't know if they make them...

 

Perhaps a very hard wood like lignum vitae could provide the tone of wood but not wear as much as other woods.


But some of the "sitar-guitars" like the Jerry Jones and Rogue models use a metal Jawri and it doesnt sound overly-bright.

I'm somewhat interested by this aswell, even more than usual as I am going to India later this week.

 

Carbon fiber maybe? Very stable and not as harsh as metal.

 

you might use flats for the strings and get less wear on the bridge, just a sugestion

 

i foresee some problems. its just complicated with bass, given the differences in string gauge, and the need for tuning adjustment at the bridge (remember that sitarists are only fretting one string, and they can move the frets to to adjust for tuning). i had a similar thought once...my idea was to have a small 'buzz bridge' piece glued to each string saddle so that it lightly contacted the string...but then i realized how much fine tuning it would require, if it could work at all. also, its not enough to have something just touching the string, the string really has to be resting on the thing.

maybe you could cut replace the existing saddles with a carved piece of wood or bone, something like this

(you can tell i spent a lot of time drawing it) the thing coming out the back is the screw thru the back of the bridge that adjusts string length. idk what bridge you have on your bass, but it might work.

 

be careful about the curve...i think a parabola is the wrong way to think about it. it should start out more or less flat, and should very slowly curve off (my picture is very exaggerated, its hard to show this). i'd start off with a block of wood, and gradually sand it by hand until you reach the sound you want. the finished product shouldn't look noticeably curved. and remember that as you fret a string higher up the neck, the area of contact (not so much a point but a section) on the saddle will change. i'm sure individual saddles would work on a guitar...bass, its hard to say.

 

This is very important to consider. You may need to space your frets differently than normal, since the scale length will actually be changing slightly depending on where you are fretting.