The Indian Santoor differs from the Persian Santoor in that it has a slender and high corpus. The instrument is placed on the lap while sitting cross-legged and is played with two heavy wooden sticks. On the surface of the instrument there are 15 or 16 wooden bridges facing each other, stringed with 2 or 3 strings each. The strokes are played towards the middle of the instrument. Our model by Monoj Kumar Sardar has in total 30 notes with 90 strings – the model by Paloma, that we favour, has a further set of strings, so it has 31 notes and 93 strings as well as movable bridges. The strings are mounted on metal tuning pegs on the sides of the instrument and can be turned by a special tuning tool. A common tuning uses a diatonic scale for the row of bridges on the right-hand side. The strings on the left then complete the half-tones that are missing in the diatonic scale. Alternatively, in order to produce particularly full and resonant sounds, the complete instrument can be tuned to the pentatonic scale.

The Santoors offered by TARANG are made of solid wood and so differ considerably from the ones frequently offered in India which are often made of cheap plywood. Both models come in a robust plywood case with a plastic coating that is mostly black, together with a pair of sticks and a tuning tool.

For tuning and stringing of the Santoor seeTuning »