1960s Medium-Scale Dilruba Modified to Hawaiian/Lap Slide Mohan Veena-Like Instrument

April 11, 2026

1960s Medium-Scale Dilruba Modified to Hawaiian/Lap Slide Mohan Veena-Like Instrument

Overview: This is a '60s dilruba (a bowed, sitar-like instrument with a skin head) from which I have removed all the tuners and replaced a number of them with all geared guitar tuners. I then removed the curved, sitar-like frets and fit some aluminum-tape "fret markers." I eliminated half of the sympathetic strings so now there are only 7 and the drone strings from the headstock are simply removed. It had rust-encrusted original melody tuners at the headstock but I've replaced them with sealed units in guitar orientation. I then made a new bridge and strung it up as a 4-string, slide/Hawaiian guitar setup.

I love the sound of mohan veena (Indian slide guitar with drones) and so this works as a cousin to an instrument of that style, though simplified for someone like myself. This has all plain strings with a pitch range like a sitar up at the headstock but non-re-entrant. It's tuned EBEG# like open E tuning on guitar at the moment, but the strings will suit a variety of tunings. The 28" scale happens to suit this pitch range. I have the sympathetic strings tuned E, F, G, G# A, B, D at the moment, low to high, but they could be retuned to suit a different key.

Repairs included: It was a lot of modification, really, and installing tuners -- all of which are newer and good quality. I left all of the old holes for tuners extant so one could theoretically modify the instrument back into a normal dilruba if desired. The original parts will come with it.