Sitar Swami?

[soulsonic]

Okay, I know this dog has been mentioned a few times here, but I looked around and haven't found a schematic anywhere.
Here's the deal, I've got a Dano Sitar Swami, and I was playing with it today and shocked myself by actually getting a good convincing sound out of it. I didn't get a totally sitar sound necessarily, but I did cop some very convincing mid-Eastern string tones. I found out the trick was to turn the guitar volume down a little bit so that the octaves didn't distort, and if you do that and turn down the Tone on the Swami, it totally sounds like you're listening to a Turkish station over a SW radio. With this kind of tweak, the swooshing sounds less like a bad attempt at drone strings and more like the swooshing you get on the aforementioned SW radio (anyone who's listened to foreign radio stations on an SW knows what I'm talking about). All that's needed after that, is the right playing technique to fake the mid-East style. I found myself jamming on some weird thing for a half-hour it sounded so sweet.
So, I'm saying people need to give this thing a second chance; it really has some great effects in it if you've got the skill and creativity to make it happen. This is the first time I really got serious with it on the guitar, but I used to use it on bass all the time for the wild stuff it would do. I pulled it out today to see if it still worked after living in the dank basement for a few years, and lo and behold, not only did it work, but I was able to really get some good mojo happening with it.
Which brings me back to my original statement; I looked around but haven't found a schematic for it anywhere. So, now I ask, would anyone here like for me to trace mine and draw up the schematic? I have no fear of SMD!
Oh, and it's not just a flanger like I've seen so many people say; it's a flanger with an octave down and octave up. The octaves distort and don't track very well unless you turn the guitar volume down a bit - then it cleans up and sounds really cool.
If anyone is interested in the possibility of DIYing this impossible to get discontinued effect, let me know!

[soulsonic]

Oh crickey! I just opened this thing up. Man, I really stepped in it when I offered to trace this crazy thing.
My offer still stands though, I'll give it a go if people are interested, though you shouldn't expect it anytime soon... this may take awhile.

[Marcos - Munky]

I'm interested .

[ambulancevoice]

me to

there are some cool bends for this thing that makes it into a noise maker
here look on Colin's site
http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/stuff/other.html
scroll down to the bottom of the page
theres a sound sample

[zombiwoof]

Maybe you could consider rebuilding it into T.Escobedo's Jawari Sitar Emulator, which is down near the end of this page.

http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folkurban/fuzz/snippets.html

Sounds like it kind of does what you are talking about, and it looks like an easy project.

Al

[John Lyons]

There could be some cool sounds to be had but the Sitar Swami is basically a multi effects unit with no controls for effects parameters.
To me it sounds like an Octave with some overdrive, short delay/flange... The flange we-oo-we-oo-we-oo get's on my nerves.
If you could access the parameters and bring them out to panel knobs then this device would be dramatically improved!

Like all octave circuits turning down the tone and or volume as well as playing higher on the neck with get you better octave sounds.
Cool that you got something useable out of this guy as stock!. I bought one for $4 mint (no joke) at a thrift store and sold it for $80 on ebay!

John

[soulsonic]

If you could access the parameters and bring them out to panel knobs then this device would be dramatically improved!

Yeah, that's what I would like to see about being able to do with the circuit. Of course, this is why we need a schematic. I'm going to try get in touch with Danelectro and see if they have one they'll share. That would certainly make things easier. The problem is that there are tons of little chip caps that don't have values or anything labeled on them. And there are MANY of them. If it were just a couple unmarked caps, it would be no big deal to desolder them, measure, and re-solder, but if I were to do that here, I would basically be disassembling the entire thing!

[DougH]

Like all octave circuits turning down the tone and or volume as well as playing higher on the neck with get you better octave sounds.

I find it pretty easy to get good sitar sounds with an octave-up fuzz box. Turn down the drive and guitar volume, use the bridge pup and play real close to the bridge. (For some reason I always find myself playing the George Harrison "What is Life" lick when I try that.) And as an added bonus you have the octave-up fuzz sound too.

[joegagan]

well doug, you really can't go wrong playing *any* g harrison riff can you?

i remember seeing those sitar swamis in the stores, people weren't really snatching them up