Collectible Carved Chaturangui Style Sitar Fret Neck Design Mohan Veena Slide Guitar. Custom made

The Mohan Veena is an Indian Acoustic Lap Slide Guitar with Resonating "Taraf" Strings Unfretted Harp (Swarmandal) Strings. A lovely fusion of the sound of the sitar and the guitar. Absolutely fabulous instrument for playing the blues, for classical & fusion music, & just getting a great new sound to your work.

Indian stringed instruments have undergone many changes throughout history . Many western musical instruments like violin, harmonium, mandolin, archtop guitar and electric guitar have come to be accepted in Indian classical music. Multiple Grammy-winning guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt developed and named this hybrid slide guitar and has been added to the list of Indian classical instruments.

The Mohan Veena is a highly modified archtop that is played lap-style. It has 19 strings: three melody strings and four drone strings coming out of the peg heads, and 12 sympathetic strong to tuners mounted to a piece of wood added to the side of the neck. The melody strings are on what we would consider the treble side of the neck, and the drone strings are on the bass side. The drone strings are lower in height than the melody strings to allow for unrestricted playing of the melody strings. The sympathetic strings run underneath the melody and drone strings to yet another level in the bridge. The instrument has a carved spruced top, mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck, and a flat, fretless, rosewood fingerboard.

The Mohan Veena is under tremendous tension; the total strings pull to be in excess of 500 pounds. It is due to this high tension the tone tuns incredible with the sympathetic ringing out and strengthening each note played. This is a loud instrument made to cut through with low amplification. The veena comes with its own custom-made steel slide.

"He (Manx) plays slide guitar with the weight of world in every note -- sorrow and seriousness penetrate every note."