Sarods

The sarod is the instrument Ustad Ali Akbar Khan made famous. Carved from a single block of wood with a goat skin belly and a polished steel fingerboard, it produces the long, unbroken slides that define its sound. The right-hand plectrum, the jaba, is cut from coconut shell. Of its 25 strings, four carry the melody and the rest are rhythm and sympathetic strings.

We stock a full line from Naba Kanji and Kanai Lal & Sons, along with dotars — the sarod’s smaller cousin, and a practical travel instrument. Every sarod is inspected and set up here: restrung, fingerboard cleaned and polished, pegs fine-fit and chalked.