The following article was written by The Smoking Jackets:

“Norwegian Wood”, which appeared on The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, is considered to be the first song in American rock music to feature a sitar. Even before arriving in India I made it my goal that within the first six weeks there I was going to buy a sitar and be able to play that lick that we all know. After being in New Delhi for just about a week, I finally made my way by rickshaw into the heart of the Old City to find the Rikhi Ram music shop, the same place where the Beatles went to buy their own sitars (although the sitar featured on “Norwegian Wood” did not come from this shop. George Harrison bought that one at a tourist shop in London. It was cheap but it did the job).

Anyway, the Rikhi Ram shop is cool. I checked out the backroom where they actually make some of the instruments. It smelled good. I tried a few of the sitars out but hadn’t had a lesson at that point so had no idea what I was doing and didn’t know what to look for. Although I did get to see the collection of pictures they had of the Beatles actually in the shop and hanging out with the owners. It’s a family business and I spoke to one of the original maker’s sons. I didn’t end up buying my own sitar at the shop (didn’t think I deserved one yet) but did haggle a bit and bought the black acoustic guitar you can see in the picture in the post below. Just scroll down.

While you can’t make out the detail in that picture, the guitar is made by “Givson”. Yes. Givson. I was told it was the “most popular guitar in India”. A sticker on the back says “OK TESTED”. So you know it’s good. Later I found a note that was actually inside the guitar. Written in Bengali (I had my homestay sister translate), it said “The truss rod on the bridge is broken. Don’t sell this as new.”

Thanks Rikhi Ram’s son. Ass. But, I’m still actually pretty pumped on the guitar because people get a kick out of “Givson” and two of my friends hand painted it so it looks all snazzy now (see two posts previous to check the paintjob). I finally did get my own sitar, though, a few weeks later through my teacher. He had a friend who makes them and got me a good deal. It’s brown and beautiful and dripping in mother of pearl. Since I’ve had it for a while, though, I’ll have to restring it soon. It has 23 strings. Could take a while. Next entry about my own journey to Rishikesh, the place where the Beatles went to study Transcendental Meditation and write the White Album.