In 1965, The Beatles filmed their movie "Help," which included Indian music in the soundtrack (as well as a scene in an Indian restaurant, and some appalling impersonations of Hindus by British actors who really should have known better). One result of this is that guitarist George Harrison became enamored with Indian music, and wound up purchasing a sitar as the band toured through India later that year. George used his sitar in the song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," and from that point forward, bands all over the world started adding sitar into their recordings.

In the mid-60s, investing in a sitar was no trivial matter. You'd need to spend well into the thousands of dollars to purchase one, imported from India sight-unseen; pray that this incredibly delicate instrument wouldn't arrive as a pile of splintered gourd; and then find someone in your area who could teach you how to play it. You might have some decent luck if you lived in London, New York, Los Angeles or Toronto, but if you lived too far from one of those major metros, your chances of finding a teacher diminished rapidly. For most musicians, on musician budgets, this just wasn't an economic or logistical reality.

In 1967, Danelectro introduced their Coral sitar, which combined a guitar body and neck with a flattened "buzz bridge" and 13 sympathetic or resonant strings. A guitarist could very easily pick up the Coral and start playing it like a guitar. It was far more durable than an Indian sitar, much more comfortable to hold, and cost less than $300 in 1967. Suddenly, adding a sitar to the band seemed much more doable. Coral sitars found their way into the hands of bands and musicians like The Box Tops, The Animals, The Spinners, BJ Thomas, Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder.

Danelectro filed for bankruptcy in 1969, and the Coral sitar vanished along with all their other creations. Throughout the 70s and 80s, Danelectro guitars and basses were sought after for their unique designs and sound, and the sitar was a rare prize. Prices of all Danis appreciated rapidly, and a Coral sitar might easily sell for over $3000 today, more than ten times its original sticker price. (It should be noted that the Danelectro name was revived in the 1990s under different ownership. Current Danelectro guitars are modeled after the 1947-1969 originals. The Coral sitar is not a part of the current lineup.)

Over the years, other manufacturers have offered electric sitars of varying quality and with mixed success. Jerry Jones, Rogue, Agile and Italia have all offered their variations. As of this writing, only the Italia is still in production. The others circulate on the used market, usually for much more than they cost when new.

Rogue is a line of instruments sold exclusively by Musician's Friend and their parent company Guitar Center. It's sort of a house brand of inexpensive instruments for students and and adult beginners, but their instruments are quite playable even for more experienced and serious players. My first Rogue instrument was a black acoustic guitar I picked up for $49 (and later gave one away to a friend). I also have a Rogue baritone ukulele, their travel-starter banjo, and their take on the electric sitar.

The Rogue STR-1 is a nearly perfect copy of the Danelectro Coral sitar. It has the same basic body shape and construction, the same pickup design and placement, and even the same black-over-red crackle finish. Its 25" scale is similar to that of a Fender Telecaster or Stratocaster. The 13 sympathetic strings, placed above the 6 main strings, are tuned in half-step increments from E (an octave above the high-E main string) to E (another octave above that). The idea is that these strings will resonate in sympathy with the notes played on the main strings, like the sympathetic strings on an Indian sitar. The symp strings have their own pickup, volume and tone, so they can be adjusted separately from the two main pickups, and may also be played with the fingers or pick for a harp or zither effect.

The sitar-like drone sound is created by a special flattened bridge designed in the 60s and manufactured by Gotoh in Japan. The main strings buzz against the flat part of the bridge much like they'd buzz against the frets of a poorly adjusted guitar neck (although with a much more desirable result). The overall effect makes for a fairly believable sitar sound, at least for use in rock and jazz applications.

I picked up my Rogue sitar through a seller on ebay, who happens to be a luthier at the Hollywood Guitar Repair Shop in Hollywood, Florida. Andy Green builds and sells his own guitars online, and also repairs and resells used instruments. I got the Rogue for $499, which was more than the original MSRP of $399, but again these instruments often bring quite a bit more than that on the used market. It arrived in great shape, and after a little adjustment it's been a lot of fun to play.

There are a few things that should be pointed out about electric sitars in general, and the Rogue in particular. First, strictly speaking, this is not a sitar: it's a guitar with a buzz bridge. It's not tuned the same, it's not intoned the same, it doesn't feel, play or sound the same as an Indian sitar.

Second, the sympathetic strings are a great idea in theory, but there isn't enough energy transferred between the mains and the symps to really get them moving. Strumming the symp strings makes a nice glissando effect, but should be used very sparingly.

Third, the buzz bridge makes an interesting sonic effect, but it wreaks havoc on the intonation of the strings. Play an E and the resulting tone is somewhere *around* an E, but not quite on pitch. Moving up the neck, this effect becomes more and more pronounced. Chording is a nightmare: this guitar is for lead lines only. Where a sitar's bridge curves slightly downward to create the buzz but keep fretted notes in tune, the Gotoh bridge is flat so a large section of the string buzzes against the bridge at any given time.

Lastly, I had to spend some time and effort (and money) to find a tool to tune the sympathetic strings. Many online resources say you can tune an electric sitar with a harp wrench or Autoharp wrench, but those wrenches are for square lugs, not the hex lugs on the Rogue (I can't speak to the Coral, Jerry Jones, Agile or Italia models). The Rogue's symp strings are tuned with a 5mm hex wrench. I took the Rogue to a hardware store and picked up a couple of 5mm sockets and a small breaker bar (a socket wrench with no ratchet action) to tune the symp section and it works splendidly, but I'm not sure now what to do with my spare Autoharp wrench.

It can be said in all fairness that electric sitars are one-trick ponies: they do one job, but they do it quite well. Although as I stated above, this isn't really a sitar in the strict sense, it does allow me to have a sitar-like sound without having to take my fragile (but ironically less expensive) Kaayna Musicals sitar out on the road. I can play standing up with the Rogue, which really can't be done with an Indian sitar, and the six main strings are much easier to change and tune than on an Indian model. For these reasons, this one-trick pony is likely to get a little more work than its traditional counterpart.