The Sitar that wasn't a sitar

I got a phone call from a person who'd bought, he said, a sitar from a large chain of guitar stores (Guitar Center). He said he needed some help with it as pieces seemed to be missing and he had no idea how to sort it out so he could play it.
As I asked him questions about it, it seemed to me that this wasn't a sitar, but was some other instrument that was sold to him as a sitar.
When his lady friend brought it by it was immediately obvious that this was in fact a Veena! Not only this, but it was a blemished instrument, too, with different colored plastic wood filling the repaired places of the bottom sounding chamber. This was quite conspicuous... but this wasn't sold as a repaired instrument.
I provided her with a book on Veena, some spare strings and tips about maintenance.
Guitar stores very seldom know what they're doing when they sell sitars or other Indian instruments and often give up the Indian instrument business after quite a short time, leaving the buyer with zero support.
Don't let this be you! Shop around to find someone who really has knowledge of what they're selling.

Do these two instruments really look alike?
Sitar:

Veena:

The Harmonium Caper.

Recently I was looking around e-bay and came across a harmonium for sale direct from India. This was from a company called Blossom Apparel in India.
Thinking that perhaps I'd find a new supplier that I could import from I put in a bid and "won" the item. I paid for it and about 10 days later it arrived.
I couldn't wait to open it, but when I did the surprise was not a pleasant one
The finish was blemished badly.
Metal parts had rubbed away the finish exposing the wood in spots all over the harmonium.
When engaged, the mechanical octave coupler pushed 14 keys up in the center so they all played themselves at the same time.
Keys were stuck together so when they were played they caught the keys next to them and played 2 or 3 notes at once. I had to adjust and re-carve these keys to get them to release once I had pressed one of them.
Other keys stuck so I also had to pull them up to get them to release.
There were internal leaks that made me have to pump hard to make the harmonium play at all
When I pulled one of the stop knobs out it came off in my hand!
I wasn't just disappointed, I was horrified at the amount of work I'd have to do to make all these things right. I was also conscious that I couldn't return it to India.
In short, I had much work ahead of me!
It took about 15 hours of working with this instrument to put things right to the extent it could be resold - and I have much experience when it comes to harmonium repairs It isn't very likely that an ordinary person could have completed the repairs needed to make this instrument work and would just use the tiem as an ornament perhaps giving it away or selling it at a garage sale later.
I have sold this instrument as used - there was no way, although repairs have been completed satisfactorily and it worksd quite well, that I could sell this as new with a good conscience, it just wouldn't have been right.
This seller now seems to have stopped selling on e-bay (I wonder why? Perhaps there were complaints?) and is now working on the search engines via paid listings advertising "New Handmade Harmoniums $90 up three models. Free shipping!".
On their site they also advertise "3 day satisfaction guarantee!". Since it takes up to 10 days for you to get the item from them, your 3 days may already be long gone when you receive the instrument and you'd obviously have to pay shipping again (more than $100) to return it. Not such a good deal, is it?
Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. There are still others on e-bay selling instruments direct from India. Likely with the same result as the instruments look to be of similar "Quality". Great ornaments if re-finished, but not really ready to be played.

The nasty tablas

Thin straps and a cardboard case

The drop shipped sitar

I had another 'phone call a few weeks ago. This is typical of others I have had in the past.
"I bought this sitar. It was a package deal from a store" the person said.
"OK" I said "What can I do to help you?"
"Well, it looks like your (old style) Calcutta sitar, but it won't stay in tune, the pegs slip, the strings are rough looking, kinda corroded and a bunch of strings have broken already. The frets look old and nasty, too. Nothing seems to work right"
I gave him instructions about how to clean the strings and frets, align the bridge, set the frets up and other tips about getting an untweaked sitar into reasonable shape. He also told me that the shipping was very cheap. It then become obvious to me that was a classic "Drop shipped special" that had been sent directly from an importer without any tweaking as drop shippers don't see the instruments they sell. Typically I spend much time getting a sitar into proper shape before sending it out.
He finally made the trip over to me and I fixed his sitar up for $110 so he could play it.
Some basic tweaking tips can be found in my FAQ and online tutorials at these places
http://www.buckinghammusic.com/sitar/sittut/btut.html
and
http://www.buckinghammusic.com/sitar/sittut/faq.html
Naturally I'd like to sell sitars to people so they wouldn't have these problems. I have put some of this information up on the web to help people with this kind of problem - one can't just hang people out to dry when they have problems, can one?
You can usually tell a drop shipper by the cheap shipping rates. It is also a good idea to phone or e-mail people before buying and ask questions about the instrument. If their answers are evasive it's because they know little about the instruments they're selling and don't actually have any in stock.

The "New Jawari" sitar