MAHARAJA Swarmandal + Tanpura - 2 in 1 - Tun Wood (PDI-AAJ)

It's a beautiful instrument, the sound is superb. The way it was packaged showed love, artistic sensitivity, and caring. I felt like Christmas opening it. The company itself feels deeply real and enlightened. I like it!

I was totally amazed at how well this interment was packaged,shipped and how quickly. it arrived from India!, Three days.. wow It is well built the Jawari ( bridge) was set up perfect for the Tanpura. Good price good quality all the way around! I cant complain!! For a lower price musical interment for Indian standers. Keep in mind when buying musical interments from India these are hand made with primitive tools. Not machined out like American interments, If you can live with some imperfections a scratch or two then this may be for you!-Bodiji

This is an initial review because I just received it...I am at work and did take it out of the box to make sure it was ok. So first of all it was packaged not that well...I am amazed that it made it here intact. There was no bubble wrap there was just a thin layer of cardboard like paper wrapped around it. And I am a guitarist and know what new strings look like and this thing had strings that were actually rusting on it. It sounds very bad obviously and even though they send you extra strings...I now have to take the time to restring it directly out of the box...I AM SO DISAPPOINTED I COULD SCREAM! I really can't imagine this thing sounding good EVER...like I said...I play guitar and even with bad strings my guitars still sound decent...this instrument sounds so bad. There is no resonance...it's flat...the sound is not beautiful at all. Also...yesterday I spent 4 hours...5 phone calls directly to ups and then one to Amazon trying to have them redirect the package to my work where I am today because its below 0 here and I didn't want them to leave it on my snow covered door step for 14 hours while I wasn't there and after Amazon and myself and ups spoke in a 3 way conversation and a guy named nelson charged amazon more money and promised me it was going to be shipped to my work...that didn't happen. My ups guy that delivers every day to my job spoke to me yesterday about making sure that I would get it here at my job by talking to the ups guy that had my home route and making sure that he wasn't going to deliver it to my house. He had overheard one of my conversations with ups as he was delivering here. Sure enough today he had to intercept the ups guy that was going to deliver this to my doorstep in the snow and he brought it to me at work when he delivered here. If it wasn't for him...after ALL THAT I WENT THROUGH YESTERDAY...WASTING MY TIME GETTING THINGS "WORKED OUT" WITH UPS THAT ACTUALLY NEVER GOT WORKED OUT...this instrument would have sat outside in the snow for 14 hours...I already regret this purchase. I am sad because I was so excited to get this and now after almost 300 dollars...I have to take rusty strings off of a brand new instrument and waste some more time. Obviously it would need to be tuned and that is fine...but like I said...it sounds so shallow and soul-less and just plain bad...

The really important thing here is the deep full tone of the tanpura. I do wish that the strings of the swarmandal portion were spaced further apart, to enable easier picking out of tunes. I will probably experiment with taking out every other string, to accomplish that end. But this is very serviceable, and easy for a musician unfamiliar with the tanpura to play (I often press an audience member into service as my accompanist!)

Ordered and recieved in 5 days (fri-wed)Well packed, and very nice handmade instrument for the price. Cant say enough about the seller, I broke a string when tuning (my fault- tuned it too high) and was upset that I was going to have to wait to find a set of strings to get the instrument in working order, then I happened to open the pouch of the gig bag, and theres an extra set of strings and a pick!

Excellent instrument, perfect for adding dept and contemplative structure to music with a soothing drone. Perfect for outdoor and impromptu performances easier to carry than full size tanpuras also easier to tune. Quality make as well as sturdy bridges with easy tuning and string replacement.

Great sound, lots of fun. See it here in action:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y6fdmbcQ44