ELECTRO-HARMONIX
RAVISH SITAR
scale, which is based on the Hindustani
Bhairava scale—essentially a major scale
with a flat second and flat sixth.
BY CHARLES SAUFLEY
Less-than-hip cats and kitties might dis- miss the mystic drones and mysterious
melodic power of the sitar as synonymous
with flower power and Bollywood kitsch.
But those in the know—the enlightened so
to speak—know this foundation of Indian
classical music is an instrument of magnificent emotive power.
Electro-Harmonix’s Ravish Sitar pedal
may not, as EHX’s marketing materials
sometimes boldly claim, transform your
guitar into a totally authentic-sounding
sitar. That’s a tall order even for EHX. But
it’s capable of many magical and unexpected things that can add an Eastern flavor
to your jams, as well as lend cool, sympa-thetic-tone ambience and tone-tweaking
options in any musical context. Don’t let
the Sitar pedal handle mislead you—this
thing is a deep bag of tricks and treats.
knobs directly to the right of the level
knobs adjust the timbre of the Lead and
Sympathetic signals—adding what EHX
calls buzz—which most often seems like
a bump in the high-mid range. The white
knob at the far right of the pedal doubles
as a push-switch enabling one to select Key
mode, Decay settings for the lead voice,
and Modulation rate for the sympathetic
strings. From the Modulation mode you
can also select the voice of the Lead and
Sympathetic tones in a range from sharp
and synthetic, to more natural. Apart from
the Bypass footswitch, there’s also a footswitch that enables you to select presets or
hold the sympathetic strings in a drone,
over which you can solo or play melodies.
The Key mode itself enables you to tailor the tone for a given tone by selecting
the scale that makes up the sympathetic
tone. And the four LEDs, just below the
LCD readout (which displays the root
note), show if you’ve dialed up a sharp of
the raised root, or a major, minor, or exotic
Raga in a Box…and Beyond
The Ravish’s manual provides a quick-start
guide with settings that, presumably, were
selected for being most naturally sitar-like—Dry at 2 o’ clock, Lead at noon,
Sympathetic at noon, Lead timbre at 3
o’clock, and Sympathetic timbre at 11
o’clock. Though with these settings, and
a Rickenbacker 330 and a Fender Twin
Reverb in the signal chain, the Ravish
sounded much more like an electric sitar
accompanied by a keyboard synth in the
Sympathetic section. If this has negative
connotations, it shouldn’t. It’s a cool sound,
especially with a little delay and reverb
on the receiving end, and it sounds pretty
sweet in a loose and swinging, jazzy context
(provided you’re not too puritanical about
such things).
Those seeking a more organic, sitar emulation will likely be more satisfied by kicking up the Dry level a touch, backing off
the levels of the Lead and Sympathetic, and
tailoring the timbre controls to best suit a
given guitar’s voice. At these settings, the
digital coloration of the sympathetic strings
is much less evident. And the more natural
sound, with the additional dry signal, lends
a gentler contour to the Lead signal.
Bombay The Hard Way
The Ravish Sitar (which probably less-than-coincidentally bears a name a little
like Ravi Shankar’s) is compact and cool
looking in a mint-green 5 7/16" x 4 7/16"
box that’s resplendent in subtle paisley and
Taj Mahal graphics. And by some sleight of
graphic-design hand, the pedal doesn’t look
too busy, even though it features six knobs,
two footswitches, nine LEDs, and an LCD
readout—quite a feat by the EHX design
department.
The Ravish is as festooned with knobs
and lights as it is because it does a lot. And
charging into use of this pedal without consulting the manual is ill-advised for all but
the most fearless. But it doesn’t take long
to grasp the essence of what this pedal does
and move into some more unusual applications of its capabilities.
The first three knobs on the left control
levels for the Dry (unaffected signal), the
Lead (plucked sitar-string signal, which
is a mirror image of the dry signal) and
Sympathetic signal, which emulates the
sounds of ringing, sympathetic strings
on a sitar or tamboura. The two black
Adjustable Lead and Sympathetic signal level
Decay and
Modulation
settings
Key mode
with Sharp,
Major, Minor,
and Exotic
settings
