
Bhattacharya invented the chaturangui in the mid ’90s to combine elements of the 6-string guitar with the Indian instruments the sarod and the sitar.
The Hindustani slide guitar master and instrument inventor pays tribute to the legendary Ali Akbar Khan on The Sound of the Soul.
Hindustani slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya first heard the music of legendary sarod player Ali Akbar Khan when he was just 2 years old. It was 1965, and Bhattacharya’s parents brought him to one of Khan’s concerts in Calcutta that ran almost all night. Thousands crammed into the pandal to hear him play, and tens of thousands more sat on the tram lines and stone roads outside, listening.
That experience of hearing Khan for the first time never left Bhattacharya’s memory, and he would hear the virtuoso’s sarod on the radio constantly while growing up. Bhattacharya calls it soul-stirring music, crediting Khan with creating a sort of “melodic kingdom. For me, my shelter, my bedroom of music, was Ustad [an honorific title meaning ‘master’] Ali Akbar Khan’s music,” says Bhattacharya.
“It’s about how this music develops and connects your life: how your muscles, your mind, your spirit, your blood, and your tensions all are connected to your music.”
In his 20s, seeking a closer relationship to Khan’s mastery, Bhattacharya sought out Brij Bhushan Kabra—pioneer of Indian slide guitar and one of Khan’s disciples—and asked to study under him. He spent 10 years living with Kabra, his guru, learning his theory and approach to playing music. It was during that time that Bhattacharya met Khan, who asked Kabra to send Bhattacharya to his Calcutta residence to perform for him. For the next decade, Bhattacharya would visit Khan each year and stay with him for a month, absorbing his teachings.
Today, like his gurus, Bhattacharya has become a musical legend, with a career that spans nearly 50 years. He’s shared stages with jazz-fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, Derek Trucks, and Jerry Douglas, earned two Grammy nominations, and released over a score of full-length recordings. And this January, Bhattacharya has built upon that legacy with the release of The Sound of the Soul, a four-song, 66-minute album dedicated to Khan.
A Conversation with Pdt Debashish Bhattacharya on Indian Slide Guitar
“In this performance, since it was fully improvised, it was like a dialogue, a dialogue between the melody and the rhythm.”
Bhattacharya describes the creation of The Sound of the Soul as a pure, elemental experience, reminiscent of what he calls a sacred and total relationship with his gurus. “It’s not learning note-for-note music,” he says. “It’s about how this music develops and connects your life: how your muscles, your mind, your spirit, your blood, and your tensions all are connected to your music. This cannot be passed on without a guru and disciple relationship.
“[This release] doesn’t have any clicks or pops to please any ear, whether it’s Eastern, Western, Southern, or Northern,” he continues. “I just closed my eyes and I lost myself in the studio. When I finished, I woke up like, ‘What happened? What am I doing?’ I thought this album would be the humbly best thing I can offer. My soul is connected to [Khan].”
In performance, Bhattacharya guides the music fluidly, focusing on the dialogue between melody and rhythm.
Unlike Khan, Bhattacharya doesn’t play sarod; his performance on The Sound of the Soul is entirely on the chaturangui, a hybrid slide guitar of his own design that mixes traditional Indian and Western guitar styles. The work is a celebration of his teacher, and also of cultural exchange, of borderless musical exploration.
On the album, Bhattacharya is accompanied only by percussionists Swapan Chaudhuri and Akhilesh Gundecha. The centerpiece of the release is the 39-minute saga “To His Lotus Feet.” Its title epitomizes Bhattacharya’s devotion to Khan. In the piece, the trio takes listeners on an odyssey as they glide through movements and moods, from serene, nighttime soundscapes to thrilling, up-tempo melodic sprints. Nothing was orchestrated ahead of time; the entire track is improvised. How does Bhattacharya know when the song is finished, when enough has been said?
“If you’re a story writer or script writer for a film, you know where to stop, and you know where to end it. It’s under your control,” he says. “You can end three minutes later or five minutes earlier. Unless you are satisfied, you won’t leave it. In this performance, since it was fully improvised, it was like a dialogue, a dialogue between the melody and the rhythm. I almost drowned in that raga. But when it ended, it ended.”
That approach and everything else about Bhattacharya’s musical foundation can be traced back to Calcutta, his hometown. The sprawling West Bengal capital is home to scores of different cultures and traditions—in particular an intense blend of European and Indian cultures, a result of British colonization.
The guitarist’s latest release is dedicated to Ali Akbar Khan, under whom Bhattacharya studied.
Late at night, after local radio programs had gone quiet, syndicated shows from the BBC and other stations would come in faintly to Calcutta’s radios. When Bhattacharya was as young as two or three, these airwaves exposed him to European classical music and Hawaiian slide guitar, and the sounds lodged themselves in his brain alongside classical Hindustani ragas played on sarods and sitars. He came to realize that they complemented one another: the Hawaiian slide style paired strikingly well with the Hindustani tradition’s melodies, which were characterized by seamless changes in pitch.
“I was almost dragged in this path. ‘I have to make this; I have to learn this.’”
When Bhattacharya was just 3 years old, his father bought him his first guitar. It was made of local plywood, with a small sound box and a 24" scale length—and Bhattacharya instinctively wanted to mix the Hawaiian and Hindustani musical traditions. From a young age, he learned not just Hindustani music and ragas, but also Western notation. His guitar teacher had learned how to play American slide guitar styles from a local European musician and passed this on to Bhattacharya. But the 6-string guitar, while useful for Hawaiian slide music, didn’t have the same range and power of traditional Indian instruments. The reverse was true of the sarod and sitar; they weren’t optimized for slide playing.
Still, Bhattacharya pursued a brave, brash mixing of the two sounds. His vision is revered now, but he says this wasn’t always so. “Western guitarists thought I played good slide guitar, but I played Indian classical music,” he says. “Indian classical music fraternity thought, ‘Okay, he’s a very nice classical musician, but why is he playing slide guitar?’” Bhattacharya calls these feelings his “triggers”: “I was almost dragged in this path. ‘I have to make this; I have to learn this.’”
Debashish Bhattacharya's Gear
When Bhattacharya was just a toddler, he listened to Hawaiian slide guitar and classical Hindustani ragas, both of which informed his musical vision.
Guitars
- Chaturangui
Mics
- Neumann KMR 81-i
Strings and Slides
- John Pearse strings
- John Pearse slide
- Diamond Bottlenecks crystal tone-bar
Through his 20s, he worked to develop what would become the chaturangui: an instrument which would capture the breadth of influence he carried within him. Early attempts included a jumbo body with a round soundhole, then an archtop-style with f-holes, but neither yielded the depth of sound Bhattacharya was chasing. During a trip to the U.S. in 1993, Mary Faith, the owner of John Pearse Strings, gifted him with a Weissenborn slide guitar, a rare hollow-neck model created by the luthier Hermann Weissenborn. Bhattacharya took it home, opened it up, and experimented with it, adding elements from the construction to his own guitar.
In 1994, after years of prototyping and trial-and-error, Bhattacharya completed his masterpiece. The chaturangui lap-steel guitar had a hollow neck and a normal 6-string configuration along with three extra sets of strings: two additional rhythm strings just past the high strings, two drone strings on the bass side of the neck, and 14 sympathetic strings—like those on a sitar—just past the drones. (For those counting, that brings the chaturangui’s total to 24 strings.)
“Art is not the same everywhere … but if you look at everything in nature, it’s connected. The same air you breathe, I breathe.”
Today, the chaturangui is but one of Bhattacharya’s primary instruments (standing alongside his later slide-instrument inventions, the anandi, gandharvi, and most recently, the pushpa veena). In concert, he and his accompanists operate in a similar way to how he approached the improvisation of “To His Lotus Feet.” He and his daughter Anandi Bhattacharya, a vocalist, and his brother, tabla player Subhasis Bhattacharya, performed music from The Sound of the Soul for audiences at La Folle Journée, a classical music festival in Nantes, France. He says in a performance, as in the studio, the story of the song starts from one point, then slowly develops, involving more characters and building energy before reaching a narrative peak. It gently decrescendos—the sound of “people going back home, leaving.”
Bhattacharya performing live on the pushpa veena, a 25-string slide instrument built from a single piece of teak, plus goat skin, and a deer-horn bridge.
Bhattacharya’s goal with his music is not to be “the best,” or to satisfy some notion of what his music should be. It is simply to communicate and share what he has learned from his teachers, from his whole world of influence and openness. He laments that with music, we’re raised in small pockets of influence, without much access to other musical traditions and appreciations.
Music streaming services have allowed distinct cultures to spread and mingle around the world, but Bhattacharya says we still have a way to go in bridging music traditions. “Art is not the same everywhere … but if you look at everything in nature, it’s connected,” he explains. “The same air you breathe, I breathe. The same water is flowing into the oceans, it’s the same sunlight we’re receiving. Our cultures are only different because we were ignorant about each other.”
But being raised in Calcutta taught Bhattacharya an important lesson: There is no such thing as bad music if it is created intentionally and caringly; all musical practices are connected. “Every music is divine,” he says. When we create music, we are interpreting and exploring the universe: mystery, beauty, fear, joy.
“We are the divine pieces of gods and goddesses,” Bhattacharya continues. “That is why we should accept everything as beautiful, accept it and let it come in our door. That is what I have learned in my 40 years of traveling all over the world. It’s such a beautiful life we can make through accepting other cultures and finding the way in between.”
Uttarpara Sangeet Chakra 2023 Father Son Duet | Raag Madhuvanti | Pdt Debashish Bhattacharya
With astounding virtuosity, Bhattacharya combines Indian classical music and Western slide guitar technique to create a singular, stirring sound.
Three new powerful and versatile solid-state heads from the British amp maker provide crunch, headroom, and classic tones in a small package with a same-sized price.
Epic sounds in a small, light, versatile package. Simple control set. Effects loop and footswitchable volume (with independent control) and channels. Dirty channel sparkles and spanks.
Clean channel lacks mid control
$599
Orange Gain Baby 100
orangeamps.com
Playing through a 100-watt head is immensely satisfying, regardless of your style. If you want dirty, and there’s a gain control, you’ve got dirty. If you want clean, the headroom hits the sky. Whether you’re purveying rock ’n’ roll filth, snarling blues, old-school roots, or avant-skronk, it’s all there—especially if you use pedals for low-gain drive and color.
In the case of Orange’s new Baby series entries, these possibilities exist in triplicate: the compact, highly controllable Gain Baby 100, Tour Baby 100, and Dual Baby 100 amps. These grab-and-go solid-state units with strong metal chassis are a mere 6 1/2 pounds, come with a durable shoulder bag for transport, and can be dropped atop a cabinet or into a rack. (These amps measure 12.8" x 3.13" x 7.68".) Each model has two radically different channels, guaranteeing versatility, plus a class A/B power stage for clarity and heavy lifting. They all offer the fat, midrange growl and the fast touch-sensitivity I associate with the classic, Orange sounds of players ranging from Peter Green to Slipknot’s Jim Root, which is perhaps a result of their single-ended JFET preamp stage.
I tested these Babies with a vintage Les Paul, a PRS Silver Sky SE, and a Zuzu custom with coil-splitting, to get a wide variety of tones. I also switched between a 1x12 cabinet with a G 12M Greenback and another with a 50-watt Eminence Red Coat Private Jack. Both cabs were 8 ohms, but the amps can also run 70 watts into 16 ohms. While the Celestion drilled down on nasty, Hendrix- and early ’70s-era voicings, the 50-watter really let the amps breathe in lush harmonic detail.
Each of the triplets has a footswitch option for channel and volume switching, an effects loop, and a balanced XLR out, and can be easily used with a DAW, cab sims, and IR captures. These units can also be switched for 100, 110, and 220 volts AC. Short take: I found a lot to like about these sonic siblings.
Gain Baby 100
While I’m not typically a high-gain player, I took to the Gain Baby 100 immediately, enjoying the edgy tone, responsiveness, sustain, and articulation in its dirty channel. Dirty offers gain, volume, presence, and 3-band EQ, plus the footswitchable volume has its own level control, and it delivers a stinging rock voice where chords hang and bloom. This channel’s real “dirty” secret is a toggle that can be flipped to “tight” mode, which functions like an additional EQ stage that polishes lows and focuses the mids, making them really singing and dimensional.
I initially viewed the clean channel on the Gain Baby and Tour Baby as pedal platforms, with just a volume control and bass and treble, but the clean side’s built-in, single-knob compressor pushes the Gain Baby’s volume and low-end character to the fore, conjuring memories of that ’70s uber-beast, the Sunn Beta Lead (and the Melvins’ King Buzzo). Ultimately, the Gain Baby 100 delivers very distinct and appealing bookends of heavy for just under 600 bucks.
Key: Dirty channel rhythm > dirty channel rhythm with tight switch engaged > dirty channel lead > dirty channel with tight switch lead > clean channel rhythm > clean channel lead
Tour Baby 100
The road-oriented Tour Baby seems the most versatile of the trio. The dirty channel has the same control panel as the dirty side of the Gain Baby, minus the tight switch. And while overall the amp seems to have a bit less gain, it’s still easy to get into Wayne Kramer territory by cranking up the gain control when you want to kick out the jams. Sweet, sustained tones were a snap to achieve by dialing back the guitar’s tone pots, riding the amp’s mid control high, setting treble to about 7 or 8, and dialing in the bass at 3.5 to 4. And, again, like the Gain Baby, the 3-band EQ offers plenty of range. If even more crunch is desired, the presence knob helps dial it in.
The Tour Baby’s clean channel also mimics the Gain Baby’s clean setup, but the compressor doesn’t lean into the low end like it does on the Gain Baby. It does, however, sculpt and define tones in a very appealing way, warming and pushing midrange. While I preferred the dirty channel here, my colleague Tom Butwin fell for the clean side, and his excellent demo video online is well worth watching. For me, this amp’s strength is that it stands on its legs and growls from the dirty side, and provides a characterful pedal platform on the clean side. All three amps, by the way, sound terrific with a reverb pedal, though less so at higher-gain settings.
Dual Baby
For players devoted to traditional British voicings, the Dual Baby may be the most enticing option, providing at least two recognizably classic sounds in one small, efficient package. Channel A is based on the company’s Rockerverb series, minus the reverb, and both A and B channels on the Dual Baby have 3-band EQ. The B side has the same setup and tonal characteristics as the dirty channel of the Tour Baby, sans the footswitchable volume, so you can’t pump up the level for solos with a quick stomp. However, it does have a “tight” toggle, so it’s easy to get into the same spanking, airy terrain as the Gain Baby’s dirty side or play it relatively clean.
But the A channel has another asset: a “tubby” switch, which is new for Orange. With gain pushing toward 7 and presence at about midway, and the treble rolled back, the tubby setting’s low-end boost evokes Black Sabbath—dark and ominous and perfect for sustained power chords. If your tastes run toward nasty, there’s a lot to like with the Dual Baby.
Key:
Channel A rhythm > channel A lead > channel A rhythm tubby > channel A lead tubby >
Channel B rhythm > channel B lead > channel B rhythm tight > channel B lead tight
The Verdict
Orange’s three versatile Babies cover a lot of ground in small, very affordable, well-built packages. Their response and rich-hued sounds–available even at low volumes–never left me pining for tubes, and their 100-watts make them useful for any stage. For travel, studio, or at-home playing, they are well worth investigating. These Babies can unquestionably run with the big boys. PG
The fast-rising, indie-rock outfit shows how they bring their varied four-piece string section to life on tour.
Last year’s Manning Fireworks was a breakout moment for Asheville, North Carolina’s MJ Lenderman, which is both the name of the band and the actual name of singer and guitarist Jake Lenderman, who also plays in the band Wednesday. The record topped plenty of year-end lists and drew favorable comparisons to the likes of Neil Young, Dinosaur Jr., and other stars of the pre- and post-’90s indie-rock boom.
On tour behind the record, the band stopped in at Birmingham, Alabama, joint Saturn on February 1. PG’s Chris Kies met up with Lenderman, guitarist Jon Samuels, pedal-steel player Xandy Chelmis, and bassist Landon George before the show to get the dirt on their dirt.
Brought to you by D’Addario.The SG
Lenderman’s main guitar these days is this 1979 Gibson The “SG,” which he bought in Birmingham while opening for Plains. It’s tuned to D standard, with Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky strings.
Do the Mascis Mash
It’s no surprise that Lenderman digs the Squier J Mascis Signature Jazzmaster. He’s a big Dinosaur Jr. fan and got to sit in with them in Los Angeles to play “In A Jar” in December 2024. From top to bottom, this one is tuned C–G–D–G–G–E for “You’re Every Girl to Me.”
Tele Time
This Fender American Vintage II 1977 Telecaster Deluxe comes out for cleaner needs in the set.
Original Jazz
This is Lenderman’s iconic 2008 Jazzmaster, which he bought back in Asheville.
Hi-Steppin'
Lenderman borrowed a Hiwatt to use at some hometown shows in Asheville and fell in love, so he brings this Custom 50 out on the road now. He’s working his way to a full J Mascis setup, “one cab at a time.”
MJ Lenderman's Board
Lenderman’s clean, easy board has a D’Addario tuner, Death By Audio Interstellar Overdriver Deluxe, a Dunlop wah which he uses as a subtle filter, and TC Electronic Flashback 2.
Loan from Lenderman
Lenderman recorded plenty with this Fender Player Telecaster, but now Samuels puts it to work
Hartzman's Hot Rod
Another loaner, this Hot Rod DeVille combo is on long-term borrow from Wednesday’s Carly Hartzman.
Jon Samuel's Board
Samuels’ board, which is a hybrid of his own pedals and even more borrowed units, carries a Hardwire HT-6 polyphonic tuner, Death By Audio Fuzz War, JHS Double Barrel, Dunlop wah, J. Rockett Archer Clean Boost, Joyo Tremolo, EHX Nano Small Stone, and TC Electronic Flashback 2.
Xandy's ZB
Chelmis, also a member of Wednesday, plays this 10-string ZB Custom, made in the early ’70s with a proprietary pickup. It stays in E9 tuning, and Chelmis makes it sing with a steel he bought from a pawn shop. It runs through a Fender Twin Reverb outfitted with a single 15", and a Goodrich H-120 volume pedal handles swelling duties. From time to time, Chelmis adds in a Guyatone SD2 sustainer for some fuzzy fun.
Precision Vision
George’s go-to is this 2006 Fender Mike Dirnt Precision Bass, strung with Ernie Ball medium-gauge flatwound strings.
Better Beta
George runs through a Sunn Beta Bass head into an Ampeg SVT810E cabinet.
Landon George's Board
On his board, George packs a Korg Pitchblack tuner, Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Bass, Boss DD-7, Darkglass Electronics Alpha Omega, and a Noble Amplifier Company utility box: It’s a tube preamp, DI box, and power supply, all in one.
Handcrafted in the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop, each set includes gray bottom flatwork and a pad-printed signature from Joe. The first 500 sets will be aged, packaged in limited edition boxes, and include a certificate of authenticity.
This set faithfully captures the tone of one of Joe's most cherished instruments. These period-correct pickups feature precisely staggered Alnico 5 magnets and an authentic design that recreates the magic of this special '64 Strat. Handcrafted in the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop, each set includes gray bottom flatwork and a pad-printed signature from Joe. The first 500 sets will be aged, packaged in limited edition boxes, and include a certificate of authenticity signed by Joe Bonamassa and Seymour W. Duncan.
Pre-CBS Fender Stratocasters have long held the mystique and imagination of Fender’s biggest fans. By early 1964, Fender had started to build their Strat® pickups with gray flatwork, and these gray bottom pickups were known for a notably punchy sound and higher output. Finding a pre-CBS Strat® with these rare pickups can be a challenge.
However, as Joe Bonamassa discovered, sometimes looking beyond a guitar’s originality can lead to uncovering a truly exceptional example. Joe’s 1964 Stratocaster® started its life with a three-tone sunburst finish and stock gray-bottom pickups, but was refinished with a unique “Greenburst”, which instantly captivated Joe. With the powerful sounding pickups, great playability, and striking look, Joe knew it was “an instant star”.
Lucky for guitar players everywhere, Joe Bonamassa has once again collaborated with the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop to offer the magic sound of one of his favorite instruments through a new set of signature gray bottom Strat® pickups. The Joe Bonamassa “Greenburst” Stratocaster® Set is made with period-correct wiring and staggered alnico 5 magnets. The gray bottom flatwork is pad printed with Joe’s signature, and the first 500 sets will be aged, and include limited edition packaging and a certificate of authenticity signed by Joe and Seymour W. Duncan.
Fans of Joe Bonamassa have seen the Greenburst Strat® light up the stage on tour with Joe, and now the powerful sound of “the coolest, most hideous guitar” in Joe’s collection can be attained in a Strat® of your own.
For more information, please visit customshop.seymourduncan.com.
The Joe Bonamassa “Greenburst” Stratocaster® Pickup Set - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Joe Bonamassa Greenburst Stratocaster Set Prewired Pickguard
Set, Bonamassa 64 Greenburst Strat LTDClean power is an essential part of the pedalboard recipe. Here’s a collection of power supplies that will keep you up and running.
CIOKS DC-7
This power supply features a 1" profile, seven DC outlets with four switchable voltages (9, 12, 15 and 18V) on each outlet, plus a 5V USB outlet and can be expanded for even the most power-hungry boards.
$259 street
cioks.com
Strymon Zuma
Strymon Zuma is the quietest and most powerful pedal power supply of its kind, capable of powering a huge number of guitar pedals silently and reliably with a staggering 500 mA.
$279 street
strymon.com
Mission Engineering 529i
This powerful power supply offers eight 9V isolated outputs and an internal rechargeable battery. It powers your pedalboard for four hours on a single charge via USB port or 12V input. It also includes a doubler cable that allows two 18V outputs.
$199 street
missionengineering.com
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 3 PLUS
From standard battery-operated stompboxes to high-current DSP effects, the expandable 12-output Pedal Power 3 PLUS combines cutting-edge technology and time-tested analog engineering to ensure any pedal will sound its best.
$179 street
voodoolab.com
D’Addario XPND Pedal Power Battery Kit
If you need portable, wireless power, this unit offers 10,000 mAh that can last up to 10 hours on a single charge. It also includes a USB-C power supply and a patent-pending Gateway hub for ultra-quiet operation.
$169 street
daddario.com