This guitar and sitar hybrid from Imrat Guitar features 18-strings

The Imrat guitar is a new, 18-string guitar and sitar hybrid, aiming to combine the aspects of both the sitar and electric guitar. Designed by luthier Kim Schwartz, it has also been created in conjunction with the late sitar and surbahar player Imrat Khan and American composer Todd Mosby.

Featuring two necks, the hybrid instrument also includes four strings tuned to D-D-A-D, three chikara strings, usually seen on a bowed instrument and tuned C-F-G, plus 11 sympathetic strings. It also features a scalloped fingerboard to mirror the microtonalities associated with a traditional sitar.

According to co-creator Todd Mosby, the hybrid guitar has allowed him to develop “a compositional style based on Classical North Indian raga and traditional bebop jazz.”

The Imrat Guitar can be heard on Todd Mosby’s latest album, Open Waters, which is out now.