How Chanditala Kaugachi became Bengal's guitar village

The sound of cutting and shaping of wood and the smell of melamine polish emanate from almost all the houses in Chanditala Kaugachi village in the Shyamnagar area of Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district. Luthiers can be seen cutting wood to make a guitar’s neck, its main body, glueing various parts and securing them with nuts and bolts to create the six-stringed instrument, which has been giving melodious music for centuries.

Also known as the ‘guitar village’, Chanditala is the hub for manufacturing the instrument which is supplied to wholesalers and retailers across India and also exported to Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

A number of guitar manufacturing units, both small and medium-sized, are operational in the village. Around 120 luthiers are involved in making guitars. They earn between Rs 150 to Rs 350 per day depending on the type of work like polishing, finishing, preparing the wood, etc.

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Besides, many shops sell guitar-making tools, nuts, bolts, paints, polishes and other accessories. The guitar is not just a musical instrument for the people of this village; it is their very source of livelihood.

Similar to Chanditala, Dadpur in the Hooghly district is home to many units manufacturing stringed musical instruments like sarangi and veena. Some small and medium-sized businesses from Chanditala have carved out a place in the national music industry through their acoustic guitars, Spanish guitars, mandolins and ukuleles. 

Nearly 3,000 musical instruments are produced every month in Chanditala, about 30km from Kolkata.

 The guitar-making industry did not exist in Chanditala until around 20 years back. Initially, locals were hired on a contractual basis to paint and polish guitars, which were manufactured in Dum Dum in north-east Kolkata. 

 The making of guitars here was pioneered by Satyasadhan Khara who shifted the industry from Dum Dum to Chanditala. 

He hired a few locals and trained them in making Spanish and acoustic guitars – a craft he had himself learned while working in Dum Dum.

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From luthiers to proprietors

Veteran luthier Liton Roy says that most of the craftsmen learned guitar-making in Dum Dum, which had five or six production facilities. Since luthiers work on a contractual basis, some of them would receive additional work during the busiest manufacturing seasons. “Some luthiers, who received extra work, brought the unfinished guitars home in Chanditala,” he says.

These master luthiers roped in some of their less-experienced wage earners in finishing the instruments and the guitar industry took root in Chanditala. Given the interest of the locals, the manufacturing industry grew quickly here.

Khokan Roy is one of the earliest luthiers who began working on guitars in Chanditala. He started as a guitar painter and polisher and soon began to receive good job orders.

“I was introduced to the guitar in 2001 when I was 20 years old. I began by colouring and polishing a guitar from Dum Dum. A guitar retailer in Chanditala, Prabir Dutta, also gave me some guitars to paint and polish. He was the one who first took me to the local guitar market,” recollects Khokan. 

“I once bought 10 guitars from Dutta uncle and sold them profitably. That led me to start my own guitar-manufacturing business,” says Khokan.

Over the next few years, he learned the process of making a guitar – from the raw material stage to the finished product. He established his home-based manufacturing business in 2011. Today, Khokan’s Preeti Musical Industry produces the well-known Fezaar brand of guitars. “We make around 1,000 guitars every month,” he says.

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Nitish Roy, the owner of Challenger Musical Industry, borrowed Rs 2,000 from his elder sister in the year 2000 to start a guitar-manufacturing unit. He began in a leased room where he lacked the space to store more than ten guitars at a time.

“I wanted to make my guitars better than average, credible in terms of quality, and provide good after-sale support. I would work through the nights to follow my passion. In the last ten years, Challenger has grown and set up its own unit. We make acoustic guitars, Spanish guitars, mandolins and ukuleles," says Nitish.

“Starting from a single instrument, today we make 1100 guitars a month,” says Sujay Dutta, manager of Challenger. “All the manufacturing processes, including fitting, polishing and administration are done under one roof. The production is determined by the orders we receive. Some clients want 100 pieces, while others request 250 pieces. We are currently focused on the Indian market,” he says.

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The process of making a guitar

Khokan employs 30 people to run his business. “I've been making guitars for the past 20 years. During this period, I've noticed many changes in the wood used for making guitars, the fretboard (against which the fingers press the strings to vary the pitch), the string material, the material used to make the neck, and the colours. They are all essential components of a guitar,” he says.

The sound quality of a guitar depends on the wood used. Primarily, four varieties of wood are used to manufacture guitars -- imported maple, sapele, toona (also tun), and rosewood. 

The quality of guitars made using rosewood is better than those made with other varieties of wood. 

A popular instrument made at Chanditala is the four-stringed Ukulele, which has a Portuguese origin and gained popularity in Hawaii. Its size ranges from 24 to 28 inches. The baby guitar is available in size 24 inches while the big baby guitar is 36 inches. The Venus model is 38 inches long, and the Jumbo features a circular-shaped body with a tight waist and is 39 to 41 inches.

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A typical adult guitar is available in three sizes: 39 inches, 40 inches, and 41 inches. Khokan says while the baby guitars are priced between Rs 2000 and Rs 2500, the cost of the adult guitar ranges from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500. 

The price depends on the wood quality. For instance, a rosewood guitar with a maple wood neck costs Rs 4500, whereas a maple wood-only guitar would cost Rs 4200. 

A Sapele wood guitar costs Rs 4,000 and a toona wood guitar can be bought for Rs 3000. These are manufacturers' prices and retailers and wholesalers add their own margins to arrive at the selling price.

It takes about a month to manufacture a single guitar. 

The process begins with making the guitar’s neck. Luthiers cut the wood as per the guitar’s size while the main body is handcrafted separately. After the main body is made, plywood is glued on both sides and bolted with nuts and screws. The structure is then left in the sun for drying.

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This is followed by joining the guitar’s neck to the body. It is done by fitting a heel that extends from the base of the neck into a pre-cut groove on the main body. Glue is also applied and once it fully dries, the piece goes for polishing.

The guitar frame is first rubbed with paper to even out the surface. The melamine polish, which is the initial layer of colour, is applied and it must dry fully before the second coat of colour is sprayed. Glossy or matte finish options are available. The painting process requires a week. “Around 50 guitars can be polished every day,” says Khokan.

Following polishing, the guitar moves to the fittings room where the strings and headstock are fitted. Now the tuning of the guitar starts and each instrument is put through a quality test to check the working.

For an additional ten days, the instrument is monitored for its sound and physical durability. After undergoing the last round of quality inspection, it is packed and sold with a warranty of three years. 

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Fine-tuning the instrument  

“Today, we can adjust the tuning using an app, which is readily available for download. We didn't have apps 20 years back. Sound is the crucial element of an instrument. Our guitars have 22 frets, which is the fretboard or neck of a stringed instrument that has thin metallic strips placed laterally at predetermined locations. According to the algorithm, each fret is adjusted,” Khokan explains.

A guitar typically weighs 2.5 to 5 kg. The maximum width is 15 inches, and there is a 3 to 5-inch space between each box.

“When the instrument is strummed, we can immediately identify the flaw. The resonance of strings is familiar to our ears,” Khokan says. 

Depending on the error, it can be fixed. “Even a musician can’t find flaws in an instrument but we can spot it immediately even though we cannot play the guitar," he adds.

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Durability of guitars 

Khokhan says a guitar made with raw wood will develop snags. It could budge or the pasting might come off. 

The timber planks must be dried from top to bottom for at least five to ten years before making guitars. 

The majority of manufacturers stockpile wood to ensure that the instrument does not develop any problems. “In my initial days, I made some guitars using semi-dried wood, which received bad reviews. This happened due to a shortage of drying time. However, I now use only wood that has been dried for more than five years. A longer wood-drying time increases the product's life. A three-year warranty is included with our instrument,” says Khokan.

Production in Chanditala stops during the monsoon season as both the wooden body and the colours and polishing need to be fully dry. “We produce extra pieces throughout the summer to prevent demand-supply mismatch,” he says.

Overall, the business is Chanditala is growing as the world of music continues to find new connoisseurs of art.

(Partho Burman is a Kolkata-based award-winning journalist. He writes inspiring human interest and motivational stories.)

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