And to make matters worse, an Iranian friend who plays piano, guitar, tar, and some santur (don't some people just make you want to spit) tells me that there are, to his knowledge, at least six "local" traditional musical systems, each one specific to particular cities or country areas. Each one has diferent tuning and requires the instrument to be adjusted differently for music from different places. This is, he says, the reason why the santur has no fixed bridges and santur players go bald prematurely.

John in Brisbane, there are two amateur santur players in Pine Rivers and at least one semi-professional Iranian music group in Brisbane. If you can't trace them, let me know and I'll find a contact number for you.