MatthewVanitas
Oud Lover
Posts: 12
Registered: 8-4-2010
Member Is Offline
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Cigar-box small oud?
Greetings, I posted back here a year or so ago, asking for advice on a oud-ukulele hybrid, partially inspired by Jack Haas' clips of doing taksim on a standard tenor ukulele in oud tuning.
I ended up getting on the waitlist for Tiny Guitars, and should be at the top of the list soon. I'm still interested in getting some kind of smallish fretless instrument that can do
some semblance of oud tuning. I mainly anticipate playing Western-based modal music on it, but I might try to learn some basic taqsims, though they'
be transposed to a higher pitch than equivalent tunings on the oud, unless I had a decently long neck or heavier than usual strings. I do assume
though that, failing a cigar crate vice a cigar box, anything smaller than an oud body just wouldn't have the capacity to get a good low-end, so
anticipate an instrument pitched higher than a standard oud.
I'd appreciate any brainstorms that any oudists here have. So far as tuning: should I maybe just get standard oud strings, knowing that they'll be
higher pitched due to the shorter scale length (almost like a capo'ed oud)? The cigar box guitars he makes can deal with the stress of six steel
strings, so are 9, 10, or 11 oud strings any higher in pressure than that?
Alternately, I thought of using nylon ukulele strings, and ending up with an overall tension more like ukulele than oud, so as to be an instrument a
little more accessible to Western players like me, since oud's lower tension takes some getting used to.
Thanks for humoring me on this odd idea, appreciate any input, whether regarding construction, tuning, strings, or even just aesthetics. So far as the
last, I was hoping to end up with something looking somewhat like a more-stringed version of this:
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MatthewW
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1031
Registered: 11-5-2006
Location: right here
Member Is Offline
Mood: Al Salam
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hey Matthew, that Tiny guitars is a cool website. If you are looking for something fretless that is small and looks like an oud then there are small
ouds or oud-type instruments out there, for example have a look at this clip of Said playing one:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5at1u_oud-said-chraibi-chez-lui-1...
Matthias has something:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=12062
I think Sukar and Nazih Ghadban also make smaller ouds. You can have an oud made to your specs as well.
regards, MW
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