Mike's Oud Forums

iraqi oud just finished.

coyootie - 12-5-2009 at 07:18 AM

Here are some details on this oud. The back is 17 ribs of Spanish cedar, top Engelmann spruce, walnut neck, pegbox walnut with beech inside cheeks, rosewood pegs, ivory nut ( from 85 year old stock). Spanish cedar is really excellent for a back and is used extensively for flamenco guitars. The fingerboard is a special feature, Surinam snakewood, which besides being absolutely beautiful stuff is hard as iron. It is much harder than ebony, takes a gorgeous shine, and is indeed one of the hardest woods known.It is hard as hell on tools and requires much resharpening of planes when you work it. I made 7 bridges to test out different possibilities and they all worked-cherry,beech, walnut and rosewood, and I'll give those to the buyer to fool with too. I'm ordering a Sukar case for it which will be included.
This oud being totally new- we've only had strings on it for 6 days- will open up and improve dramatically after several months of steady playing. I'm more pleased than I can say already with what it does. I'm b starting the process of getting just-right strings......[groaning noises] but ultimately the owner will figure what they like best.
The overall design is taken from Richard's Nahat data. I think the Nahat ouds are some of the most beautiful in overall profile and proportion. The bracing is similar but just a little thicker and it has a fat neck but still a bit smaller than Richard's Nahat specs. The next one I do will have a way thinner neck.
I want to thank many builders including Samir Azzar, Claudio, Jameel, Richard, Dincer without whose suggestions , work and generosity I couldn't have begun making ouds.

[file]12652[/file] [file]12654[/file] [file]12656[/file]

bulerias1981 - 11-5-2011 at 10:03 PM

wow, how did this project go uncommented? Nice job, beautiful bowl. I'll try Spanish cedar at some point due to this post.

charlie oud - 11-6-2011 at 11:04 AM

Very nice, congratulations. Would be nice to see a picture or 2 of the whole oud aswell. Thank you.