Mike's Oud Forums

Help choosing Oud

Loay - 2-3-2010 at 10:55 AM

Ok, I am VERY interested in buying an Oud, I never played one, but I do play piano so Im good with the music theory.
I want an oud that has a low pitch.. like the one that naseer shamma and marcel khalife use, but im not sure which oud is that.. is it the turkish? the arabic... etc..
and also, i would like to know where can i buy a good oud to start with in the U.S (online)

Thank you very much in advance.

oudtab - 2-3-2010 at 02:06 PM

Bonjour Loay,

I've written few lines about the oud : http://sites.google.com/site/oudguitare/generalities

The best advice I can give you is to find a music shop and try an oud, before thinking to buy one online.

Sazi - 2-4-2010 at 01:03 AM

Welcome to the forum.

Most people would say Naseer's oud is high sounding, not low, he uses Iraqi tuning Fcdgcf, - low (standard Arabic) is CFAdgc, Turkish is (most commonly) C# F# bead, or EAbead. I know the quality is usually not too great, but check out youtube oud videos and see what you like. We have a member here who makes the ouds that naseer & other prominent players now play, you could contact him and have one made for you, the ouds are fantastic, check out this link...

http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=10267

My own YouTube channel has hundreds of oud videos, some floating bridge and some fixed bridge, you could check them out.

Good luck!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Sazi369