morro95 - 5-19-2010 at 10:44 AM
Hi everyone
Just joined and thanks for the welcome. I am italian so excuse my
relatively good english is not so good in techical terms in english.
I am a designer and had a good opportunity to collaborate with an italian maker of wood cases including cases for ouds.
However most of my work before starting to design cases was based in reading and listening what are the problems when an oud or lute,theorbo or
chitarrone or Hurdy Gurdy must travel and arrive safely since in many cases the instrument is also costly.
The main point we worked on was the solidity of the case leaving apart in the beginning what could be the weight.
Plywood remains for me the bst material which we managed to
bend without cracking and create a one piece body that can be easily adapted to the various models of ouds or lute and similar. I do not think that
cases that have to carry so many varieties of instruments can be made at a reasonable price in synthetic materials. Just the moulds cost a fortune
.
I am not a musician so i cannot participate to other forums but surely i read them. If any want to submit ideas about cases or bring up problems i
will be glad when not out of home to talk about it.
Keep well
Ciao
Mario
rojaros - 5-25-2010 at 12:46 AM
Hello, thanks for letting us know.
I think the biggest problem with oud case design is that ouds sizes are far less standard than with many other isntruments, say classical guitars
(they vary in size too, but much less than ouds).
But I think, the most important issue for a good case is that the oud sits tightly without play and is well padded. So that means almost unavoidably a
custom made case.
So the main thinking investment into the desigh process would probabely be to simplify the external form (let say large, medium and small) and come up
with some kind of good, adjustable padding inside (maybe inflatable?), so that you would offer a range of admissible size for a given case size and
either customize the padding to fit the oud in case as a servise or design a padding that can be customized by the customer himself.
best wishes
Robert
(PS Of course the neck and specially the joint of the neck to the peg box must be protected very well, it's a weak point of the oud construction)
Sazi - 5-25-2010 at 01:02 AM
Hi Mario, thanks for your input here
Just something I have found with my own oud cases, both different designs and materials...
The two hard cases appear to be good, but on both of them the top has no re-enforcement, and here, the padding is not the problem, - it is that the
top of the case can too easily be pressed into the face of the oud.
Thanks again, Ciao