Oudstring13 - 7-22-2010 at 11:39 AM
Hi
Just joined and i am a beginning Oud player. On occasions the lower strings Turk, B, F# etc tend to buzz when I play.
Do I need to raise the height of the nut or the bridge? Its as if the action is to low......
Please help!!!
O
Strings buzzing. How to raise the action.
fernandraynaud - 7-22-2010 at 10:16 PM
Buzzing and action problems are a common subject and you should search the Forum for previous posts. Still, the usual question is how to lower
the action, so I will lay out what I've learned in relation to the opposite case. Some of the fixes are very simple, some require minor
woodworking. People who can afford perfect instruments have it easy, but they don't get to know their ouds as well.
Ouds don't have truss-rods, adjustable bridges or saddles. If you think the nut is OK, and want to try something quick and simple, jump to #5, and you
can study the rest, where a lot of fundamental are explained, later.
I gather this is a Turkish oud? A Turkish oud normally has low action, and a certain "timbral buzz" is part of the sound. If you play too hard, or
don't pluck parallel to the soundboard, you can always cause buzzing on the basses. If this is clearly an abnormal buzz, and you play
correctly, with the face vertical, you might need to hunt it down.
You should take stock of the oud before you change anything. Take a long straight ruler and measure the "scale", or distance between nut and
bridge inner edges. Write it down, you should know it in milimeters and inches. It determines the tension that a given thickness string, with a given
mass, needs to be pulled at, to sound at a given pitch. A Turkish oud will generally have a 585 mm scale, Arabics go as high as 630 mm. Shorter scales
are beneficial in keeping tensions lower, and that's why a Turkish oud is tuned higher using the same strings as an Arabic tuned a whole note lower.
It's a good idea to learn about typical string gauges and tensions, as strings on the oud function at about half the tension used on Spanish guitars.
A good oud is light and highly resonant, and excessive forces can easily do damage. Verify that the distance from the nut to the neck-body junction is
1/3 of the scale length. Fingering at that exact spot should elecit "a fifth" up from the open string, i.e. a D string should sound an A.
Take the ruler and lay the edge on the soundboard, from behind the bridge out along the neck. The fingerboard should slightly lean back, so
that at the nut it's, say, 4 mm back from the plane of the soundboard. The soundboard itself should be reasonably flat, though some "spooning", or
concavity, is common in front of the bridge, because string tension tries to lift the back of the bridge, and push down the front. If there is a major
discrepancy here, you will need to have a luthier look at it. Many ouds in time show the neck leaning/curving forward, or the soundboard dipping,
causing a high action.
Measure the height of the action, defined as the clearance of strings at the neck-body junction. Measure to the bottom of the strings. The bass
side will normally be a little higher. If you don't have a fancier way, and have US coins on hand, see what you can slip under the strings.
2 dimes = 2.5mm
1 nickel and a dime = 3mm
1 nickel and 1 quarter = 3.5mm
2 pennies and 1 dime = 4mm
Preferences aside, a Turkish oud should have about a 2.5 mm action, an Arabic up to 4 mm. Less than 2 mm or over 5 mm is not ideal.
Now, on to the buzz.
1) Determine where the buzzing occurs. Which individual strings? Most obviously, strings can be bad, with uneven gauges or loose windings. Make
sure that's not the case. Install a good new set of strings. Daniel Mari sets, for instance, only cost $8.00. Some new strings buzz a little then
settle down. A new oud also needs some time to settle. It might have been stored/shipped under low tension to avoid damaging the soundboard, so go
slow unless it's a mature instrument.
2) If buzzing is on the fingerboard you need to determine where, whether the nut has notches cut wrong, or the overall action is too low.
3) The nut is delicate. An oud nut should dispatch the strings no more than 1 mm or a string's diameter above the fingerboard, from slots that are no
deeper than half the string's diameter. The shape of the slots is critical. Nuts are generally made carefully and tested in place. Wood nuts are not
intrinsically inferior to bone or synthetics. A shiny new nut might give open strings a different timbre that sounds out of place alongside the sound
of fingered strings. It's a mistake to think you can "very easily" make a better one; treat your old nuts with respect. The strings can buzz within
the nut, even back in the pegbox, and they can of course buzz on the fingerboard. If the nut is at fault, you should determine if placing little
pieces of cardboard on the nut under the strings helps. And whether it helps by raising the string or by preventing buzz in the slot.
4) If the nut is buzzing, you can fill single bad slots with sawdust and superglue (cyanoacrylate) and re-notch them. Search for "nut file" in
the Forum. If many slots are low, it's better to raise the whole nut. Usually the oud nut was shimmed with little pieces of wood in the
junction of the neck and pegbox, and a drop of glue was used to tack it in place. You can usually remove the nut quite easily, level/recut any slots
if needed, then put it back, raised by additional shimming, and make final adjustments.
5) If the nut is OK, and the overall action is just too low, it's easier to treat than a high action. If you do not have an adjustable neck (and only
3 makers that we know of, Sukar, Matta and Hamza, offer that feature), you can gain a few millimeters at the bridge by working the string loops to
bring the strings as high as they will go. While holding the bridge, push up under the string at the front of the bridge, and pull the back of the
loop down behind the bridge, so it rotates a bit and the string finds a new position. Raising strings a few millimeters at the bridge only raises the
action at the neck-body junction by a third as much.
6) If that is not enough, and the bridge is high enough, you can carefully drill a new row of holes for the strings. It is important for the
holes to be on a straight line, or individual strings will be difficult to pluck with equal force. The old holes can be filled with toothpicks/glue,
but are better left as-is at first. If you don't like the new holes, fill them and go back to the old, or try again. If the bridge is very
high, resist the temptation to drill the row too high, as the strings will then be pulling the bridge away from the face with more leverage. This can
cause deep spooning, or the bridge can pop off and need to be reglued.
7) If the buzzing is against the whole fingerboard, and it is the long type, or you can see he strings slapping against the soundboard, the
soundboard might be distorted. This is best handled by a luthier, who can generally use moist heat, weights and clamps to reshape some
areas.
You should be able to solve this issue. The people with high actions do have a more difficult problem.
Much gratitude.
Oudstring13 - 7-23-2010 at 07:34 AM
Wow,
I am astounded. Thank you so much for this. I am so grateful to you for sharing this information. I'll let you know how I get on.
Thank you thank you!
O