Info on oud

Hi,
I purchased an oud a few months back on craigslist for $80 and wanted to know more about it. For example, maker, quality, type of wood, or any other information. Also, I was wondering if it is a good oud or bad oud. Here are some pictures.

Thanks for the help

Hi fernandraynaud,
Thank you for your help. I really do appreciate it. I just bought a set of 6 pyramid orange label oud strings. I really would like to learn the oud by a teacher but unfortunately there isn't any in my area who can help me so I'm forced to learn on my own which is really difficult because I don't know the first thing about music. You mentioned in the post about strings being looped properly. Is there a certain way they should be looped? My I'mpresson was you run the strings through the bridge, loop the end of the string at the beginning of the bridge and your finished. Actually I tried to follow this guide http://www.oud.eclipse.co.uk/stringing.html

Thank you

I assume you meant you got 6 pairs? Until you know more about strings, get an Arabic SET and not individual strings, as it's easy to damage an oud by using the wrong tension strings. The Daniel Mari set is a good-sounding and safe set that's pretty low tension. If you don't have a chromatic tuner, get the free AP Tuner for the PC or Pano Tuner if you have an iPhone/iPad. For starters tune to (from low to high):

CEEAADDggcc

This gives you a consistent relationship between all the courses except the bottom drone string that you retune depending on what you are playing. Many people tune the EE course FF, and you can always retune to that, but EE is better if you want to also play Western music.

For stringing, the guide on David P's site is correct, though many people string so pegs labeled 9 and 11 anchor the lowest double course, and 10 the lowest single C string. It is best to string in the numbered order, starting at 1.

As to looping, thin strings call for the rightmost method, and the fattest wound strings can use that too or, if you can be sure they won't slip, you can use either of the leftmost methods. Then, while the string is still unattached at the peg end, pull it tight, shoving the loop with your fingernail towards the bridge, repeatedly pulling the knot tight, and rotating the loop downward, so the string sits as low as possible on the bridge. After the string is wound onto the peg, but before pulling it fully taught with the tuning-peg, you revisit the bridge and make the final bid for as-low-as-possible. When the string is pulled tight it is still possible to rotate the loop upward to raise the action, but the reverse becomes impossible.



The loop positioning gives you a few precious millimeters of adjustment of string height above the soundboard. Since the neck-body junction is 1/3 of the way from the nut to the bridge, 6 mm of adjustment at the bridge translates to only 2 mm of adjustment at the neck-body junction. If the action is too high in spite of all efforts, i.e. over 4 mm for a percussive timbre or over 3 mm for a zingier timbre and faster fingering, you must explore corrective measures. This is an often-discussed topic on this forum, as the small range of action adjustment that can be effected by fiddling with the loop is one of the familiar curses of the traditional oud.

In the absence of mechanisms to adjust the neck-body angle (which you find on a Fadi Matta or a Sukar), the action height is determined when the neck is glued to the body. Over time, the settling of immature wood (the material of choice for inexpensive ouds) tends to elicit twisted geometries, unplayable actions and other preludes to the traditional "neck job", a savage surgery that makes all things right again, while testing both your relationship with your luthier and the depths of your wallet. Maintaining a steady humidity in the oud's habitat can help postpone this experience, but if it starts out with a high action, you have to deal with it.

Desperate alternatives to the "neck job" include drilling new holes lower on the bridge, gluing on a layer of fingerboard and reworking the nut, planing the existing fingerboard (and reworking the nut), not to speak of time-honored existential remedies such as "sticking it deep in the closet" and "cursing and smashing the damned thing." Let us know how high the strings are above the fingerboard, right at the neck-body joint.

The more expensive oud tends to be more carefully made, using hard and long-aged woods that resonate better/louder and are less likely to crack and twist. Ebony or rosewood pegs in properly reamed holes also facilitate tuning. But there's a huge range in prices and designs. Egyptian instruments are seldom finished like Steinways anyway, and some of the plain ouds sound really good. The true dogs are only good for potting yams, but yours looks decent, and with a little beginner's luck, a lot of reading and applying some care and devotion, you might make your Bavly a source of great joy for quite a while.

I think that this forum, sites like maqamworld.com, OudProf's DVD, and searching for "oud" on YouTube will serve you well in the absence of a live teacher. If you aren't going to be memorizing a specific repertoire, it's definitely worth getting introduced to improvisation in the Maqam context.

neck-body junction

Here you can measure the action.

Thanks BaniYazid,
Sorry for the noob questions. So the distance from the fingerboard to the string should be 3 mm?

Hi Ice88,

Find yourself a good teacher, listen to the masters, and practice hard. Hopefully, you will soon pass from playing like a newbie to playing like a Nubi (Nubian). )

All the best,
John

Hi John,
lol thanks for the advice I won't give up my passion for this instrument. My biggest inspiration for wanting to learn the oud is Sakher Hattar. He produces the most beautful pieces of music I have ever heard.