Mike's Oud Forums

Badly fitted pegs

chebghobbi - 8-22-2011 at 12:23 PM

Hi, sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find anything.

I've just got a second-hand Bahraini oud dirt cheap and am starting to get to grips with it, but have loads of trouble keeping it in tune. Many of the strings overlap in the pegbox and knock each other out of tune, and some of the lower-pitched strings just will not tune at all sometimes. It was strung very badly when I first bought it and I spent several hours moving the strings around in order to get them on the correct pegs and in the correct order according to various online resources.

I'm wondering if (a) whoever strung it previously got the pegs mixed up and the holes on them should actually line up neatly to prevent the strings crossing, and (b) in any case, whether to reorder the pegs or just drill new holes in them, is it safe to remove every string from the oud? I've been playing guitar for years and it's common knowledge in guitar circles that removing every string can be bad for the neck.

I'd be really interested to hear people's thoughts. Great forum, incidentally.

Rob