New Oud made of Padouk

Hi... hope, U like my new Oud made of Padouk, with a very fine tight and straight grained spruce top curved slightly inside in length and a bit in wide direction... Inlay in the 1,6mm top made of genuine mop, bridge walnut, pickguard made of very thin mahogany, layed in bookmatched pieces symmetrically.






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nice!

Quote: Originally posted by aasuits

very tasteful design- look forward to seeing the rest! best of luck on it.

Quote: Originally posted by bulerias1981

Good job, very beautiful

Quote: Originally posted by Microber

Very nice bowl Fritz. I also like very much your bookmatched pickguard. Simple idea, but very original and beautiful. Could post some picture to show the concavity of the soundboard. And why did you make it concave ? Robert

Hi Robert ... nice to read you !

Yes... the Padouk is a beautiful wood in colour and seems to be a nice tone-wood. I will see...

I think I will make only such pickguards in the future... perhaps something like a brand...

The mahogany pickguard will look amazing when the shellaque is applied... very thin viskosity, but enough to make the top nearly safe against fingertips leaving on the surface when handling the Oud an long time.

I tryed to make some pics of the curved surface... but it is difficult to catch this feature in a picture.. but I will try again... I have got a very fine photographical equipment.

I made the top concave to meet the needs of some players and Profs... It is a try, to give the playabiltiy of turkish Ouds to arabic ones. I think, almost all turkish Ouds have such concave top. And some players want to play in turkish style ... on an arabic Oud...

This Oud will sound great I think... with good strings (NylGut)... Next days other pics will be posted...

Kind regards

Quote: Originally posted by bulerias1981

I've been building most of my ouds with a concave face.. a feature I think I will keep.. and my ouds are Arabic.. Its a smart feature

Hi bulerías...

My bowls are relatively long, about 50cm, and may be 36 - 38cm wide. For arabic-style-Ouds I use to make an stringlength up to 600 or 615 mm. So the strings do not rattle on the top when played a bit harder.

Also the neck-joint is less stressed when giving a specific angle, and this angle ist needed to let the strings go high enough across the top, but with an action flat enough to make they playing comfortable.

I have other reasons, too... but it is too much to tell in some lines ... And ... let me keep some secrets

Best wishes

Fritz

Quote: Originally posted by Microber

Very nice bowl Fritz. I also like very much your bookmatched pickguard. Simple idea, but very original and beautiful. Could post some picture to show the concavity of the soundboard. And why did you make it concave ? Robert

Hey Robert

Here are the promised pics about the top I made concave... Have a look... also on the other pics I posted now

The purfling is made of flamed maple... it will shine more when shellaque is applied So the body is completed. Today I made the rest of the necks stripes of Padouk to make the covering complete. Now comes the fingerboard...

Greetings

Fritz

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Hi again...

Thank to Samir for the help... I hadn´t tried out the button he suggested.

Now the next try to post the next pics, not few, but two

The 1st showing the special cone sanded into the ebony fingerboard to give the right action...

The 2nd showing the assembled neck and fingerboard, tuned in the specific angle to the face of the Oud...

Fritz





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Quote: Originally posted by SamirCanada

Hi fritz nice work I really like your clean workmanship. I just want to give you a word of advice although it looks now like you are rather far in the process. I have a friend who had a very bad health problems from the paduk dust. be carefull with it and wear a mask if you use it.

Hi Samir

Your words have good vibes !

Ofcourse I try to work as precisely as I can, but not too precisely... but where is the limit ? Where the upper limit, where the downsize ?

I also try to build an authentic Oud, not a thing in absolute perfection... The right way is a middle between these two, I think. I know the features I want, and I know the skills I have (learning more every single hour or day in my workshop), and I know what I whant to have in hands later, when the Oud is built.

Ofcourse I know about the wood, that it is not good to breath the sanding dust... and Padouk, when laying longer untouched, begins to make a thin layer on it, a misty coating, may be the reaction with molecyls in the air or interactions with different stuffs in the air. I dont know what this coating is, but with heat it disappears ! I used a hot fan (air gun) to eleminate this coating to prevent any effect on my health. During sanding or sawing I use a silent vacu to make sure not to let the dust going everywhere... and it would !

Padouk, Ebony, Wenge, even Cedar, Rosewood and many others produce harmful dust... and I would not be a good woodworker when I don´t know such basics.

I have enough probs with my health... but it is very kind of you thinking and telling me your experience and knowledge about the danger... many thanks !

Be sure, I am careful

Take care of you and have a good time !

Until next

Fritz

Great job Fritz, absolutely charming!
Special love struck for the pick guard and bridge!
As for the circle the sound hole, I would prefer a regular wooden circle or simply nothing at all.
Congrats once again, can't wait to hear this charming instrument

Quote: Originally posted by Oud Freak

Great job Fritz, absolutely charming! Special love struck for the pick guard and bridge! As for the circle the sound hole, I would prefer a regular wooden circle or simply nothing at all. Congrats once again, can't wait to hear this charming instrument

Hi Oud-Freak

Many thanks for your kind words... it seems I make somewhat in the right way ...

The idea for the pick guard comes spontaneously... with some Ouds in mind wich have pick guards made of different veneers and simultaneously sawn in one step with one dark and one shiny coloured wood. I am making marquetry since about 30 years, and I wanted to give an effect to the guard, not only one piece of wood (I never use plastic foil like some turkish makers do... brrr... I try to use only natural materials) So the design was born... and I think I will do it more often on my Ouds.

The bridge is made of flamed walnut, darkened a bit more with dark shellaque. The design is also an idea in the moment I had the piece of wood in hands. The bows on both sides are relatively short, because the face (very fine spruce) is hard enough to stand the tension with a bridge without any "wings". But in this pattern it looks well and it matches the design of the Oud. Simple, but nice, I think.

The sound hole... yes... there were some pieces of mop in my drawer... so I decided to use them in this rigid top. May be a sipmle circle looks also great... I will try it out :-) This Oud will NOT be the last one :-)) But... nothing at all ? No... this would be against the tradition... a sound hole has to be "framed" with a beautiful what ever :-) Perhaps in a face made of cedar it might look wel... because the cedar has it´s own colour, it´s own effect... perhaps I try out this, too ...

Thanks again for the very nice comment...

and take care
with best wishes

Fritz

Quote: Originally posted by hussamd

Very nice indeed!

Thanks a lot

Quote: Originally posted by Fritz

Hi... Depending on string length it may vary I think... String lentgh 23 1/4" or 590mm is used to measure this weights with the tuning : G D A E B F#

Quote: Originally posted by SamirCanada

Not that I know of... I believe it's the tuning suggested on the package of d'addario which is misleading and no body uses that tuning. Very nice clean work fritz, however that action is way to high, it will have to be corrected to be playable. The strings at the neck should be about 2.5 to 3.5 mm away from the fingerboard.

Quote: Originally posted by hussamd

Did you get a chance to record it? I would love to hear how it sounds.

Quote: Originally posted by SamirCanada

Not that I know of... I believe it's the tuning suggested on the package of d'addario which is misleading and no body uses that tuning. Very nice clean work fritz, however that action is way to high, it will have to be corrected to be playable. The strings at the neck should be about 2.5 to 3.5 mm away from the fingerboard.

Quote: Originally posted by Fritz

Jody... Samir... This is the tuning readable on the label of the strings, on this tuning I think was done the measurement of the weights of the strings. I have written this ! The actual tuning of the Oud is : A E A D g b ... from low to high The weight of the Oud itself is 990 grams Oh... there are some things going wrong... I see... I did not see the following postings... but now... Jody, you are right... the set is J95 ! What would you suggest ? Wich tuning ? The sound is very arabic, the sting length is 600mm. The tuning I use on this Oud is comfortable for me to play, and no string is bound to break... the sound is well and clear and I would never think the tuning is too high for this strings. I do not play these strings... it was a set I had on stock... the stock decreases... I cannot by other strings... better strings. Samir... what do you mean... to high ??? The action at the neck/bowl-joint is 3mm ! Not too low for an arabic Oud, and not too hight to be uncomfortable / loss or lack of playability.

Quote: Originally posted by SamirCanada

Not that I know of... I believe it's the tuning suggested on the package of d'addario which is misleading and no body uses that tuning. Very nice clean work fritz, however that action is way to high, it will have to be corrected to be playable. The strings at the neck should be about 2.5 to 3.5 mm away from the fingerboard.

Samir

I just measured again the action... exactly 2,9mm ... the distance between the underside of the string (low bass) and the fingerboard... may be there is indeed an optical effect looking like the action is too high. I cant always find the right words to explain exactly what I mean... in the one case I mean the smoothing of the edges of the fingerboard, and this is seen in the pic, and it is not reflecting the light and seems to give the impression that the fingerboard is lower that it is in real. The playability is good, the sound is nice and very Oudy
Melodies are coming with much deepness and a nice sad under-tone... like an arabic Oud has to sound. In a few days I make a recording...

Best wishes

Fritz

Ok excellent news then. I was hoping it was the reflection.
Otherwise i would have been sad for you

As Jody said, that's not really a typical Oud tuning so I wonder also why you chose this tuning?

Happy new year.

Quote: Originally posted by SamirCanada

Ok excellent news then. I was hoping it was the reflection. Otherwise i would have been sad for you As Jody said, that's not really a typical Oud tuning so I wonder also why you chose this tuning? Happy new year.

Samir

Yes... the reflection gives the look of a high action.... the same I have with the pics of the other Oud I have just completed. (mahogany-maple left hand custom made)

The tuning I use (A E A D g c ) is the one I feel comfortable with. I do not play much or good, so there ist hardly chance to check another tuning... and there is mostly no Oud to play here. Perhaps the Padouk-Oud stays here... than I will play it. Jody suggested some tunings to check, I will try them..

A good new year to you, too

Greetings

Fritz

@Fritz,
ist das GEIL
Ist die Saitenlage so hoch oder kommt es mir nur so vor?

Gruß aus Worms

Quote: Originally posted by muhssin

@Fritz, ist das GEIL Ist die Saitenlage so hoch oder kommt es mir nur so vor? Gruß aus Worms