Mike's Oud Forums

The next Oud...

Fritz - 10-23-2013 at 10:10 AM

Hi... the next Oud is going to be a beautiful instrument with african mahogany and flamed maple. The bowl is allready completed and ready to tune for the top it gets.

This Oud will be a relatively "small" one, comfortable to hold and to play, slightly narrow, the length of the bowl is 500mm to match the needs of the customer who ordered it... with a string length of 600mm.

I will post some more pics time to time...

SamirCanada - 10-23-2013 at 10:33 AM

Nice work Fritz, very clean work

suz_i_dil - 10-23-2013 at 01:03 PM

Beginning well ... looking forward for the following :)

Fritz - 10-24-2013 at 10:39 AM

Quote: Originally posted by SamirCanada  
Nice work Fritz, very clean work


Thanks a lot... as allways : I try my very best :)

Fritz - 10-24-2013 at 10:41 AM

Quote: Originally posted by suz_i_dil  
Beginning well ... looking forward for the following :)


... coming asap :)

bulerias1981 - 10-24-2013 at 04:01 PM

Looking great

Fritz - 10-25-2013 at 11:54 AM

Quote: Originally posted by bulerias1981  
Looking great


...and your´s, too !!! Nice design of the bowl, coming surely from the same mould. Good proportions and seem to be able to hold comfortable... and to play equal !

Go on with the new line :-)

Fritz - 10-29-2013 at 10:56 AM

Now the paper stripes are assembled...

Fritz - 11-1-2013 at 02:26 PM

The "mirror" is completed and inserted... now the surface of the bowl is ready... and I gave a thin layer of shellaque to protect the wod against maks of further handling and working. And the colours are coming through...



Fritz - 11-6-2013 at 01:09 PM

Hi again...

Here are new pics, I began making the soundboard... it is now just about a bit over 1,3mm (edges at the widest area) to 1,7mm ( the middle line where the strings runs and complete around the bridge... around the sound hole the top is 1,5mm) in thickness.

The edges will loose just about 2 or 3 1/20mm befor finishing, that´s because the sanding of the purfling to the level of the top...

fadel - 11-7-2013 at 06:05 AM

Nice work

gooooooood hand

salam

Fritz - 11-7-2013 at 10:33 AM

Quote: Originally posted by fadel  
Nice work

gooooooood hand

salam


Thanks, Fadel :)

Fritz - 11-28-2013 at 02:27 PM

Hi

I´ve been very busy the last days... here are the results :

Bakr Dagher - 11-30-2013 at 03:59 AM

amazing work , keep it up :)

Fritz - 11-30-2013 at 01:23 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Bakr Dagher  
amazing work , keep it up :)


Hi Bakr Dagher

Ofcourse I´ll do :-)

This Oud is going to be very comfortable to hold and to play I think. In a few days it will be completed...

Thanks for the nice words about my work :-)

Greetings

Fritz

Fritz - 12-9-2013 at 02:19 PM

Now some more pics again... as promised :)

As busy as usual I concentrated on completing the mahogany / maple - Oud... leaving the Padouk-Oud untouched at the moment wich only needs the pegbox (already built)

I already mounted the fingerboard of hard dark rosewood to the neck (ebony was too dark, too black), the angle is perfect to get a low action about 2,8mm max. If needed, the action could be adapted to the playing by sanding down the upper end of the board, it´s a bit thicker than at the neck joint like it is usual on every turkish Oud.

The purfling is made of flamed maple, the pick guard is darkened mahogany, the bridge is made of flamed walnut. The design of the pick guard is an idea of the customer... I asked him to think about the design he likes and I modyfied it a bit to match the right place on the spruce top.

This top again has a concavity to give place for the risha... never touching the top while playing... and to let the strings be high enough to avoid any buzzing when a stroke is a bit harder.

[file]29630[/file] [file]29632[/file]

suz_i_dil - 12-12-2013 at 11:11 AM

Hello Fritz

I'm beginning work by making a new soundboard to a badly made oud I had. Just to see result and for training before making a whole instrument.

May I ask how do you make the concavity for the soundboard ?

I shaved the 2 first ribs of the bowl but think I have shaved to much. I will see by putting the soundboard. If needed I will make 2 new ribs. Will see.

Do you shaved also the concavity in the ribs of the bowl ? Or by the shape of the bracing? Or maybe there's another solution I din't think about.

thanks

Looking forward to hear the sound of your new oud

Best

Fritz - 12-15-2013 at 11:37 AM

Quote: Originally posted by suz_i_dil  
Hello Fritz

I'm beginning work by making a new soundboard to a badly made oud I had. Just to see result and for training before making a whole instrument.

May I ask how do you make the concavity for the soundboard ?

I shaved the 2 first ribs of the bowl but think I have shaved to much. I will see by putting the soundboard. If needed I will make 2 new ribs. Will see.

Do you shaved also the concavity in the ribs of the bowl ? Or by the shape of the bracing? Or maybe there's another solution I din't think about.

thanks

Looking forward to hear the sound of your new oud

Best


Hi suz_i_dil

Yeah... try to make the best you can...

The concavity is a bit delicate... and just hard to explain... to give the right tips. There is an extraordinary good site on the web by Jameel Abraham... Kahalaf Ouds... there is a very very good look inside his way to build an Oud, including his way to give the top a cocave surface.

May way is another, but on this site you may get every info you could get for beginning with Oud-making.

In my way I follow other particular thoughts, and there are a few things I have in mind making such a concavity, and how I make it, and what depends on it...

To try to explain with my bad english is hard and a very time- and nerv-consuming work... I would have to write a middle-long story :-)

Kind regards

Fritz

Fritz - 12-15-2013 at 11:43 AM


Hi guys

Two instruments are going to be completed, the peg boxes are assembled...

There are some new pics I´d like to post :-)

Please have a look

Thanks

Fritz


suz_i_dil - 12-15-2013 at 12:38 PM

:) sure, I understand.
I will seek around Jameel Khalaf website

nice to see the upcoming of your work. I will try to make a feedback, when finish the top.

regards !

Fritz - 12-16-2013 at 01:38 PM

Quote: Originally posted by suz_i_dil  
:) sure, I understand.
I will seek around Jameel Khalaf website

nice to see the upcoming of your work. I will try to make a feedback, when finish the top.

regards !


Hi again...

Just reading again my written stuff... please excuse the huge amount of failures in orthographic... but keep in mind : I am sitting in front of three monitors the whole day, allways throwing data through the net and from one point to another... So after 9 hours of highly concentrated working there is no concentration left in the evening for such things... so I oversaw the mistakes. I don´t even recognised them :-(

Very good... have a look on Khalaf´s site and you can learn a lot, if you find it helpful what and how he does.

Both the mahogany/maple-Oud and the Padouk-Oud are going to be ready nearly simultaneously... In the near future I will post some pics of the ready-built instruments :-)

And I hope, you will let us know how your top is growing :-)

Good luck for the progress / process :-)

Fritz

Doc139 - 12-17-2013 at 01:12 PM

Hallo Helge,
schaue immer wieder gerne in Deine Webseite rein, grossartige Arbeit, echt! Wenn ich je so weit in den Norden komme würde ich gerne einmal eines Deiner Instrumente in der Hand halten und ausprobieren... keep on going!
Gruss aus der Schweiz,
Alexander

Fritz - 12-17-2013 at 01:25 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Doc139  
Hallo Helge,
schaue immer wieder gerne in Deine Webseite rein, grossartige Arbeit, echt! Wenn ich je so weit in den Norden komme würde ich gerne einmal eines Deiner Instrumente in der Hand halten und ausprobieren... keep on going!
Gruss aus der Schweiz,
Alexander


Hey Doc :-)

So so :-) Also auch in der Schweiz kennt man meine Seite ? Wow... das ist gut... man prophezeit mir einiges... wenn ich so weitermache... und das werde ich... ich kann gar nicht anders. Doch, ich geb mir äußerst viel Mühe und freue mich über jeden, der eins meiner Instrumente in die Welt trägt und spielt.

Mal eben schicken um zu probieren ist natürlich schwierig, aber nicht unmöglich... welcher gefällt den am Besten ? Was spielst Du für einen ? Türkisch ? Arabisch ? Gibt es Favouriten unter den geläufigen Oud-Bauern ? So vom Stil her ?

Aber Danke erstmal für die netten Worte !!!

Gruß von der Packeisgrenze...

Fritz

Fritz - 12-18-2013 at 01:23 PM

Here are the newest pics of the Ouds I am polishing (french polish)

The syrian style mahogany / maple in front
and the egyptian style Padouk behind ...