majnuunNavid - 3-21-2014 at 10:19 PM
I wrote about some of my experiences with taking care of (or not taking care of) my Oud, that is, maintenance and care. You can read and see some of
the battle scars my poor Oud has accumulated over the seven years of her life.
There are a few things I need to add to this post, ex, what not to do. But I hope to hear some of your stories as well about any mishaps that happened
to your Oud.
I know a friend of mine who smashed his oud 100 year old Oud up very badly(don't worry it wasn't a Nahat), and miraculously a very talented guitar
luthier did a fantastic repair, as good as new.
I'm sure there are some good ones out there...
http://www.oudforguitarists.com/oud-maintenance-and-care/
Lysander - 3-22-2014 at 03:00 AM
Nice article, I enjoyed it. I don't have any war stories as yet since I've only had my oud since July. I think I had a lucky escape on the plane back
from Turkey though. I asked one of the stewardesses where I could keep the oud on the plane and she took me to a compartment at the back, a small
floor-level cupboard where I could fit it with no problems. I was happy with this and settled down for the flight back to the UK. Towards the end of
the flight, before we were about to land, I asked her if I could take a look at the oud to see that it was all right. The stewardess took me back to
the cupboard and opened it, and said, "see, your instrument is safe!" before we both noticed in the darkness that someone, presumably one of the other
staff, had thrown three metal food trays into the cupboard which were now sitting right on top of it. She looked a bit embarrassed but it seemed OK
and I haven't noticed any kind of damage.
I was really pleased that I started reading about humidity in these forums quite early on, I wouldn't have known about it otherwise. I invested in a
dehumidifier and as a result the relative humidity in this room stays at about 60%-70%. I also have a soft case I use for transport but when I start
taking the oud to uni regularly this Autumn I'll have to get a hard case for it.
suz_i_dil - 3-22-2014 at 06:22 AM
About humidity:
* once I took in summer a brand new floater from Beyrouth (hot and wet weather) to Damascus (Hot and dry). In the day the soundboard crack all its
long, in the sense of wood fibers, and wide opened, smthg like 1 or 2 mm wide.
The maker, very kindly, proposed to change me the oud.
* the other one, a fix bridge oud I took from Istanbul (constant 50% humidity) to south west of France. The soundboard was thin 1.3 mm only. In my
area the humidity sometimes range the 80% resulting in a bump of the soundboard which bring the oud totally unplayable in high positions. Solved
thanks to a luthier who opened one side of the oud. Sanding a bit the bowl he forced a slight concave radius to the soundboard. It works fine till
now.
Regards
Eric Stern Music - 3-23-2014 at 08:32 PM
I bought an arabic oud and the owner (not an oud player, but someone who had some slight interest) said, "Yeah, i could never get the thing to stay in
tune." So I sat down with it and realized he had been tuning the strings to the pitches on the package which, as we know, are sometimes listed in
Turkish notation. In other words he was trying to tune the arabic oud a fourth up! I still bought it from him and put a new set of strings on (the
courses tuned to the right pitches) and it's been fine ever since. I sometimes wonder if the bridge might snap off someday from all of that tension he
had on it but so far it's been fine.