New oud from Zaher Khalifeh

Merci Francis

Jamil, my friend, thank you for your kind words. Zaher is already, to my view a great name of actual lutherie Considering his young age, surely we will hear from him more and more. Just wishing him the great and long career he deserves.

For details, you can see my oud on his post of the 15th of december, same price as written ( https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF/465562233477196?sk... ): 800 USD without the shipping fees which were 200 USD including a fiberglass hardcase (the kind of model from Sukkar workshop).
This is the price how they are now.

All contact was in arabic, via facebook then phone on what'sapp (syriaoud1 " at " hotmail.com ) . Anyway the weakness of my arabic (you get an exemple of it i think )
I guess he speaks some english too, i saw he answers sometimes in english on his webpage.
The process was 2 months and a half. I made the paiement via western union mid october, the oud was ship from Syria mid december. I had a tracking number (which doesn't work: on the website refering on the number the parcel is still at the post office!). Then the oud was delivered at my door on the 29th of december.

The wood is walnut with a 2 pieces spruce soundboard. I think the varnish is a french polish. Finitions are just perfect.
THen the size, it's a bit big ..You know my taste for turkish standards. But I was looking for smthg different this time and Zaher insist he had to make a biger sized instrument than my usual standards. And indeed the sound is here
Bowl is 51 x 37 x 19.5 cm and stringlength is 58.5 cm

Ok..I think i answered all the issues you were wondering about .

Oh, and the whole story would not be complete if I don't thank too our oud fellow member Bassel Oud who refered me to Zaher. Thanks to his help I decided for a true choice.

Best regards

Thank you for your comments.
John and Samir ...you can be proud of your work ! I'm following since the begining of what you shared online and both of you are really talented

Quote: Originally posted by journeyman

In the 2nd photo above there is something at the pegbox/neck joint that I haven't seen before. What is that? Is there any inlay on the back of the bowel?

Quote: Originally posted by suz_i_dil

Indeed journeyman, it is a trussrod to adjust string action

Hello
I guess on all his ouds. I didn't knew he does that and we didn't speak about.
ACtually if he had asked me, probably I would I would have asked not to put the tross rod, I would have been afraid of the weight of this metal thing in the neck desequilibrate the oud...Which is absolutely not the case So a nice " surprise " feature for me, knowing it happens action get problematic when ouds get older.

Quote: Originally posted by suz_i_dil

Hello I guess on all his ouds. I didn't knew he does that and we didn't speak about. ACtually if he had asked me, probably I would I would have asked not to put the tross rod, I would have been afraid of the weight of this metal thing in the neck desequilibrate the oud...Which is absolutely not the case So a nice " surprise " feature for me, knowing it happens action get problematic when ouds get older.

Thanks guys
Juju my risha is one of those turkish black smooth plastic. The more usual we can find on internet.
On this record it is one I had cut in triangle shape, to have a sharp edge. An old one, I'm using as an old habit. But I think the sharp attack benefit more from a work on how to hold the risha than loosing time to seek for the " ultimate " risha
Regards