ALAMI - 7-25-2015 at 07:10 AM
This is a new (old) oud by Mihran Mississian, Damascus 1932, itjust joined my 2 other old Armenian guys: the Sumbat Der Bedrossian and Leon
Stanbuli.
A simple yet amazing oud. The rosette is lost.
The old owner installed a pick-up mic inside 
it has a 60 cm stringlemgth, 36x50 body and 3.3cm nut with an ultra slim pegbox.
with the pegs and the mic iinside, the oud weights an amazing 810 gr.
It has worn out string but I am keeping them for now, I like sometimes the sound of old strings.
[file]36009[/file] [file]36011[/file] [file]36013[/file] [file]36015[/file]
[file]36021[/file]
jdowning - 7-25-2015 at 11:30 AM
Interesting that the sound board has just a single (ebony?) line inlay/reinforcement set back from the outside edge by a few mm - like the purfling on
a violin. Is this a common feature found on Syrian ouds (or any style of oud for that matter)?
Brian Prunka - 7-25-2015 at 01:41 PM
I would be very surprised if that purfling was original.
Most likely, the soundboard needed to be removed for repairs at some point and the original tiled purfling was destroyed in the process.
jdowning - 7-26-2015 at 05:11 AM
A closer look at the end view image of the oud suggests that the edge of the sound board may be fitted with a plain white hardwood banding strip as
there does not appear to be any continuity of the sound board wood grain across the black line purfling which would be the case if the purfling had
been set in a channel cut into the sound board (like a violin).
Was this banding original or a result of sound board repair? Probably hard to say for sure but the bowl has been subject to internal repair with sound
board removed to judge from rib joint paper reinforcement strips that are glued over the edges of the maker's label (so presumably are not an original
feature).
ALAMI - 7-26-2015 at 05:29 AM
Thanks John and Brian for your remarks.
In fact it is just the shadow, the White wood is just the thickness of the bowl rib, the space between the soundboard and the bowl is empty, probably
due to a repair, may be what damaged the rosette and the wood around it as the diameter of the hole is now 13 cm
[file]36027[/file] [file]36029[/file]
jdowning - 7-26-2015 at 07:54 AM
Ah - so an optical illusion after all! So the oud is destined for a bit of restoration work to replace missing sound board edge tiles and rosette?
ALAMI - 7-26-2015 at 10:49 AM
Indeed, the oud could use some restoration work, I wonder if the absence of a binding affects the sound and the energy transmitted to the bowl, but
the sound is sweet.
For the rosette i still need to find some Mussissian original designs, it seems very rare.
jdowning - 7-26-2015 at 11:51 AM
How interesting that the oud functions well without the sound board edges being connected to the ribs (except at the neck and tail blocks of the bowl
and at the brace positions). In this state the oud is somewhat structurally weaker so this will no doubt have some influence on acoustic response of
the sound board.
Also the air resonance frequency will be affected with the more flexible top (lowering frequency) and additional thin 'sound hole' around the edge of
the sound board (increasing frequency). Don't ask me by how much either way as I am still trying to understand the acoustics of conventional sound
hole arrangements!!
The addition of a rosette will have little influence on air resonance frequency.