Hibari Oud Arbi Lute

Yeah ! Time for next experimental 6 course Oud/Lute

I built a regular oud body out of pear,walnut and maple but my skill is by far not high enough to build a proper oud. So I have some experimental room

I did not found very much information about oud arbi or kuitra but at least a few small pictures of it. After falling in love with some elements of these instruments I will try to adapt them in my new build.

Here are some pics from atlasofpluckedinstruments






I find these decorative clasps at the neck joint very interesting and beautiful, otherwise I can hide a some construction mistakes with it.
Also I 'm a big fan of the clasp at the bowl end.
So my plan is to use the elements on the body and a straight lute pegbox design. Ok that will look more like a lute but as my personal interpretion it will be fine

Thats the body I finished today

Thanks ! Today I attached the clasp at bowl end, the one at the neck joint is already done.
Especially this clasp at the neck was immensely hard to clamp but now it is accomplished without any gaps.
At the end it looked like a screw clamp salad

I will post some pictures tomorrow and hope you like my own design

Here's another image of a lute as a reference for my peg box. ( I forgot to post ^^ )

Everything went well with the clamps !
Here are some impressions, but it looks much better in real. My cell phone camera kind of sucks




Yeah, now I have to attach the neck, soundboard and finally fingerboard.

Hey,

I made very good progress with the lute, the neck/pegbox is attached, the soundboard inlay is done and the bracing is almost finished, the bridge is ready. I will post additional images tomorrow.
So stay tuned

So here are some images. The bracing is regular but I reduced the height of the braces after the photo was shot
The lute peg box is made for (get ready for controversial) machine heads again.
V-neck design. Neckjoint is Hibari special: with two U-shaped walnut slices, barely to see on the 3rd picture.
Today the body married the spruce top fitted very well, without gaps !!

So here's the result, my personal oud arbi style instrument. It has a few optical mistakes but nothing serious. I have to learn to build with more patience
It has a pear wood half binding, palisander bridge and board and the awesome strings from aquila.
Especially the (old) pear wood used for the ribs was of "dirty" quality, with all those stains and curious grain is giving the oud some vintage look.
I like that
Last but not least the sound is a little bit disappointing at the first look. It is not that warm and oriental oud like my first oud project, but after some hours of playing it slowly gets better.
I think it can be due to the dense of sitka spruce, which is what gives the oud very nice response and clear heights. Hopefully it gets even better after some sessions

enough talk, here are pictures