Jody Stecher - 2-10-2016 at 11:07 AM
The ouds for sale on his website that are floating bridge models are designated as Iraqi tuning as is to be expected. The fixed bridge models
designated as "Arabic chord" can be assumed to have the soundboards designed to respond to the highest four courses being tuned from low to high: AA
DD gg cc. The bass courses will respond well at C FF but also at C GG or D GG or C EE etc. Since F tuning is really the same pitches transferred
to different strings minus low C it can be assumed that F tuning will work on these ouds but a new Faruk Turunz Arabic oud leaves the workshop with
strings not suitable for F tuning. If you look at the various videos on Youtube taken at the Faruk Turunz workshop you can witness oud players both
young and mature trying his Arabic tuned ouds and you can hear the open bass strings tuned various ways according to the preference of the player. On
some of these you can see and hear the player changing the tuning of the bass strings according to what they want to play and hear. In the videos I
have seen, the 4 high courses are always AA DD gg cc.