I have recently entered the wonderful world of oud playing. I have been playing a borrowed Turkish oud in a world music band and I am ready to invest
in my own instrument. I am tending to prefer the sound and tone of the Arabic style oud. My question is: How unwise is it to tune an Arabic oud to
the Turkish tuning? My partner plays a similarly tuned rabab and about half our show is us playing those instruments together mostly in unison. (with
lots of open string licks).
Thanks
SeanElie Riachi - 2-15-2005 at 04:53 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by txfiddler
...My question is: How unwise is it to tune an Arabic oud to the Turkish tuning?...
Sean
Not so unwise as long you can find suitable strings that would result in a reasonable even tension at the desired tuning for that scale length. The
only manufacturer that I am aware of which provides these types of options is Pyramid. You specify to them the tuning, scale length and tension and
they will put togother a set for you. You may also be able to get any standard set intended for Turkish tuning to work. Since there is a difference
in scale length between the Arabic and Turkish, check the first post in the following thread http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=1510#pid958... for the formula to help you determine the tension based on a scale length change.Greg - 2-15-2005 at 04:57 PM
Sean,
If you are talking about standard string sets, it is considered dangerous to tune an Arabic oud to Turkish tuning. Unless the instrument is
particularly robust, you could cause severe damage to it.
Many people tune Turkish ouds to Arabic tuning, but that lessens the stress on the instrument, rather than increasing it.
Regards,
GregMike - 2-15-2005 at 05:35 PM
Hey Sean,
Yeah, I wouldn't tune an Arabic oud with the Turkish tuning. True, you can customize a string set, but if you are going to do that, why not buy a
Turkish oud?
MikeElie Riachi - 2-16-2005 at 12:28 PM
Greg and Mike have a good advice. But here is another way to make it work safely on an Arabic oud:
1. Get a set of strings for Turkish tuning.
2. Tune the open strings flatter than the Turkish tuning so that when you place a capo in the position where the scale length becomes equal to that of
the Turkish oud scale length, you would end up with the Turkish tuning. 3. Place the capo in the position where the scale length becomes equal to
that of the Turkish oud scale length.
But as Mike said why not just get a Turkish oud if that is the tuning that you want.
