Hibari-San - 6-9-2017 at 06:24 AM
Huzzaaa fellow oud builders !
Its been a while !
Since my journey led me through classical guitar building and did not let me go till now, I decided to rip my 2nd oud apart again. 
Seriously, I need more oud in my luthier-life again.
I will build a new oud this year also (pernambuk & cedar top).
However I was pretty not satisfied with the top of my oud that I had replaced. I will replace it a second and last time !
Beyond all traditional methods and ways I will break the universal law
and give it a fan bracing a la torres ! 
Tap tuning is not done yet, thats why nothing is sanded & cleaned.
A syrian friend of mine will help with sound samples once its done !
Enjoy
Hibari-San - 6-11-2017 at 01:58 AM
I have tuned it to F# - G and already attached to the body. Just a binding and a new finger board and we're ready to go.
Hopefully the oud will sound also oriental but will sing a little longer as usual.
suz_i_dil - 6-11-2017 at 05:41 AM
Best of luck in this project !
Really looking forward to eat how it will sound. Do you know of others ouds with fan brace we can ear on the web ?
I had this project somewhere in my mind but want to make before one or two others projects with more usual way of bracing
best regards
Hibari-San - 6-26-2017 at 10:47 AM
Thanks suz !
I'm done !
It went all pretty well without any errors. Now, the sound... I dont know...
really for me it didn't change a lot.
Maybe it has to be played a little bit more since it is spruce but overall it sounds pretty much like the last top, without buzzing of course.#
Is there any explaination for this ? Its another species of spruce, another thickness, another bracing (torres guitar) and it sound almost the
same.
Oh I forgot to say that it sound quite beautiful and I'm satisfied but this experiment didn't bring any conclusion for me.
So here are some pictures, sound samples will follow.
The old top:
The new top:
Andy - 1-31-2018 at 01:14 PM
Hello Hilbari, About fan bracing, I built 2 ouds with fan bracing similar to your oud 16 years ago. It worked for me. Looks very good but why the
extra wood around the sound hole? That to me would dampen the sound. On 2 of my ouds, professional no name one Greek / Armenian and the other most
likely Turkish / Armenian. Both have the sound hole thinned / feathered out, very professionally done.
I love the quote by Bruce Lee.
hans - 3-5-2018 at 02:28 PM
Looks cool! sound sample please