Mike's Oud Forums

La Bella Turkish strings on Arabic oud

Zulu - 2-25-2018 at 10:46 AM

The description for La Bella Turkish OU80 strings says they can be used on a 60 cm Arabic oud tuned CFADGC. Is this true? I assume it’s because the strings will be tuned down from their originally intended higher Turkish tuning.
One of my ouds is a 60 cm fixed bridge Arabic oud; I don't want to ruin it with tension that’s too high.
Anyone with string knowledge; your help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Below is what is stated in the string description...
LaBella OU80 oud strings. This set is one of the most popular sets for Turkish ouds. It's also been used successfully on Arabic (60+cm scale) ouds, with CFAdgc' tuning.
Rectified nylon .022, .028
Sliver Wound .025, .030, .034, .042
On shorter Arabic ouds (under 61cm), many people like to use slightly heavier nylon courses, around .024–.025 for c' and .029–.030 for g.

Brian Prunka - 2-26-2018 at 09:11 PM

Hi Zulu,
I can't respond to your u2u because mine is full.

The LaBella set is ok tension-wise, but it's really not the most balanced set. The nylon are a bit light, the A is heavy, the low C is light . . . I've known many people to use it more or less successfully, but since I can provide customized sets of LaBella strings, I don't see any reason to use a less than optimal set when a custom set only costs a few dollars more.

Zulu - 2-26-2018 at 11:25 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Brian Prunka  

The LaBella set is ok tension-wise, but it's really not the most balanced set. The nylon are a bit light, the A is heavy, the low C is light . . . I've known many people to use it more or less successfully, but since I can provide customized sets of LaBella strings, I don't see any reason to use a less than optimal set when a custom set only costs a few dollars more.


Thank you for clearing that up Brian, I value and appreciate your reply.

Zulu - 3-5-2018 at 10:11 PM

Brian,

Is your web site down? http://www.oudstrings.com/
When I visit I keep getting this message...
DEAR CUSTOMERS, WE ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAYS.
WE WILL BE REOPEN DECEMBER 27. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.