Advice for String Manufacturers other than Pyramid or La Bella?

Quote: Originally posted by Johnnyboy

I have tried the Pyramid Arabic Aoud strings (Orange label, 650/11) and the Pyramid Super Aoud strings (665/11), using the tuning FADGCf, but the A and D strings buzz a lot on my Maurice Shehata Ud, mainly when playing C on the A string and E or F on the D string. The fingerboard has just been sanded by my luthier and I have tried making the action higher. The nut is clean and the strings are not crossing each other in the pegbox nor can I hear any brace buzzing when knocking on the wood. The length from the nut up to the center of the bridge is 62cm (it does NOT have a floating bridge). I am wondering if there are any other string manufacturers that offer great sound quality other than Pyramid and La Bella? I have heard about Aquila but they're designed for shorter (57-60cm) floating bridge uds as mentioned here I would appreciate any help regarding this.

Quote: Originally posted by Brian Prunka

Quote: Originally posted by Johnnyboy   I have tried the Pyramid Arabic Aoud strings (Orange label, 650/11) and the Pyramid Super Aoud strings (665/11), using the tuning FADGCf, but the A and D strings buzz a lot on my Maurice Shehata Ud, mainly when playing C on the A string and E or F on the D string. The fingerboard has just been sanded by my luthier and I have tried making the action higher. The nut is clean and the strings are not crossing each other in the pegbox nor can I hear any brace buzzing when knocking on the wood. The length from the nut up to the center of the bridge is 62cm (it does NOT have a floating bridge). I am wondering if there are any other string manufacturers that offer great sound quality other than Pyramid and La Bella? I have heard about Aquila but they're designed for shorter (57-60cm) floating bridge uds as mentioned here I would appreciate any help regarding this. The 61o set would probably be OK on your oud, actually. The newest incarnation of that set seems to have quite light tension and should actually work on a longer oud (the description is for the previous version of the set, which needs to be updated for the current version with red trebles). The Pyramid 650/11 and 665/11 sets are for CFAdgc' tuning, not for high f' tuning, so I'm not sure exactly how you're using that set. The LaBella OU80A set is for the high f' tuning, and could work. The tension might be a bit high at 62cm though, but that's true of any set. It's strange that you are having this buzzing difficulty. Perhaps you can post a video demonstrating the problem. Many people are using these strings on their ouds without issue. For a long oud like this, often the Pyramid lute strings work very well, but without knowing why the buzzing is occurring I would be hesitant to suggest particularly expensive strings. You could use LaBella for the wound strings but get a custom set. Aquila lute strings are another possibility for high quality custom strings. Not quite as expensive as Pyramid but still on the pricier side.

Quote: Originally posted by Johnnyboy

Thank you very much for the advice. Apologies I wasn't clear. For the Pyramid I used their FAdgc' strings for my FAdgc tuning. For the high f' I ordered a separate Pyramid f' stringset. Does Aquila's newest incarnation have a Sugar string for the 3rd course which has a color other than red as shown here?

Quote: Originally posted by Brian Prunka

The older 13o set with the wound third is no longer available—Aquila stopped making it when they introduced the new set (against my advice to them, I might add). I may have some old stock in that style of the 61o set, which if you wanted to use low C tuning you could use that set and buy a separate low C.

Quote: Originally posted by MoH

I have those Aquila strings with the brownish red 3rd course and I gotta say I don't like them. Whenever I play tremolo on the 3rd course dd strings, there's this really annoying plasticky sound which I guess comes from the strings being so thick and not as flexible as the usual wound strings. I thought it might've been the strings knocking against each other, but I don't think that's it since I can hear it when it's a single string.

Quote: Originally posted by Brian Prunka

Quote: Originally posted by Johnnyboy   Thank you very much for the advice. Apologies I wasn't clear. For the Pyramid I used their FAdgc' strings for my FAdgc tuning. For the high f' I ordered a separate Pyramid f' stringset. Does Aquila's newest incarnation have a Sugar string for the 3rd course which has a color other than red as shown here? I see, thanks for the clarification. The set in that picture is the newest version. I'd still say that the third is red, just a different shade than the trebles or the wound strings; it's more dull brownish-red. Moh's observation is interesting. I don't have a strong opinion about the new plain d course—in my experience something like that will work very differently from one oud to another. I will note that if the string holes in the bridge are sized and spaced for a wound string, they may not be ideal for a thicker plain string (not unique to this string, it would be true of nylon or PVF as well). The older 13o set with the wound third is no longer available—Aquila stopped making it when they introduced the new set (against my advice to them, I might add). I may have some old stock in that style of the 61o set, which if you wanted to use low C tuning you could use that set and buy a separate low C.

Quote: Originally posted by Brian Prunka

Quote: Originally posted by Johnnyboy   I have tried the Pyramid Arabic Aoud strings (Orange label, 650/11) and the Pyramid Super Aoud strings (665/11), using the tuning FADGCf, but the A and D strings buzz a lot on my Maurice Shehata Ud, mainly when playing C on the A string and E or F on the D string. The fingerboard has just been sanded by my luthier and I have tried making the action higher. The nut is clean and the strings are not crossing each other in the pegbox nor can I hear any brace buzzing when knocking on the wood. The length from the nut up to the center of the bridge is 62cm (it does NOT have a floating bridge). I am wondering if there are any other string manufacturers that offer great sound quality other than Pyramid and La Bella? I have heard about Aquila but they're designed for shorter (57-60cm) floating bridge uds as mentioned here I would appreciate any help regarding this. The 61o set would probably be OK on your oud, actually. The newest incarnation of that set seems to have quite light tension and should actually work on a longer oud (the description is for the previous version of the set, which needs to be updated for the current version with red trebles). The Pyramid 650/11 and 665/11 sets are for CFAdgc' tuning, not for high f' tuning, so I'm not sure exactly how you're using that set. The LaBella OU80A set is for the high f' tuning, and could work. The tension might be a bit high at 62cm though, but that's true of any set. It's strange that you are having this buzzing difficulty. Perhaps you can post a video demonstrating the problem. Many people are using these strings on their ouds without issue. For a long oud like this, often the Pyramid lute strings work very well, but without knowing why the buzzing is occurring I would be hesitant to suggest particularly expensive strings. You could use LaBella for the wound strings but get a custom set. Aquila lute strings are another possibility for high quality custom strings. Not quite as expensive as Pyramid but still on the pricier side.