azzizza - 4-2-2020 at 05:44 PM
Hello all. I gave my 1970 Karibyan to my oud repairman to lower the action on. The face had the typical bowing near the nut and the action has gotten
too high He wanted to know more details about how Karibyan set the neck onto the body of his ouds. We want to see if resetting the neck is a
reasonable option. Thank you very much.
Armen
bulerias1981 - 4-2-2020 at 08:31 PM
I know these ouds very well. Karibyan dovetailed his necks. There are other ways of lowering the action.
azzizza - 4-2-2020 at 08:56 PM
Thank you very much. What options would you suggest?
azzizza - 4-3-2020 at 06:05 AM
Thank you very much. What options would you suggest?
alim - 4-3-2020 at 11:18 AM
One option is to have John (aka bulerias1981) do the work! 
I have no affiliation with John. I just know he makes great Ouds and does great work!
Cheers,
Ali-
bulerias1981 - 5-5-2020 at 03:12 PM
Sorry for the late reply. I've been inactive in the forums recently, but I'll try to maintain a better presence.
Here are some ways to lower the action on an oud like that.
Planing the fingerboard more by the nut.
Removing the fingerboard, and planing the neck, then putting the fingerboard back on,
Removing the fingerboard, planing the neck, then routing a channel for a splint (for neck strength) then putting the fingerboard back on.
Lowering the holes at the bridge.
Sometimes I do a combination of a couple of these, and you can really get the action down in some cases a millimetre or two.
There are other ways too, some are very invasive. Either way, this is done slowly and carefully, a lot of precision is needed to get it right. Because
there is a dovetail joint, the option of cutting into the neck and inserting a wedge isn't an option, which is very common on most Arabic style ouds.