New Enhanced Wood Top Oud made by Sebastian Stenzel

As announced yesterday:

I just received a brand newly made oud, equipped for the first time with the Enhanced Wood type of top construction.
This construction has been described recently in an article by Sebastian Stenzel:
http://stenzel-guitars.de/resources/pdf/Enhanced_Wood_2020.pdf

This oud again has a cedar Enhanced Wood top and walnut ribs, black walnut neck and a sorbus domestica bridge in one of the renaissance styles. It is sparsly ornamented upon my request; wanting to keep the price as low as possible. It has Wittner violin geared pegs (which are the way to go for a stable and secure tuning with absolutely no adventures with slipping pegs etc.). They are finely geared and allow for a very precise tuning without guessing.

At the same time the oud has obtained a new shape (so again it is a prototype - I have a standing tradition with Sebastian to inspire prototypes: Enhanced Wood classical guitar, oud(*), Enhanced Wood oud). It has a bigger body volume with at the same time narrower top improving projection and treble response. At the same time the bowl is much flatter than usual and the side ribs are strongly slanted towards the middle, so that holding the oud becomes soooooo much more ergonomic than with the traditional design.

As to the sound: one of my first reactions was to tell Sebastian "If I was a more sentimental person, I would have cried of joy".

(*) I should explain more about that: when I met Sebastian Stenzel for the first time (that happened shortly after I learnt that he was living in literally the same village as I, without me knowing that I have a world reknown luthier as neighbour!), he was building only guitars.

I said, what a pitty he's not building ouds, as I was looking for a hand made oud. He then told me he was thinking about building ouds for more than 15 (if I remember right) years, even drawing sketches of the bowl and of the rosette. He just couldn't afford to interrupt his professional work on guitars without being paid for his work, so I happily ordered an oud from him knowing that it will be his first and a prototype. We agreed I would not need to take the oud if I didn't like it, but this situation didn't occur. That way he built his first oud for me and it is a great instrument by all accounts, even a very experienced oud builder would not be ashamed of it. Nor long after I met Mustafa Said who was very impressed by this oud and so I made the contact, and the rest is history. Sebastian Stenzel met Albert Mansour quite a bit later, after having built some ouds before that happened, so it is not that he exactly learnt from Mansour, but of course, when he met him, he got some additional inspiration, no doubt.

Meanwhile he certaily has developed his own style and strong innovative force, maintaning highest craftmanship and producing consistently great results - I haven't heard a single oud made by him that I would call mediocre, let alone bad.

look also here:Stenzel Guitars and Ouds

Here some pics:

Quote: Originally posted by maraoud108

Wow, what an amazing instrument. Is it possible to post some videos of you playing it?

Thanks a lot!
I'm enjoying to play it indeed, almost like an addict ...

The ergonomic shape allows me (I'm having some problems with my right shoulder) much longer playing sessions than before, and together with the beautiful sound I can sit and play for hours on end.

Best wishes and good health - we all need especially these strange days!

Oh, and by the way...and juste for the pleasure ot the eyes won't you mind sharing a picture of the back of the bowl ? I'm always amazed by the way Sebastian Stenzel assembled the ribs

Sebastian specifically asked me not to, because the consttruction is not yet the final one. It looks very good, but he doesn't want to get nailed the he didn't keep to the form of the model when somebody orders it and then gets something looking a bit differently from my pictures ... so I promised not to do. Maybe when he's finished with his form, I can post it as 'historical' phase

Is this not the same OUD we have already discussed here?:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=18476

I am confused. This looks the same unless I missed something...
It is beautiful regardless!

Quote: Originally posted by Doc139

Thanks, Robert, for the link to this sound recording! Do you know by chance which kind of strings Sebastian put on this new oud? Just wondering... Wonderful instrument b.t.w. Alexander, Switzerland

Quote: Originally posted by saad

So there are now at least three of these ouds in existence: Nagar Bouban, Mostafa Said, and Rojaros, with the exception that the last one has in addition the double (enhanced) top. It seems that the Stenzel bowl is finding its way (no patent on this either I presume, but he's probably the only one who can construct it, at least for some time before the technique becomes common knowledge...)

Quote: Originally posted by rojaros

Sebastian specifically asked me not to, because the consttruction is not yet the final one. It looks very good, but he doesn't want to get nailed the he didn't keep to the form of the model when somebody orders it and then gets something looking a bit differently from my pictures ... so I promised not to do. Maybe when he's finished with his form, I can post it as 'historical' phase

perfectly understandable was just for curiosity, previous ones for which he shared pictures were already of stunning master craftsmanship !

Nehad EL Sayef plays my Stenzel Oud