I am currently building a floating bridge oud (with seven courses), but have not yet decided wood for the soundboard. I have read much about the
history of Cedar of Lebanon for ouds. Would it be wise to use Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus Lebani) and if so, should it be thicker or thinner than spruce?
I have only been able to find AA and A quality, is it still ok?
Kind regards,
Viktordusepo - 10-29-2021 at 05:03 AM
I've seen floating bridge ouds with cedar soundboards before. I don't remember any that specified Cedar of Lebanon especially but it should be fine.OudSwede - 10-29-2021 at 10:07 AM
Thank you so much! Then I will try it.Brian Prunka - 10-29-2021 at 01:40 PM
I've seen floating bridge ouds with cedar soundboards before. I don't remember any that specified Cedar of Lebanon especially but it should be fine.
Most "cedar" that you ordinarily see in instruments and Lebanon Cedar are completely different woods. The wood usually called "cedar" is actually a
kind of Cypress, mostly from western North America, I believe.
Ironically, there is a true cedar that comes from Cyprus, very similar to Lebanon Cedar and not a type of Cypress.
True cedars (Cedrus) and Spruce (Picea) both belong to the Pine family (Pinaceae), while Western Red Cedar and other common "Cedars" used in
instrument making, belong to the Cypress family (Cupressaceae).
In my rather limited experience, the characteristics of Lebanon Cedar are much more like Spruce than the "cedar" we usually encounter. I'm not a
luthier so I wouldn't hazard a guess as to its suitability for a floating bridge oud, but it's been used very effectively for sharqi ouds for a long
time. It ages well, similar to Spruce. It is a very good tonewood, better than cypress IMO.
Ronny Anderson used to post here and was quite knowledgeable on this subject and if I recall correctly he did talk about using it for floating bridge
ouds. You might find more information by searching the forum. Brian Prunka - 10-29-2021 at 01:55 PM
