Jameel - 3-13-2006 at 05:58 AM
I've seen many references to this, on albums, photos, etc. Ghadban had a picture of a bass oud on his website at one time. I've never seen one in
person. Can someone explain the differences of the bass oud, it's application, etc.?
oudman - 3-13-2006 at 07:03 AM
Hi Jameel
Ive seen Najib play one before and Simon played one on his Turath album
The bass oud is usually bigger than a regular oud and it is tuned an octave lower than a regular oud (thicker strings are required of course)
I think David Parfitts site has a picture of a bass Nahat that Stephen Bayne once owned.
Elias - 3-13-2006 at 07:36 AM
Hi jameel!
I don't know much, but i remeber that once i spoke about it with Nazih wich he told me that in his Bass Oud project the strings used were cello
strings, and it was a big instrument.....yes, we can heard it on Shaheen's Turath, also in Rabih Abou Khalil, Sultan's Picnic...and this one has an
amazing sound...
Elias
al-Halabi - 3-13-2006 at 11:00 AM
I've also seen Najib play a bass oud in concert, with Simon playing a standard oud.
The bass oud is actually not a new idea. A bass oud called shahrud, which was tuned one octave lower than the regular oud, was played in Istanbul in
the 16th century. The Turkish ensemble Bezmara, which performs Ottoman pieces from the 16th and 17th centuries on reproductions of period instruments,
includes a reproduction of the shahrud.
Sahrud
Monty88 - 3-13-2006 at 06:49 PM
Ross Daly has a turkish-built instrument in his collection called a Sahroud. I forgot to ask him about it because it made me curious, but I did play
it. Very thick strings, great sound. I don't think it was tuned an octave lower though, maybve a fifth below a turkish oud i think.
Rabih Abou Khalils bass oud sounds great. I think that is tuned one octave lower.
Jameel - 3-16-2006 at 06:23 PM
Thanks for the info everyone.
Oudman, do you know which track on Turath the bass oud is used?
SamirCanada - 3-16-2006 at 09:56 PM
By the way I was watching The Foad Jihad video Ronny Andersson posted a few months back. It has a performance with a group of 20 oud players or so in
the middle of the video. You can see one of those players who with plays a floating brige bass oud. It has only 4 verry Large pegs in the pegbox so I
guess its single strings too. If your interested in seeing it and you dont have the video anymore I can repost the video on a filesharing site. I
tried taking a picture of the video frame but its protected or something sice I cant seem to paste it in the any editing software.
Let me know guys.
Take care.
oudman - 3-17-2006 at 03:22 AM
Jameel
I just went throught the album quickly, he uses it on the tracks except for 3, 5, and 10 (the taqasim tracks)
Jameel - 3-17-2006 at 06:43 AM
Thanks oudman.
Samir, I was able to grab a frame of that video. Interesting. Here it is.
billkilpatrick - 3-17-2006 at 02:47 PM
something similar with lutes:
http://lkbrownviolins.com/bass_lute.htm
there's a picture of one beside (i presume) the luthier's daughter - looks like she surf with it.
Brian Prunka - 3-17-2006 at 08:11 PM
Hmm...are we going to see a bass oud emerge from Jameel's workshop some months from now?