uniqueplayer - 2-8-2007 at 02:41 AM
Hi players,
please i need advise about a oud thta i am welling to buy, its back is with abalone and its similar to our forum logo, its only manufactured for
frankfurt music show by gawharet el fann.
its price is high but i think it deserves it, please advice.
Oud Link: http://cgi.ebay.com/Gawharet-El-Fann-Egyptian-Pro-unique-abalone-in...
thanks and best regards
uniqueplayer - 2-8-2007 at 07:27 AM
photo
palestine48 - 2-8-2007 at 07:34 AM
Habibi,
Please I wouldnt recommend it. I dont know the most about ouds but this is way too much money because you dont know how it sounds.
You should ask mike since it looks like his shehata but making an oud look that nce doesnt justify paying this much money. I have a gawharet el fan
oud and i consider it a learner level oud.
If you wanna pay this much money you can get much much better quality ouds like faruk turnz from turkey or i heard wisam jubran from palestine.
Also Nazih ghadban makes really nice sounding ouds for a bit less than this oud. check these people out. even shehata makes ouds for half this
price.
SamirCanada - 2-8-2007 at 07:39 AM
Iam pretty sure it is a Shehata oud.
zalzal - 2-8-2007 at 10:35 AM
and it is well known that ouds sounds better the more simple they are, without too much ornamentation...anyhow each oud has a sound which corresponds
to each player...and each player has own tastes for decoration. I would rather follow the wise advise of palestine48
SamirCanada - 2-8-2007 at 11:00 AM
Zalzal: Farid el atrache, Riadh Sumbati (sometimes), Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Karim Mahmoud, Talal el Madah, Abadi el Johar today etc... They all used and
played some rather ornate and well decorated ouds. The sound of there ouds are some of the best in my opinion. Many people will say that those oud
players produced sounds with there oud that have become the reference in what we want our ouds of today to sound like. Its all about the care that
goes into producing the oud.
Makers understand the need for this balance. Its thought that the bowl has verry little effect on how the oud sounds. Many respected oud makers of
this forrum and elsewhere have this opinion. The main indea of the bowl is for its interior to be well finished so it can project the soundwaves back.
When the face is carefully selected for a suitable wood and grain and the bracing is done in a professional way. There is no reason why a maker would
geopardize the sound after puting so much efforts in building it. If you look at this oud, It has some verry nice quality woods, Ebony fingerboard,
nice looking pegs, quality craftmenship is evident. Its not some kind of tourist oud with all kinds of laquer slaped on and poor inlay techiques. The
face seems unfinished wich will tell you that that the maker had the intention for the oud to be played and to sound good. And really there arent that
many features that would dampen the sound of the oud. The hornate rosette and the pickgard would probably have the same weight if they were made of
bone like in the old days.
my 2cents. 
zalzal - 2-8-2007 at 12:07 PM
Well these are good arguments, still it may be that the ornamened ouds of all stars you mentioned are having an aesthetical purpose as important as
the sound. Audience loved not only to listen these masters. They came to see and admire them lively. The pleasure was for the ears and the eyes. And
when tarab reached people they exclamed enthousiastically and extased "a3yni" (my eyes).
Anyhow they were so great players that any oud put in their hands would have sounded heavenly.
It is true what you say, there are inlaids in ouds which are really tremendous artwork with a high level of technicity. The syrian one recently posted
here and sold through ebay was a very nice sounding one and with a fantastic very rich marquetery, (like taracea in Granada) as miniatures, as nice to
listen than to stare at.
palestine48 - 2-8-2007 at 10:18 PM
the point I should have made was just because it looks good, doesnt mean it sounds good. so they should have no direct relationship other than a
finely crafted oud maybe have a finely crafted sound aesthetic.
Samir you make a good point but also I am curious what defines a good oud other than the basic principles of good action, braces, pegs etc.
everythoing else would just be an added bonus right?
and also if you think about it, rock stars dont play boring looking guitars so i gues syou can argue that a well ornamented oud will add to the alure
of the instrument.
excentrik - 2-9-2007 at 01:27 AM
palestine48 (rami) I feel you, but and always a but- this might be a piece of you know what, or it could be a gem. yer right about the rock star
thing- look at farid, abdel wahab, abdel halim, wadih al-safi, etc... they were playing some pretty ornate works of art- did they sound bad?
nahhhhh.... it's all eye of the beholder if it's made right- right?
P.S. this gawharet al-fan oud that palestine48 gave me to fix is gonna sound like a dream when I'm done with it... so there- you never know- I did it
with a bootleg khalifa.. recorded an album with it and heard no complaints (even though I would have traded the dates so I could have done it with my
Ghadban.... no regrets tarik- why do you beat yourself up?!!!) it's no use.
tarik 
Lintfree - 2-10-2007 at 10:30 PM
It's kind of a tradition with some makers when they finish an oud and it doesn't sound that good rather than scrap it they decorate it so it will
seel. On the other hand there are some makers that make a simple oud and it sounds so good they pay tribute to the instrument by decorating it. Hamza
al Din's Nahat was the most beautifully decorated oud I've ever seen but it also was the best sounding oud I've ever heard. Likewise with the Manol on
the cover of Bilezekjian's book. (I passed up the chance to buy that in the 60's) Musical instruments are also art and if you don't care about how it
sounds I would buy it as an artistic creation. I bought an oud that sounded fair but it was so outrageously decorated that I didn't care how it
sounded. Remember also that pictures on the internet don't show everything and you should get high definition pictures of every part of it before you
lay out the cash.
Good luck. Lintfree
palestine48 - 2-13-2007 at 09:12 PM
Well I have no doubt that Tarek will make my oud sound awsome, lets see what happens after and then I can say wether a gawharet el fan has potential
or if Tarek is destined to be an oud master.