Meursault - 4-24-2007 at 06:08 AM
Oud are a pain in the !@#$ to tune and keep in tune, relative to some other instruments. Have luthiers equipped ouds with guitar tuners or some other
kind of tuners? Could this be done without making the instrument unbalanced or changing the tone?
John Erlich - 4-24-2007 at 09:37 AM
Hi Meursault,
In 2000, visited the shop of Maurice Farouk Shehata, "Al-Aseel," (http://www.mauriceouds.com/english/about.asp) in Cairo and tried an oud with guitar-type tuning pegs. It was really, really ugly and extremely
heavy and felt unbalanced toward the pegbox because of the weight. I ended up buying a "traditional" oud from him instead. I have had very little
trouble with this instrument going out of tune.
Who made your oud? Do you live somewhere where the temperature and humidity change radically?
Best,
John
Meursault - 4-24-2007 at 11:26 AM
I have a Georges Nahat, a Toufik Nahat, and a Ghadban. I like the look of the traditional pegs, but they slip occasionally and you have to push them
in to get them to stay put. With so many strings, it can be a minor headache, at least for me. My main instrument is a double bass, so big
difference.
Brian Prunka - 4-24-2007 at 12:41 PM
meursault, you should have your pegs (or new pegs) fitted by a competent luthier, and possibly have a new nut made. This solves almost all tuning
problems on the oud.
I'm experimenting with using a carbon fiber (graphite) nut on the oud; it's self-lubricating so I'm hoping the tuning will be very smooth.