ron - 6-3-2007 at 09:54 AM
Hi all,
I bought my first oud from ebay.fr. for 150 euro. It was listed as new - but as usual was far from it. It is alleged to be made by the Cairo luthier
Naseef Ageeb. Not sure if that spelling is correct. If in fact anyone can identify it as one of his from looks or from the label inside I would be
interested in any information about him and his ouds.
Thanks to some good info from mavrothis, I was able to determine the position of the floating bridge at 57 cm and tune it to FAdgcf. Since I don't
know how to play I just tested some notes and checked everywhere for any buzzing and good (or bad) action. Action was ok for me and there were no
buzzing strings and the sound projected well. Quite loud actually.
Though in good condition it showed signs of play and the finish was not what I would have expected. Someone had also put some kind of shellac or
varnish on the top as well as everywhere else. It looked good from 5 feet away but closer it was a subpar finish. One of the pegs was missing and
replaced with a mismatched peg. The pickguard and arm-rest? were both made of some kind of plastic material.
The bowl is alleged to be bois de rose. I don't know what it is but when sanding the bowl the dust is red. The neck and pegbox are made from some wood
that looks as if it matches the bowl - but the dust from sanding these is a bright orange. At first I thought it must be some kind of stain but its
the wood. If anyone can identify the woods I'd like to know what they are.
This isn't really a restoration project - more of a refinish and replace I guess. I plan to:
replace the pickguard and arm rest (probably in a lightweight wood stained to match the fingerboard)
order some ebony pegs from Jameel (and some new strings as well)
oil the bowl, neck and pegbox
I have an idea to make a new bridge from bone. Is this a good idea?
and i am considering adding some rosettes to the sound holes although it seems to me that most Iraqi Bashir style ouds don't have rosettes. Is this
true?
I forgot to take any close up pictures of the bowl before I started - so there is only one long range of the bowl.
Any help or advice is welcome.
Ron
ron - 6-3-2007 at 09:58 AM
Front
ron - 6-3-2007 at 09:59 AM
Label
ron - 6-3-2007 at 10:01 AM
Pegbox
ron - 6-3-2007 at 10:02 AM
after initial bowl sanding
ron - 6-3-2007 at 10:03 AM
Bottom of bowl
ron - 6-3-2007 at 10:04 AM
Neck
ron - 6-3-2007 at 10:06 AM
Removed pickguard and arm rest
ron - 6-3-2007 at 10:09 AM
possible rosette for right sound hole. will flip/mirror for the left.
That all for today. After I scrape the soundboard and sand the pegbox and neck and finish sanding the bowl I can post some more.
Ron
Hosam - 6-3-2007 at 03:29 PM
Ron, Naseef Ajeeb is the name of the maker according to the label. I can not positively identify the wood from the photo but it look like Padouk to
me. Good luck.