Mike's Oud Forums

Summer 2007 Project.

SamirCanada - 7-27-2007 at 10:45 AM

A few months ago I got a amateur quality oud from Egypt.
It was signed as Mohamed Fadel Iraqi oud but it was evident that it hailed from ahmed abdul halim factory in egypt.
I chose the oud for the nice figured walnut on the bowl and what seemed like a nice peice of spruce for the top. It also had a nice spruce top. Also it had a perfect action. And the sound was just soo nice. It was a hard oud to work on because they didnt use hide glue but rather some rather hard synthetic one.

The work done on the oud includes.
- stripping of the thick finish on the face.
- Installing a new pick gard of Honduras Rosewood.
- Installing a new Ebony fingerboard to replace the too soft walnut one.
-I still need to fit the ebony pegs when I get them from Jameelo.
- made a new bone nut

Here are some pictures of my work troughout, I have to remove more of that old ''fake'' label still.

my work is obviously rough around the edges still. I just do this as a hobby and I hope you enjoy going trough the project too.

First picture: Finish was striped of the face and Iam using magnets to glue down the new pickguard.

SamirCanada - 7-27-2007 at 10:47 AM

back and bottom of the oud.

SamirCanada - 7-27-2007 at 10:49 AM

the new front of the oud.
Dont mind the peices of the old label in there.

SamirCanada - 7-27-2007 at 10:51 AM

this is the part where I tried to cover for making the fingerboard slot too wide so I had to make a beard and use maple to fill the void.

SamirCanada - 7-27-2007 at 10:52 AM

side view.
Nice walnut eh?

oudplayer - 7-27-2007 at 12:44 PM

hey samir

niuce work man . i am ganna continue my electric oud soon bc i will have time soon again, and i hope to get it done soon ]
thx sammy

SamirCanada - 7-27-2007 at 01:50 PM

sound file

MatthewW - 7-29-2007 at 06:49 AM

SamirCanada- a great project! I was wondering what technique you used to removed the old pickguard and the walnut fingerboard with good results? very lovely walnut on the bowl.

SamirCanada - 7-29-2007 at 10:59 AM

Usualy you can use heat and a bit of water and the hide glue will soften... it was not the case for this oud since they used a synthetic glue so I had to take a saw and make small chanels into the fingerboard and after that I used a wood chisel to cut trough the chanels.

for the pickguard it was the same idea but I didnt make any chanels... just a chisel did it.