Mike's Oud Forums

Oud sound, a "nutty" observation

charlie oud - 6-9-2008 at 07:12 AM

Has anyone noticed this.Ive noticed the open string sound is strongly influenced by the "nut" material. Bone gives a harder clearer tone, more metalic. Semi hard would a warmer more mellow tone and hard wood, a sound midway between the two. I was recently studying a Rahim Alhaj cd "When the soul is settled". He tunes up a semitone, so instead of tuning higher I put a regular Dunlop capo on 1st position, the sound of the hard rubber pressing the string against the fingerboard gave a really warm sound to the open strings, more like stopped notes but with sustain and clarity. Nuts make a difference eh? :D what do you think ?

Dr. Oud - 6-10-2008 at 10:06 AM

The difference between two different ouds cannot be attributed to any material of any part other than the soundboard. The nut imparts no sound characteristic anyway, it merely holds the strings in place. The differene you notice between the capo and the top nut is the dampening effect when the strings are held against the fingerboard, rather than in the open position where the strings are spaced above the fingerboard. The fingerboard hardness can affect the tone somewhat as well.
As for Rahim's tuning, it may be the oud's preference or his or the recording speed that accounts for the variation.

DaveH - 6-11-2008 at 03:26 AM

I've noticed this too. My ghadban has an ebony nut. I assumed the softer material damped transmission of the vibrations slightly and was used so that there was less of a difference between the sound of open and stopped strings than there would be if you used hard bone or ivory.

michoud - 6-11-2008 at 01:08 PM

I think diferent material on nut, can change the sound of the instrument.I made some baroque guitars and other old instruments, and I try the same instrument with diferent nuts(bone, ebony,walnut) and you can hear diference sound, and clear or darker tone. also I made another bone nut for my Samir Azar oud, and now is diferent, is more clear than the wood nute.

carpenter - 6-11-2008 at 01:19 PM

<< there was less of a difference between the sound of open and stopped strings than there would be if you used hard bone or ivory >>

I've kind of noticed that - thought it was my imagination. I've made an ebony nut first (a little easier workability) before committing to bone - just to make certain of action, spacing, etc. - and actually have liked the tone better. (I'm a huge fretless banjo fan also, for what that's worth)

One Man's Opinion is that most of the notes seem to be fingered, so the nut material may be kind of a minimal concern - other than from a looks or tradition standpoint. (Lots of stuff seems to be based on looks trumping tone/playability/integrity, but that my just be me.)

charlie oud - 6-12-2008 at 03:19 AM

Thanks for the responses. Doc, I was'nt talking about two different ouds. I meant the sound of an open string on a single oud and the influence of the nut material on the sound of that open string.

Tkoind - 6-12-2008 at 07:39 PM

Nut material seems to impact our instruments too. I swapped out a plastic nut on a Zhong Ruan for a wood one. The sound became a lot warmer without loss in other areas. We've found the same to be true of bridge material for other lutes. Some topped with harder wood sound quite different than those with softer materials.

There must be something to this as the sound board remains the same, but the tone changes with these changes.

MatthewW - 6-13-2008 at 01:33 AM

greetings lads, I'm not sure what differences the material of your oud's nut gives to the final sounds coming forth from your oud, though I thought it would add something depending on the material. It would be interesting to compare sounds on similiar ouds with nuts made of different materials and see if any differences are there, but then there is the fact that no two ouds are exactly alike. Guitar players seem to feel that the material of ones nut does effect the sound, and you'll even find some electric guitar players using metal nuts saying they help give the sound they are after. Nowadays there are some very good high quality plastic nuts on the market. :)

Oud Freak - 6-15-2008 at 12:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by michoud
I think diferent material on nut, can change the sound of the instrument.I made some baroque guitars and other old instruments, and I try the same instrument with diferent nuts(bone, ebony,walnut) and you can hear diference sound, and clear or darker tone. also I made another bone nut for my Samir Azar oud, and now is diferent, is more clear than the wood nute.
.

Are we nuts?! :)
Well I happen to read this thread by coincidence and I would definitely like to confirm what you say. A friend of mine has a nice sukkar oud with a walnut nut. with time the nut was getting used and "tired". He took it to someone who replaced it by a bone nut. The sound really varied and became more consistent, more balanced. I wasn't expecting such a difference.