ALAMI - 8-13-2008 at 11:31 PM
Chasing old ouds is sometimes a frustrating experience like when you sacrify your sunday and drive a 100km, then spend 2 hours searching the
approximative address given to you by the neighbour of someone who knows someone... where you are supposed to find "the rare unique jewel" to
discover a crap seventies oud decorated like a backgammon.
....and sometimes you just get lucky.
f I were a poker play I think this the week where I should play every night.
I got this oud covered with sticky dust and after a soft cleaning and some blowing it revealed its beauty.
Made by Sumbat Der Bedrossian in 1950. Another armenian master from Damascus
string length 61.5 cm
bowl : 51 X 37 x 21
The pegbox is unstable and has a crack and the mother of pearl strips on the fingerboard are a bit unglued, and it has a small crack on the bowl, the
rest and specially the face and the roses are perfect.
ALAMI - 8-13-2008 at 11:38 PM
The rosette design is in line with the pure ottoman calligraphy tradition: the "Toghra"
on the lower part we can read:
Cheghl (made by) simbat der bedrossian
ALAMI - 8-13-2008 at 11:41 PM
The back is decorated with bone or ivory.
the darker ribs are probably walnut, I couldn't identify the wood of the lighter ones.
ALAMI - 8-13-2008 at 11:42 PM
the finger board
ALAMI - 8-13-2008 at 11:51 PM
and finally the label which is just a handwritten piece of paper.
the name is spelled: Sm Bt (no vowels and in 2 parts) while on the rose it is spelled : smbat
The word "Year" is also misspelled on the label :
Sanat with long T insted of round T
Ararat66 - 8-14-2008 at 12:04 AM
wow Alami
what a talent you have for finding treasure!!!
Leon
Jameel - 8-14-2008 at 04:43 AM
nice oud. nice rosettes.
GeorgeK - 8-14-2008 at 06:05 AM
Very beautiful Oud, you're a lucky guy.
hamed - 8-14-2008 at 06:07 AM
Nice finds ALami, Mabrouk on both ouds. I was wondering how many luthiers there are named Bedrossian, i know i've seen Karabed (or something
similar), do you know if they are realted, a family of luthiers maybe?
Hamed
MatthewW - 8-14-2008 at 08:53 AM
Alami, what a beautiful find! 
I love the fingerboard design. Seems like
ouds like this are more common to come across in your neck of the woods? regards, MW
Adel Salameh - 8-14-2008 at 09:15 AM
Hello my friends , I am quite sure that garabed was the son of Sumbat Bedrosian......
Sumbat has produced great instuments ....and he is considered to be the second best oud maker in Syria after the nahat family.....
I have seen some brilliant ouds by Sumbat....his ouds among Istanbuli Leon are the best ouds made by Arab Armenian....If I may say so....
here you can see some of his out standing work....which can be compared to the legend Abdo Nahat....
His son Garabed did not carry out the outstanding craftsmanship of his father and produced commercial ouds which we can find very easily in
Syria....
this was the case with the great Egyptain Syrian master Jamil Georges and his son.
Best wishes,
Adel
ALAMI - 8-14-2008 at 09:55 AM
Thanks to all for your comments and thanks to Adel for the infos on the Der Bedrosian family.
Many great ouds are still buried into closets in our "neck of the woods", what I do is trying to maximize the probability to make our roads cross, but
to discover 2 ouds from 2 Armenian masters in a row is pure luck.
another Sumbat Der Bedrossian
ALAMI - 8-14-2008 at 10:01 AM
Just received from Adel Salameh this amazing picture of a Sumbat Der Bedrossian oud, he had a problem uploading the pic.
What an amazing oud ! the rosette looks like the legendary Abdo Nahat "maqams rosette", the pickguard and the neck are magnificent.
gregorypause - 8-15-2008 at 06:45 AM
That is one wicked rosette!
Restoration by Nazih
ALAMI - 9-9-2008 at 12:48 AM
Part 2
ALAMI - 9-9-2008 at 12:51 AM
the finished oud
ALAMI - 9-9-2008 at 12:58 AM
The 2 masters: Sumbat and Nazih in the same picture
ALAMI - 9-9-2008 at 12:59 AM
SamirCanada - 9-9-2008 at 04:59 AM
Mabrouk!!!
nice find...this oud diserved better then being covered in dust.
veyselmaster - 9-9-2008 at 05:38 AM
Hello Dear Alami
İts realy very nice antik oud and full original .
Use healty
Best wishes
DanielH - 9-9-2008 at 06:12 AM
Wow! It's always inspiring to see a beautiful piece of craftsmanship lifted up from the ashes to sing again... Enjoy it in good health, Alami.
Jonathan - 9-9-2008 at 08:12 AM
Absolutely beautiful. Congratulations!
paulO - 9-9-2008 at 12:19 PM
Lovely restoration work, and one super cool and unique oud. Enjoy it in good health !
Regards..PaulO
Samer - 9-9-2008 at 03:17 PM
Lovely oud, I really like it, I have seen number of Badrosian ouds ( I own 3 ) this is one of the nicest I have seen. Enjoy it.
ALAMI - 9-10-2008 at 09:15 AM
Thank you guys for your kind wishes,
I am eager to get this oud but it is still in Nazih workshop in Ras Baalbeck (a 100 km from Beirut) and it is going to stay there for a week or more,
Nazih likes to keep the oud a while after restoration and play it from time to time to see if everything is OK, this oud has been un-stringed for
many years and other invisible problems may appear after re-stringing. I talked to him this evening and he told me that today a buzz appeared in the
sound, it was due to one of the small rosettes.
I am waiting for a sound file.
Another small but very nice detail that i forgot to mention is that Nazih was able to find and fit 3 old pegs similar to the 3 missing ones:
ALAMI - 9-11-2008 at 04:08 AM
Sound file of the oud played by Nazih
SamirCanada - 9-11-2008 at 05:08 AM
its a gem!
mabrouk Alami you diserve this one.
abusin - 9-11-2008 at 05:59 AM
Beautifull sound Alami alf mabruk,
Nazih islamu ha eledain 
salam
gregorypause - 10-15-2008 at 03:34 AM
Alami! Have you got this oud back from Nazih yet? How does it play?
ALAMI - 10-15-2008 at 09:22 AM
I got the oud from Nazih, deep warm sound, low action, no buzz, easy to hold and to play, a real joy...
.....and then a week later,and suddenly, it started buzzing like hell, not a string buzzing, it is coming from the sound board, I talked to Nazih:
3 possibilities: one of the rosettes, the inlays or, worst of all, a loose brace.... The oud is going back to Nazih, may be he didn't like me and my
playing
gregorypause - 10-15-2008 at 11:59 PM
Sorry to hear about your trouble. Hopefully, you'll have this guy back soon with you.
Where did you find this oud? Is there a good story?
Guldeste - 1-16-2015 at 03:06 AM
Hello... I'm a bit of a novice here, but wanted to see pictures of the Bedrosians. The pictures don't display... do they get deleted after some
time?
ALAMI - 1-16-2015 at 11:06 AM
here you go, I just edited the first and added some of the original pictures.
Guldeste - 1-20-2015 at 02:36 AM
Thanks so much. It's glorious. Do you still have the sound file with Nazih?
I have a restored Garabet from 1953 which retains much - but not all - of the original beauty. The sound is special too.