sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 02:44 AM
After I finished my last oud, I missed my working place and the woodwork with nice arabic music in the background. So I decided to make another one. 4
weeks ago, I went to the local dealer and bought some wood . This time is Zebrano like they use in some guitars. I had no experience with this wood.
Oh boy, It stinks like hell when it comes in contact with water. It's between soft and hard wood.
Best regards,
Samir
ribs
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:30 AM
cutting the ribs. 2.5 mm thikness, 69cm long and 4cmm wide
ribs shape
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:31 AM
drawing the line inside the ribs
neck
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:33 AM
neck:
ribs bender
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:36 AM
Ribs bender, it works for me and the shape is oval. It get warm very quick
placing the ribs
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:41 AM
I have used for this time a (back to neck) open mold. I have had some advice from a friend of mine on how to build like this, it works pretty easy for
me now. The ribs are joined just buy masking tape. If the ribs are 100% flat and the are similar in shape, joining the ribs is easy.
Sometimes I join 2 ribs in couple of minutes and in some bad times, i just can't get 2 ribs joined. 
.but this seems to be a common issue for lot of oud builder.
ribs Progress
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:43 AM
progress
ribs progress
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:44 AM
the oud have now a shape
pegbox and fingerboard
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:45 AM
pegbox and fingerboard are made from cherry. very nice hard wood. easy to work with in my opinion.
dovetail
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:56 AM
cutting the dovetail out of the neck. The inside cut of the dovetail is 1 mm less high than the cut outside the neck. this gives the fingerboad the
famous 1mm (some say 2mm) inclination when the strings start to do the job and pull the fingerboard.
paper strips
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 03:57 AM
paper strips and inner purfling around the last rib to hold the sound board
final result
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 04:00 AM
Sorry , I didn't make any pictures of the soundboard process. was too excited to finish the oud.
Final pictures of the oud.
more pictures
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 04:01 AM
more pictures
pictures
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 04:02 AM
pictures. pickguard made of birdseye maple
pics
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 04:06 AM
you can notice the goldish color after using shellak.
last picture
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 04:07 AM
hope you like it. by the way, the bad smell of the wood has now disappeared 
.
and the oud sounds alright to my ear the first time. I have to try it everyday. Iwill post a sound sample soon.
abusin - 1-13-2009 at 04:26 AM
Hi Sabbassi,
Well done my friend and congratulations on the completion of your second oud, you just made the process looks so easy 
I do like the look of the Zebrano wood it's very elegant on ouds, a friend of mine have a floating bridge one and the Zebrano bowl is amazing.
Thanks for sharing,
Boral - 1-13-2009 at 04:33 AM
Congratulations 
Very good.
It gives the illusion it is made of many small strips.
Alnoud - 1-13-2009 at 04:38 AM
Looks Good very impressive work ther my friend
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 04:43 AM
Awad, everyone, thanks for the comment and support. This is not my second, but number 5 in 2 years....the first 2 ouds are just not good enouph to be
named ouds. I would call them Boats
Tom Moran - 1-13-2009 at 05:20 AM
Beautiful work! I do have a general question about using the inner purfling of kerfing. When building mine, I didn't use any, which was one of the
things that struck me as a major difference from building guitars or mandolins. How common is it to use the inner purfling? Thanks.
sabbassi - 1-13-2009 at 05:33 AM
Hi Tom,
I must say, I 'm using the kerfing (thanks for the word) only after I have seen my friend (professional luthier) doing it. The soundboard is laying
only on that kerfing (of course minus the braces spots). this way the sound board has a solid basement and you get a good vibration. this is a better
picture. notice the tape is placed first on the braces spots. then the the kerfing is glued, later you saw out the tape spots and you have a nice base
for the sound board.
Tom Moran - 1-13-2009 at 07:48 AM
Sabbassi,
Thanks for the answer. Using the kerfing makes sense to me, as far as overall structural integrity. I thought that there might be some over-riding
reason to not use it on an oud, aside from making it easier to disassemble if need be.
BTW, I looked up info on the zebra wood and saw that it is impervious to termites. One less worry!
patheslip - 1-13-2009 at 04:17 PM
WOW
paulO - 1-13-2009 at 05:39 PM
Hi sabbassi,
Beautiful work, very rich looking ! Thanks for sharing...looking fwd. to the sound clip.
Regards..PaulO
Jameel - 1-13-2009 at 08:13 PM
Hey, no fair. You posted the whole project in one day.
Seriously, thanks for the nice pictorial. Enjoyed it!
sabbassi - 1-14-2009 at 01:07 AM
Thanks everyone for the support.
I should have made more pictures. next time will go more in details.
Best regards,
Samir
Sound file
sabbassi - 1-16-2009 at 12:29 AM
Hi All, here is a sound file sample. Played by a friend. Sorry for the bad recording.
Tom Moran - 1-16-2009 at 11:49 AM
Samir,
Sounds as good as it looks!
Luttgutt - 1-19-2009 at 11:16 AM
This oud sounds mature already!
Congratulation!
sabbassi - 1-20-2009 at 12:19 AM
Thanks Tom, Thanks Luttgutt.