kiwan - 3-28-2009 at 03:23 PM
hello Oud lovers,
im planning to buy an Electric Oud, and was wondering whether to get a fixed or floating bridge?
are there any draw backs in terms of the floating bridge? is it really floating like a guitar floating bridge? is that going to create problems in
tuning? and what would the sound difference be between floating and fixed bridge on the e-oud
im looking at getting the tharwat saber e oud
thanks
charlie oud - 3-28-2009 at 03:58 PM
Hi Kiwan, 
Welcome to the forum, Im sure you will get some response to your question. I've no experience of e-ouds myself but if you try a forum search,
type in "electric oud" there may be some helpful stuff to read through. Regards. C
Christian1095 - 3-30-2009 at 01:19 PM
I have a Sukar eOud (floating bridge) ... There wasn't enough string tension on it with the strings I use and it kept slipping all over the place...
so I put a few dots of superglue on the bridge and now it's 'fixed' -- However, looking at the examples of fixed bridge ouds I've seen, the
pick-up/piezio is still forward of the bridge anyway... so you end up with a 'floating' pickup no matter what you do....
My personal thought is that since you're going to have to do some work to get it to sound like an oud anyway, floating bridge or fixed is less of a
question than what kind of electronics you're going to put on them... I'm currently running it with a fishman aura acoustic pedal... I think it
sounds good for what it is (the bass strings sound too tinny though... but for playing in a goup, it's fine.... I keep mine for outside gigs when the
weather looks dodgy) Also, you'll loose some of the cool Oud sound since you're not getting the sympathetic string vibrations (I think that's why at
least)
Best comparison I can make is that it's the difference between an electric guitar and an acoustic one... You can make the electric sound 'almost'
like an acoustic... but you lose something....
From what I can tell, the only real options I've seen out there are the Najarian ($$$) and the Sukar ouds... I think Yildrim might be producing them
as well, but I don't know anything about them.
Hope this helps
kiwan - 3-30-2009 at 03:25 PM
hello Christian,
thanx for your reply.
i think im more confused now about floating or fixed!!!
i know that the floating might slip out, especially with my "special" tuning but i believe it could give more sustain to the nylon strings, than a
fixed bridge, right?
and i also know that it will never sound like an acoustic oud anyway. so thats out of the picture.
i think i might go for a floating anyway, and see how that goes, and might have to glue it like you did if it slips out.
any thoughts?
regards,
Kiwan