Oud from Cairo for $180?

Indeed, too little information. WHICH man and WHICH woman?

Quote: Originally posted by drovla

Hello, I am visiting family in another state and there is an Egyptian Oud for sale for $180. The label on the inside has a Cairo phone number in blue writing and there is a picture of a man and a woman. Any suggestions whether or not to buy? I haven't seen it yet. I just spoke with the person selling it. Thanks in advance.

I have been trying to resist replying to this all day, but I don't think I can. This is probably the most hilarious request for identifying an Oud that I have seen. No pun intended.

Did the guy also tell you what color was the oud, or how many strings it had!!!

I wish I could be of more help, but definitely, we need more meaningful info.

OK, somebody's gotta take mercy on you. I'll tell ya what I've learned. It does look like one of the cheap Egyptians. They get $200-300 for them new, so you might be better off getting a new one with a return guarantee. You can't tell at this resolution, the photo is exceptionally bad, but there are some good old ouds that don't look all that different, and might be worth 3 to 5 times the $180. The fact that it appears to have two pickups home-brew mounted on the face suggests someone with a little technical know-how owned it, so it might be above average, in which case this could be a good deal. If you know guitars, you know how to check the neck for straightness, and since there is no truss rod, know that it's not easily correctable. Ideally, the action at the nut should be 1mm, at the neck-bowl joint it should be 3-6mm, depending on what you like. The soundboard should be level, a tiny rise behind the bridge is OK, the nut end of the neck should lie 2-3mm back from the plane of the soundboard, and preferably the instrument should resonate strongly on many notes in its entire range, not just "boom" in one area. It looks like it has 5 courses, probably 9 strings, and Arabic ouds can have 9 to 12 strings. The construction should be light, like under 3 lbs, and a good oud shouldn't require playing hard to come alive. It's not unusual for the soundboard to be unfinished, in which case it can optionally be French Polished with a little alcohol based shellac to protect it. Bad/old strings can make an oud sound worse than it is. If you have a good luthier, or you can read and are handy with basic tools, you can correct a lot of problems, but it's very hard to improve a dull oud that sounds like rubber bands on a cigar box. Good luck!

Hi drovla- some good advice posted above.
If you can afford to spend any more on an oud do so, usually the more you can spend on an oud the better the quality (unless you get lucky!). Get the best you can afford in your budget and get yourself a nice oud to learn on and keep- once you start playing the oud you'll get hooked and be glad you went that extra mile.
There are many used ouds for sale in the forum, some may be in your budget. there is a guy in Canada named Yori who used to be Haluk Eryadin's North American distributor ( Haluk was a great Turkish oud maker who made very nice and affordable 'student' ouds who sadly is no longer with us). He may have some ouds. you'll find his link in this posting:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=9359#pid625...
If you find an oud that you think may work for you, just ask about it in the forum. there are always many helpful members who can tell you if it's a good buy or not.
good luck, MW