A good friend of mine just returned from a trip to Baghdad and brought with him a surprise: an oud!
Apparently, he had to move Heaven and Earth to make the arrangements to purchase 2 ouds (1 for him and 1 for me).
I am posting some photos of the instrument.
The materials appear excellent and workmanship not bad. I'd hate to have an instrument like this end up hung as decoration on the wall of a Lebanese
restaurant in Dearborn.
The biggest problem, as you can see, is the tuning pegs, which appear to be of a much lower quality than the rest of the instrument. In fact, one peg
broke off the first time I tried to tune the instrument.
I am assuming that it would be pretty easy to ship a luthier the broken tuning peg and get them to mill one to replace it. However, I would prefer to
to replace all of the the pegs, since the wood quality of the broken one doesn't look good.
Are Arabic oud tuning pegs milled to pretty standard sizes, or do they vary significantly?
Does anyone want to recommend a U.S.-based luthier to make new ones for me? (The closer to Northern California, the better!)
I am asssuming that the worst case scenario for this would be that I would have to remove and label the pegs and ship them to a luthier to match the
sizes and string hole placement. I can deal with that.
My other problem is that the nut also appears to be of significantly lower quality than the rest of the instrument, as well.
Is that something easily remedied? Could I reasonably rely on a non-oud professional, such as a violin repairman, to do it? We don't have any
luthiers that work on Arabic ouds in our area (Turkish uds are covered). I don't like the idea of having to ship the instument far just to get the
nut replaced.
Any advice?
My friend recorded a video of the builder playing his oud and accompanying a (pretty talented) singer. I will let you know when he has (been allowed
to) post this video on YouTube.
Peace out,
John
Oud Photo 1
John Erlich - 10-22-2009 at 10:52 AM
[file]11966[/file]
Oud Photo 2
John Erlich - 10-22-2009 at 10:56 AM
Oud Photo 3 (My #5)
John Erlich - 10-22-2009 at 11:00 AM
ameer - 10-22-2009 at 11:39 AM
You can get mass produced pegs at http://www.khalafoud.com/pegs.htm. I don't know the probability that they'll fit your oud though since I'm no expert. You could measure the holes
and compare that to the specs on the site; I'm sure that'll give you something to start with.
Oud Photo 4 (My #6)
John Erlich - 10-22-2009 at 12:27 PM
Oud Photo 5 (My #7)
John Erlich - 10-22-2009 at 12:30 PM
Oud Photo 6 (My #8)
John Erlich - 10-22-2009 at 04:27 PM
A better lit photo of the peg box.
Oud Photo 7 (My #10)
John Erlich - 10-22-2009 at 04:29 PM
A rather grainy photo of the "offending" nut.fernandraynaud - 10-22-2009 at 06:52 PM
I guess I lost my response, must have clicked duh.
Your nut looks ok, it's got the 6th course all ready, and I wouldn't change it unless there's a very good reason, as they are trickier to notch than
expected.
Pegs are never standard, lute and oud pegs are often around 16:1 taper, and the easy to get e.g. beautiful rosewood viola pegs are 25 or 30:1. Oud
pegs often start thinner too. Try to use one of the two spare pegs for now while you decide what to do. Maybe it was a crack in the wood and not junk
pegs all around. Light wood is not necessarily bad. I can tell you I had one peg on an oud break, so I glued it with gel superglue, thinking it would
be soon a throwaway. It has now been many many months, and that very peg is working and holding just fine. A very light sanding and a stain job (then
a touch of soap and chalk) can make those light (often decent olivewood) pegs look and work OK.
You can have any violin-repair guy ream out the pegbox holes to fit standard viola pegs, but one shop quoted me $300 to do the job for regular pegs,
and $600 using the planetary-geared ones, so in your shoes I would consider doing it myself, if not making the existing pegs work.
The standard viola pegs are cheapest from Dov Schmidt I think, and there is nothing wrong with his $4.99/4 rosewood or ebony pegs, though if you read
enough you might come to the conclusion that ebony eats pegboxes, and rosewood is better.
Is Hank Levin still doing repairs? He's up in San Rafael...
Yes, as far as I know.
Last I heard from him, he will not work on Arabic ouds.
He did a beautiful repair on my Turkish Eken ud about 5 years ago. That's what I meant by "Turkish uds are covered."
Thanks,
JohnJohn Erlich - 10-23-2009 at 10:31 AM
Hi Folks,
Thanks for the advice! I think I'll try just replacing the tuning peg that broke and see how that works for now.
In the future, I will probably end up replacing all the pegs, because, on closer examination, they were not milled to fit. They were milled, then
(unevenly) hand-"adjusted" to fit the peg holes.
Last night, I tuned up the lower strings to see how the instrument sounds and see how much the strings "catch" and "pop" (rather than move smoothly)
on the cheap-looking nut. No verdict yet, but I think the instrument will be playable.
The pegs don’t move smoothly, and I did feel like I had to be very careful when tuning, pulling them out a bit to turn them, then pushing them back
in when I had the right pitch. Should I try peg dope? Makes me a little nervous about trying to perform with this instrument—what if I broke a peg
on stage??!!
I can't understand why the builder would do such a nice job on the body of the instrument, using what appear to be pretty good quality woods, then
“cheap out” on the moving parts.
The first thing I look at when choosing an oud is the tuning pegs. The pegs on my Shehata by contrast are very smoothly milled, uniform, and turn
smoothly.
Thanks and all the best,
John paulO - 10-23-2009 at 05:15 PM
Hi John,
Viken might be able to help you out, do you ever venture down to L.A. ?? If so just shoot him a note at: najouds@aol.com -- just at thought.
Cheers..PaulCyberquills - 10-23-2009 at 06:43 PM
Hey John
OUd looks great. Who made it?
CQJohn Erlich - 10-26-2009 at 09:47 AM
Hi CQ,
The builder is "Al-Baghdadi Heritage Workshop..." Picture "#3" is a photo of the label.
My friend actually contacted me about Iraqi oud builders months ago, and I gave him all the standard builder names (Fawzi Monshied, Foad Jihad, etc.)
and emigre player contacts (Rahim Al-Haj, Ahmed Al-Mukhtar, etc.). (He didn't actually say he was going to Iraq, and I forgot about the email exchange
and so was surprised when he told me he had been there!) He wasn't able to pick and choose among builders and had to go through incredible hassles
(and risks) to buy the instruments.
His stories really make me appreciate what Iraqis have to go through every day of their lives!
Viken might be able to help you out, do you ever venture down to L.A. ?? If so just shoot him a note at: najouds@aol.com -- just at thought.
Cheers..Paul
Parev Paul,
Good idea. My wife and I have talked for years about visiting LA. Isn't one of the Shaheen brothers living down there, too? Does he work on
ouds?
All the best,
John shareen - 11-2-2009 at 07:56 PM
Gee, your oud like eerilly like an oud sold to me as a Mohammed Fadel. Maybe your builder is copying? Or maybe mine is a fake. Who knows. I won't
say who I bought it from. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in my book. Just an odd thing. Same inlay around the sound holes and neck.
Exactly. Brian Prunka - 11-2-2009 at 09:21 PM
This oud looks similar to some of Fadel's ouds. I imagine the maker was "inspired" by Fadel. There are a lot of fake Fadel's out there, though.
Seems like a nice oud.
John, William Shaheen is in Southern Ca., but he doesn't work on ouds.
Najarian does excellent pegs if he's willing to work on the oud.
John Erlich - 1-9-2013 at 04:57 PM
UPDATE: Richard Hankey, AKA "Dr. Oud," has the instrument right now and is replacing my tuning pegs. (He agreed that they were made from very soft
wood.) He is using viola pegs. I had discussed his working on it before, but, now that he has moved to my area, I decided the time has come. He
thought the nut look okay, and agreed that it was best left alone. BTW: I did end up ordering a "trial" peg from Khalaf, but, beautiful as it was, it
was more the violin size, and was too small. I'll post a full report when I have my instrument back. dkhoury35 - 1-10-2013 at 03:11 PM
Very nice oudJohn Erlich - 2-11-2013 at 06:53 PM
Here is a photo of my Iraqi oud, post-peg replacement. Kudos to Richard Hankey, AKA, "Dr. Oud!" Richard used viola pegs because violin pegs were too
small. He had to fix the peg holes as well, since they were originally drilled out of round. It is now holding tune well and has become my main
instrument!
Peace out,
"Udi" JohnJohn Erlich - 2-11-2013 at 07:01 PM
Realizing how grainy my previous photos were, I took some better ones outdoors, in the natural light.
-J John Erlich - 2-11-2013 at 07:02 PM
Another photo
[file]25816[/file]conroystoptime - 2-11-2013 at 08:04 PM
This looks like a beautiful Fadel copy. I don't mean that as an insult; much like the Nahat models that so many skilled luthiers make, this appears to
be a high-quality oud made in the style of the 1990s ouds of Mohammed Fadel.
But most importantly, how does it sound? Can you post a video or sound sample?
