Mike's Oud Forums

Iraqi ouds?

zakiya_alali - 11-2-2009 at 03:45 AM



Hi all,

I have seen couple of ouds that are on ebay posted as iraqi ouds!! and the sellers name is palmyrami. Now am sure that they are syrina make as I ve seen lots of them when I went to syria. Can you please tell me what you think?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-UNIQUE-RARE-TOPQUALITY-PRO-IRAQI-WALNUT-WOO...

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-UNIQUE-RARE-TOPQUALITY-PRO-IRAQI-WALNUT-WOO...

Cheers

fadel - 11-2-2009 at 04:10 AM

hi

it is syrian oud 100%

fadel

Melbourne - 11-2-2009 at 06:14 PM

these ouds are utter rubbish! I find it hard to believe that they are sold by the same guy that offers sukar ouds, yet they are priced higher than the model 14 sukars. very puzzling

fernandraynaud - 11-3-2009 at 12:30 AM

I have had the same experience of seeing an oud I know is a mediocre and inexpensive instrument go up on Palmyrami's auctions at a higher price than a Sukar. I asked, and they were surprised to hear it wasn't a pro instrument. This just confirms what I've said before, which is that they are furniture merchants, and know nothing about ouds. Don't bother asking them oud questions, they don't know a peg from a pegbox. If you explain it to them today (I've tried), by next week they'll have forgotten.

They receive ouds thoroughly packed by someone in Syria, with photos, they put them up for auction/sale with their comical incoherent boiler-plate descriptions ("pegs are varnished", "really a work of art", "be sure to get it", etc), and they don't even know what is in the box. They have even mixed up photos of two different ouds, a floating bridge and a fixed bridge, on one item. They couldn't grasp why the photos of that front couldn't possibly go with the photos of that back.

They offer Sukars at a good price and they ship reliably. They won't leave a customer unhappy. That's all that really matters if you know what you're after.

I wouldn't buy antiques from them. It could be a great instrument, but you don't know, and they sure as heck don't know, so everybody in that transaction is blind, at the mercy of their Syrian buyer. Maybe they should stick to coffee tables, but they happen to stubbornly also sell ouds. Nature and her wonders!

I can vouch for this: their English is marginal, they are courteous, they are not out to cheat people, and if you do accidentally buy a junker, they will take it back and/or work it out with you.