ccowing
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Registered: 9-7-2008
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repairing an inexpensive oud
I just traded a Tibetan singing bowl for an inexpensive used oud. The top has detached itself from the body and has curled up (to an extent) from the
bottom edge. I'll post some pics tomorrow. I'm interested in experiences others have had. I've done repairs on my cello so I feel I'm ready for this
challenge.
I'm new to this forum too. It looks like it will be a really good resource.
Craig Cowing
NY
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patheslip
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I'm new as well. It is a good resource. Nice people too.
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ccowing
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Here is a picture of the problem. I'm thinking of doing two things to help strengthen the front. First, I would do something similar to what is called
the lining in instruments in the violin family. I couldn't do it continuously because of the reinforcements on the backside of the front that are
perpendicular to the grain, but I could do shorter pieces that would fit between the reinforcing bars. On a violin, the lining is a soft wood strip
that has a triangular cross-section with one angle a 90 degree angle. One straight side is glued against the inside of the side of the instrument, the
top side of the right angle provides a broader face to glue the front to.
The other thing I would like to do is have what would be called an end block on a cello, which is the other instrument I play. This would be a thicker
piece of wood at the bottom of the front, which again would provide a broader surface to glue the front to. This would help eliminate the tendency to
pull away from the front. I'm not thinking it would be too large, no more than 1/2" thick.
Craig Cowing
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aytayfun
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First step
Please release the strings urgently.
Dr. Tayfun AYDIN
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GeorgeK
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Hello Craig,
From what I can see, it looks like a nice oud with some nice inlays and what appears to be an attractive bowl. Can you post more pictures of the oud
including the label (which shows the maker).
The one question I have is how did the face get detached? My guess would be that someone tuned the strings at a too high of a tension...but there
could be other factors that caused this failure (humidity, etc...)
My advice (and I'll preface this by saying that you appear to have more experience fixing musical instruments than I do), anyways my advice would be
to put it back together the way it was originally built. From this one picture, it appears to be built like any other Oud and hence no modifications
are needed as I've owned my ouds now for 10yrs and non of them have this failure. So... I'd remove the binding that are around the braces. I'd then
clean up the brace/bowl interface as well as face/end block interface and then re-apply hide glue to these interfaces and "clamp" the joints together.
Then I'd re-glue the binding pieces that were removed.
Anyways, if you do any work, please post some pictures as I love following along on these projects.
Best of luck and welcome to the forums.
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Dr. Oud
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Remove the strings immediately. I would advise not adding any lining or a larger end block as these additional structural elements will affect the
sound and you won’t get that “oud” sound. The best course of action would be to simply re-glue the face exactly where it failed using hide glue,
softening the original glue with warm water. Adding some parchment paper reinforcement behind any seam failures would be the only additional material
necessary to preserve the original tone. The string action may have been too high, contributing to the stress on the face, and/or too large gauge
strings, or tuning it to an abnormally high pitch could also have been factors.
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carpenter
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Exactly. And yikes - get those strings off there, you're scaring the horses!
<< softening the original glue with warm water. >>
Yup, but I'd check first to see it this works, if it's indeed hide glue. You never know (I've been mistaken) - but I'm pretty sure it is here. You'll
know; poke at it with a pointy stick after a decent watering interval, see if it's gell-y.
I'd tune it a step or two low, after the repair, and sneak up on the tuning you want over time. You've got to let the glue set/get hard, or you're
back here where you started; "the next day" wouldn't be the best idea. My 2 cents, but Doc knows best. Take care, and good luck.
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