Reda Aouad
Oud Junkie
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Soundboards
I usually see or hear that soundboards are made of 2 wood pieces glued together and then cut to the shape of the oud's face. Why is it so? Can't the
soundboard be cut from only one piece of wood? Wouldn't it be stronger and more stable if it was made from a single piece?
Thanks 
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Tom Moran
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Reda,
There's no reason why it couldn't be done if you were lucky enough to find (and could afford) a wide enough piece of usable wood. But that's a big if.
Most commercially available tops come in two pieces.
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Reda Aouad
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Thanks.. but is there any reason? Why don't makers of such would pieces manufacture larger ones? Or is it just for commercial purposes?
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Tom Moran
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I think that it may have to do with the milling process. There might be physical restrictions on how large a piece of quarter sawn wood can be cut.
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Edward Powell
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the point here is that the soundboard must be made from QUARTER-SAWN wood. This means that the year-ring-lines (the grainlines) must be all perfectly
verticle. It is very difficult these days to find a tree large enough so that you will get a large enough single piece of soundboard wood. The tree
would have to be more than one meter.
anyway, it makes no difference to the sound and stability how many pieces of wood (within reason) you make the soundboard from. It is essential just a
cosmetic issue.
the main cosmetic problem I would say would be that with every piece of soundboard wood, you have one side which has very tightly spaced grain, and
the other side with wide spaced grain... so therefore you will never get it looking symetical with just one piece.
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jdowning
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Interesting to note that Ibn al-Tahhan al-Musiqi in the 14th C wrote that the belly of an oud should be made of two or three pieces rather than one
piece. The sound board on an old oud that I own is made of four pieces. Surviving lutes also often have the belly made up from more than two pieces
and I have no doubt that in earlier times the trees selected for sound boards would have been a lot larger in diameter than can be found today so that
one piece sound boards could have been used if needed.
Joining narrower panels of wood to make up a soundboard means that any flaws, like resin pockets, in an otherwise satisfactory piece of wood can be
eliminated. Likewise to eliminate any areas where grain may be considered too wide or too narrow. Or simply just to make up the required width of a
sound board.
At the end of the day it shouldn't matter if a single piece of wood is used for the sound board as long as it is of adequate quality and well
seasoned.
Sound boards are likely sold sawn, in two 'book matched' pieces, by luthier supply houses because that is what the market demands and is the most
economical way.
The best procedure to obtain a sound board blank is by splitting it from a larger billet so that any longitudinal grain 'run out' can be detected and
allowed for. However, this is not an economical option for most luthiers I suspect.
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