aquinas
Oud Admirer
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Registered: 12-10-2007
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question regarding action on a kyrgyz komuz
hello again,
i have a non-oud-related question that perhaps someone on here with knowledge of lute instruments in general could answer for me.
i have a komuz, which is a small 3-stringed fretless lute instrument from kyrgyzstan, about the same length as a persian setar.
the problem is, there is almost no space at all in between the nylon strings and the fingerboard. this causes rattling noises at some points on the
fingerboard, and if i try and fret a note near to the nut, the fingerboard itself will stop the string, acting as sort of a huge fret. in other words,
anything from a certain point in the fingerboard to the nut will produce the same note, no matter where my finger is placed.
my question is, should i simply sand down the fretboard in order to increase the action to at least a couple of mm? if not, what else would you
suggest?
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MatthewW
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Registered: 11-5-2006
Location: right here
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hello aquinas- does your komuz have any type of nut which the strings go over at the top end of the fingerboard? Could you somehow raise it slightly (
ie. put another thin slice of wood under it or even replace it with a nut that is a wee bit higher)so the strings are then lifted slightly as they go
over the nut and down the fingerboard? how about the bridge? can the bridge be raised slightly? It would seem to me that if you could somehow raise
the action a bit at the nut or at bridge or both this could help.
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aquinas
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ah, i should have mentioned that i actually tried raising both the nut and the bridge last night-- unfortunately, it didn't help, because the
fingerboard is not completely flat, which is what is causing the problems.
it sort of looks like this, but on a much more microscopic scale of course (the nut being on the left, and the view being from the side of the
fingerboard):
_______----------------------
essentially, the fingerboard is not flat, and is raised about 1/4 of the way from the nut. this means that if i fret a note with my finger on any
point before the "plateau", it will not sound.
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adamgood
Oud Junkie
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Registered: 6-27-2005
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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Ben Hume in New York City would be a great person to ask. He has a very good sense of what to do with lutes from something-istan countries.
If you want his phone number just let me know via u2u.
Adam
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