| Pages:
1
2 |
Dr. Oud
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1370
Registered: 12-18-2002
Location: Sacramento, CA, USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: better than before
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by journeyman
...
I'd like to find out what types of rosewood have the most density. |
African Rosewood, aka blackwood - look in those hot dry climates for slow growing wood, that's what makes for high density and hardness. Another
factor is the grain orientation, flat grained will be a bit softer than vertical...on on and on....
|
|
|
grassyknoll
Oud Addict
Posts: 30
Registered: 6-4-2016
Member Is Offline
|
|
I actually got a piece of .. black rosewood, i believe (will have to ask my luthier again what that was) installed on my sukar oud as a fretboard --
glued overtop whatever softer wood (with inlays on the sides) was the original.
He told me this wood was about as dense as ebony.
There were immediately noticable, big changes to the sound.
I was put off. The sound was more "metallic" than before, with the same strings, and it set me off on a huge process trying to add warmth by trying
different strings.
I started tuning down a half-step, and that helped -alot-
I went through all this effort because i was enjoying the longer sustain given by the harder wood
In the end I couldn't deny that something had been lost, in warmth, and overall richness of sound (This was months later, and I had ample before and
after recordings to prove it)
So now my oud is back at the luthier, getting that fingerboard removed.
I'm not sure what state my instrument will be in after it's gone. My luthier Is going to call me to arrange the next step.
It's unfortunate because the original fingerboard was a bit difficult, with the inlays, in the varying humidity in Canada
It would be nice to put a single piece of something stable on there
Not sure what to do
It's possible that the reason the sound was so adversely affected by the dense fingerboard is because it was also glued over a section of the
soundboard (effectively raising the action). If that's the case, then i could theoretically have my cake and eat it too, ie. Have good sustain and
warmth - simply by not having anything glued to the soundboard,.but rather by sanding down the fingerboard and adding a harder piece of wood ..
I can either go that route, or also try vaneering the original fingerboard with something not quite as hard, ie. mahogany.(assuming the fingerboard
material is affecting the sound that much, and it's not the fact that the fingerboard vaneer was attached to the soundboard)
Of course, as my luthier says, the soundboard underneath the old fingerboard vaneer might be a bit f***'d up now, and - though I asked him to attempt
to restore it as best as possible without adding vaneer to it - he seemed to think that might be inevitable. Maybe a thinner piece, he suggested, of
something softer, or even cedar, like the soundboard
Any feedback or suggestions would be much appreciated.
It costs a bundle to keep shifting things around, not to mention, more time away from my baby, weeks at a time
|
|
|
| Pages:
1
2 |
|
![[*]](images/xmbprobrown/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
