Onglon
Oud Maniac
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oud braces
hi!
quick question, which must sound awfully naive, but why does a oud need braces (on the inside of the soundboard)?
best
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MattOud
Oud Junkie
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Mood: Feeling Pretty G'Oud
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hopefully someone who knows more can help...
My take, from observation of my ouds, is that they have been made with individual pieces(panels) for the soundboard rather than one solid
piece(panel). I am unsure why this is other than perhaps it is very difficult to find such a large piece necessary for the soundboard surface area
without any blemishes, whereas with smaller pieces you can cut and find pieces that are less blemishes. This being said, the pieces are now unattached
and therefore need a support to hold them together, ie. bracing.
However, along with this, it seems to me that some master luthiers have mentioned in their oud building process, that the inside of the OUD also can
be created carefully, and mathematically, to bounce sound frequencies better and are experimenting all the time to figure out better techniques, much
of which they would keep proprietary I imagine.
Maybe someone can tell us more on this. Cheers.
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suz_i_dil
Oud Junkie
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I think at first because of structural reason dont you think ?
If we take the soundboard of a baglama for exemple it is unbraced but see how thick it is...An oud soundboard being so more large i cannot imagineA
how thick it should be a without brace to be stable. Maybe so thick it would be totally mute
Just a thought, i'm not sure that's the reason
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jdowning
Oud Junkie
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The sound boards of ouds and lutes are made very thin to respond efficiently to the low power input of the plucked strings so the first requirement of
the braces - as suz_i_dil notes - is to structurally support (or brace) the sound board to prevent collapse under string tension. But, of course it is
not as simple as that!
The braces also divide up the sound board into non symmetrical areas that (if properly done - an art in itself) allows a sound board to effectively
respond acoustically over a wide range of sound frequencies.
A sound board ideally should be as stiff as possible both along the wood grain direction longitudinally and across the wood grain, consistent with low
wood density. The stiffer the wood the higher the speed of sound transmission through the wood. Braces have some influence (in ladder braced
instruments like ouds and lutes) on cross grain sound transmission.
Any wood grain deviation from perfectly straight in a sound board will result in reduced sound transmission and reduced acoustic efficiency.
If properly glued together multiple piece sound boards are just as strong as a single piece sound board so the braces are not there to stop a multiple
piece sound board falling apart. Ouds made by some of the most renowned luthiers have sound boards made up of multiple pieces (up to six pieces in
some cases). This allows a knowledgeable luthier to piece together a more perfect sound board (acoustically) than might usually be found in a one or
two piece sound board. It also allows adjustment to cross grain stiffness where required.
Not knowing the science behind sound board design, I conducted a few experiments for my better understanding about five years ago with the results
posted on this forum here:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=12601
and here:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=12819#pid87...
All a bit long winded in detail but may be of interest.
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newlife_ks
Oud Junkie
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Location: Germany, NRW
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These threads are definitely worth reading, thanks for posting, jdowning!
Greetings from Klaus in Germany!
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