Is the tension of my strings too high? How to tell?
Hi everyone,
I changed my oud's strings for the first time and they sound great, but someone commented while watching me play that the tension seems too high. How
can I tell if that's the case? I don't want to warp my oud face. I bought Sukar strings and they don't have any tension ratings on the packaging. It's
tuned F-F and that's what the packaging recommends too. My oud is on the bigger end and it has a floating bridge. Can any length string go on any
length oud? And if the tension is too high, does that mean I need to buy longer strings? Very confused about how to assess/what to do. Please let me
know if you need more info.
At a given vibrating length (from nut to bridge) it is the diameter of string that is the primary factor that determines tension at a given pitch
(another factor is the ratio of core to winding on a wound string). Excess length (behind bridge and between nut and pegs) has no effect on tension.
If you have an extremely long string that winds many times around the tuning peg or a string just long enough to secure the string to peg and
tailpiece the tension will be identical at a given pitch provided the diameter and string material are the same. To put it another way. let's say you
have 6 feet of the string you are using for high f. If you cut it so it winds twice around the peg the tension at pitch will be no different than if
you wind a 4 foot length or somehow manage to wind all six feet.
Floating bridge ouds are strung at higher tension than fixed bridge ouds. That is one of the factors that creates the typical floating bridge sound.
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