jdowning
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Oud Frets?
The oud that I am proposing to restore as a thread in the Oud Project Forum - "Restoration of an Egyptian Oud - Part 1" has a fingerboard and
fingerboard extension inlaid to represent - it would seem to me - fret positions (although there is no sign on the neck of the oud that tied frets
were ever employed on this instrument. I suspect that the inlays are just decorative but do not know for sure as I have no knowledge of Arabic musical
scales.
Your comments and observations would be greatly appreciated.
Here, for information, are the measured positions of the "fret" inlays from the front edge of the nut:
fret 1 - 35 mm
fret 2 - 67 mm
fret 3 - 97 mm
fret 4 - 121 mm
fret 5 - 153 mm
fret 6 - 178 mm
fret 7 - 201 mm
fret 8 - 223 mm
fret 9 - 245 mm
fret 10 - 265 mm
fret 11 - 284 mm
fret 12 - 301 mm
fret 13 - 317 mm
fret 14 - 332 mm
Top edge of soundhole - 358 mm
Vibrating string length - front edge of nut to front edge of bridge - 622 mm
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excentrik
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those are purely decorative: the space betwine the frets do not correspond to any notes (unless coincidentally). -
-tarik
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jdowning
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I agree - they certainly don't conform with any Western scaling for, say, a guitar.
I wonder why this decoration was chosen by the maker. Is it unique to this instrument or is it a design that might determine the region where the oud
was made?
I understand that - rarely - there were some fretted ouds still being played in fairly recent times (?). Is this one of them or are the "frets" on
this oud just decorative also? (image of Reyad Sunbati)
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adamgood
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that's really strange well, some of them are really close though. but it seems if you played those locations as pitches, the higher you go up the
neck, the more flat the pitches will be, more out of tune. I'm comparing the numbers to what i get if i plug in 622mm to my amazing fret locator
spreadsheet that my friend made for me, to position frets on my tanbur.
3rd fret by the way is almost dead on, only .25mm too flat if you measured correctly.
adam
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adamgood
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and by the way, my chart uses pythagorean tuning which i assume is not what is used for tuning intervals in Arabic music.
adam
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Jason
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As a guitarist that would drive me CRAZY hehe
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SamirCanada
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Ouds dont have frets... whatsoever
that oud held by sunbati may have had inlays to ressemble frets but they arent. Its probably a nahat oud aswell.
If you look arround you can find older discussions on that topic.
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jdowning
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I guess what I had in mind when I referred to fretted ouds being played in recent times was the fretted variety of the oud arbi mentioned by al-Halabi
a year ago in the interesting thread "Ouds and Frets" - not that this instrument is much like a Middle Eastern oud by all accounts (does anyone have a
picture of the oud arbi?)
So it is certain then that the fingerboard inlays are simply decorative and do not represent 'real' fret positions - just to look like frets for some
reason. The upper "fret" locations do get progressively foreshortened according to Western scaling so the 12th "fret position" which should be close
to half the vibrating string length of 622 mm - ie 311 mm from the front edge of the nut - is only 301 mm.
As a fretted instrument player that scaling would drive me crazy too!!
John
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