birmingham
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Registered: 11-14-2007
Location: AL, USA
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Left-Handed Oud
I'm a musician thats been playing fretted instruments left-handed for years now and I've been looking into buying an oud. I was wondering if there is
any reason (with the bridge or nut or whatever) that I wouldn't be able to just restring an oud upside-down? All help/advice is appreciated. Thanks.
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carpenter
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Why not? The bracing is symmetrical, not like a fiddle with the bass bar - the big deal would be the nut notches, and the strings pinching and/or
slopping and buzzing around in their new homes. Check that, and the action/bridge ties.
Other than that, I'd say go for it! (One Man's Opinion) ... and good luck. Others may have Real World experience ... I'm guessing here.
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SamirCanada
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as far as I know the following issues are the ones you need to concider.
the first peg will be in the way and you will hit it unitentionaly which can be frustrating.
you can devellop a technique to avoid it but its not recomended.
the notches for the trebgle strings might not be wide enough to accomodate the bass strings.
can be corected easily.
and also you can have high end ouds that have assimetrical bracings to promote ideal frequency in which you will not get the best potential sound.
good news is most makers will accomodate making you a left handed oud.
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carpenter
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<< the first peg will be in the way and you will hit it unitentionaly which can be frustrating.>>
Oh, yeah - there's that. Still ... be careful, and win!
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Raby
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the bridge on the bass side have just 1 hole on the first string ! It will be difficult to make another hole there ! But i think some oud have 2 holes
, but not alls have !
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Jason
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Raby
the bridge on the bass side have just 1 hole on the first string ! It will be difficult to make another hole there ! But i think some oud have 2 holes
, but not alls have ! |
I have an oud with 2 holes in the bridge but only one slot at the nut 
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Brian Prunka
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If your pegbox has space for 12 pegs, you can just take out the first one, and shift all the strings to the next peg. then you have plenty of room to
play without bumping your hand. from what little I know of bracing (very little!), it seems like it would work better on Arabic ouds--almost every
turkish oud I've seen has asymmetrical bracing.
If possible, the string holes should all be redrilled for optimum positioning. The nut will definitely need to be reslotted (preferably replaced).
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ericjs
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Is there a reason not to simply switch around the pegs, so that you use the same holes but insert each peg from the opposite side? I cannot seen any
difference in the hole sizes on each side on my oud, but perhaps that is because it is a cheap one.
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