charlie oud
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Oud sound, a "nutty" observation
Has anyone noticed this.Ive noticed the open string sound is strongly influenced by the "nut" material. Bone gives a harder clearer tone, more
metalic. Semi hard would a warmer more mellow tone and hard wood, a sound midway between the two. I was recently studying a Rahim Alhaj cd "When the
soul is settled". He tunes up a semitone, so instead of tuning higher I put a regular Dunlop capo on 1st position, the sound of the hard rubber
pressing the string against the fingerboard gave a really warm sound to the open strings, more like stopped notes but with sustain and clarity. Nuts
make a difference eh?  what do you think ?
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Dr. Oud
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The difference between two different ouds cannot be attributed to any material of any part other than the soundboard. The nut imparts no sound
characteristic anyway, it merely holds the strings in place. The differene you notice between the capo and the top nut is the dampening effect when
the strings are held against the fingerboard, rather than in the open position where the strings are spaced above the fingerboard. The fingerboard
hardness can affect the tone somewhat as well.
As for Rahim's tuning, it may be the oud's preference or his or the recording speed that accounts for the variation.
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DaveH
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I've noticed this too. My ghadban has an ebony nut. I assumed the softer material damped transmission of the vibrations slightly and was used so that
there was less of a difference between the sound of open and stopped strings than there would be if you used hard bone or ivory.
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michoud
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I think diferent material on nut, can change the sound of the instrument.I made some baroque guitars and other old instruments, and I try the same
instrument with diferent nuts(bone, ebony,walnut) and you can hear diference sound, and clear or darker tone. also I made another bone nut for my
Samir Azar oud, and now is diferent, is more clear than the wood nute.
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carpenter
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<< there was less of a difference between the sound of open and stopped strings than there would be if you used hard bone or ivory >>
I've kind of noticed that - thought it was my imagination. I've made an ebony nut first (a little easier workability) before committing to bone - just
to make certain of action, spacing, etc. - and actually have liked the tone better. (I'm a huge fretless banjo fan also, for what that's worth)
One Man's Opinion is that most of the notes seem to be fingered, so the nut material may be kind of a minimal concern - other than from a looks or
tradition standpoint. (Lots of stuff seems to be based on looks trumping tone/playability/integrity, but that my just be me.)
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charlie oud
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Thanks for the responses. Doc, I was'nt talking about two different ouds. I meant the sound of an open string on a single oud and the influence of the
nut material on the sound of that open string.
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Tkoind
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Nut material seems to impact our instruments too. I swapped out a plastic nut on a Zhong Ruan for a wood one. The sound became a lot warmer without
loss in other areas. We've found the same to be true of bridge material for other lutes. Some topped with harder wood sound quite different than those
with softer materials.
There must be something to this as the sound board remains the same, but the tone changes with these changes.
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MatthewW
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greetings lads, I'm not sure what differences the material of your oud's nut gives to the final sounds coming forth from your oud, though I thought it
would add something depending on the material. It would be interesting to compare sounds on similiar ouds with nuts made of different materials and
see if any differences are there, but then there is the fact that no two ouds are exactly alike. Guitar players seem to feel that the material of ones
nut does effect the sound, and you'll even find some electric guitar players using metal nuts saying they help give the sound they are after. Nowadays
there are some very good high quality plastic nuts on the market. 
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Oud Freak
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| Quote: | Originally posted by michoud
I think diferent material on nut, can change the sound of the instrument.I made some baroque guitars and other old instruments, and I try the same
instrument with diferent nuts(bone, ebony,walnut) and you can hear diference sound, and clear or darker tone. also I made another bone nut for my
Samir Azar oud, and now is diferent, is more clear than the wood nute. |
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Are we nuts?!
Well I happen to read this thread by coincidence and I would definitely like to confirm what you say. A friend of mine has a nice sukkar oud with a
walnut nut. with time the nut was getting used and "tired". He took it to someone who replaced it by a bone nut. The sound really varied and became
more consistent, more balanced. I wasn't expecting such a difference.
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