billkilpatrick - 8-24-2004 at 12:12 AM
just bought a cheapy off of ebay in germany. it's small, 5 course, turkish made (i believe) and has had some repair work done.
i was thinking of adapting it to something more suitable for medieval european music by replacing the 5c. bridge with a 4c. bridge.
is there anything to be gained (in terms of increased volume) from placing a thin strip of bone, vertically in the bridge?
thank you for any advice - bill
chuckerbutty - 8-24-2004 at 09:53 AM
Hi Bill
Do you mean a saddle as in a classical guitar bridge? I'm not sure about acoustics, but I imagine it would make a difference to the intonation,
but with the oud being a fretless instrument, I don't know whether this will be an issue.
The other thing is that European lutes, like ouds, don't have saddles. However, no medieval lutes have survived, so it's hard to be dogmatic
about this. Also the late medieval lute would generally have been a 5-course, not a 4-course instrument.
billkilpatrick - 8-24-2004 at 10:09 AM
greetings -
it's just an idea. i would love to have a real, grown-up, 5c. (preferably) medieval lute but funds do not permit it.
i think the saddle is precicely what i mean. i imagined it would cause more acute vibrations in the sound board and crank up the volume a bit.
i suppose i could risk a limb and wrestle one of the bones away from the dog(s), file it down and simply place so that the strings rest on it as they
exit the normal bridge. might give an idea of what it would sound like.
i'll let you know.
ciao - bill
Elie Riachi - 8-24-2004 at 05:04 PM
Hi Bill,
My guess is it would help in fixing the scale length to be mor consistant between restringing, but may actually reduce the volume a little and may be
even change the tone slightly. Just a guess...
Elie