Sukar Oud Rescue

Wanted to share the Ebay oud that I purchased a few weeks ago... the cool thing is the new pegs I put on it... but I'll get to that.

So, a few weeks ago I bought an oud for $350 off of ebay from a guitar shop in FL. The oud had no label, but it's obviously a Sukar. My guess is that it's one of the ones that were sold through Arab Instruments with the label off to avoid the whole Israel/Syria import thing....

The oud "looked" ok, but the seller disclosed that there was a little lifting at the bridge and "might" need some work. Also, there was a big ugly scar under the bridge where someone had ripped off thier glued on pizieo mike... Also the pegs looked really cheap... Almost like they took a set off of a tourist oud, spray painted them black, and put them in the pegbox.

But with shipping, it seemed like an OK risk as long as the bracing was intact. Also, I had a chance to buy one of these a few years back and passed and I've been upset at myself ever since... I really like the look of the risha guard... So my investment in the instrument at this point was $375

Took it to a local luther who reset the bridge and cleaned up the soundboard where there was damage from the mike. I think he just sanded it down and then put a light oil finish on the face... A look at the bracing confirmed it was intact, so that was a relief... Cost of the repair - $175

Then I took the oud down to South Carolina (about two hours from my house) and met with a guy who makes mechanical tuners for pegged instruments. Here is his website I also got a chance to check out his shop... wow, I don't know a lot about C&C Routers, but he has a pretty impressive setup. I opted for the composite pegs for my oud. In all honesty, I held an ebony peg and a composite peg and really couldn't tell the difference between the two. They are extremely well made. The pegs ran $20 each and if you get him your instrument, he'll install for free... I was able to drop it off on Weds and since he was headed towards Charlotte the next day, I met him halfway on Thursday for delivery. I'll be taking my other ouds to him soon... It is sooo much easier to tune. If I remember correctly the ratio for the gears is 4:1... Total cost for the Pegs was $240

Once strung up, I noticed that the action was really low and I was getting a lot of string buzz... So I raised the action up a bit via the wingnut inside the oud at the neck and was good to go. Like all Sukar ouds, it has a really sweet and bassy sound... and it's LOUD (even for a Sukar oud)

So total cost into the oud - just under $800.

The pegheads were a little expensive, but I figured if I were to order ebony pegs online and then take them to a luthier, I would pay at least as much if not more... so they really seemed worth it. I'm really happy I did though because the instrument has been really easy to tune...

Here are pics....