Mike's Oud Forums

Check a soundboard sinking on floating bridge oud

Kerjiji - 10-22-2015 at 09:01 AM

I have searched on the forum and I didn't find the answer to this question :
How to check that the sinking of the soundboard (spruce) on a floating bridge oud (57cm scale, 5 courses) is "normal" please?
The oud is a 7 yr old Belhaiba oud.

Is a 2 mm sinking a the level of the bridge normal?

Is there a way (or ways) to measure the sinking? and which would be the max value of it please?
(When tuned in "c"? or "f"?)

Thanks

hamed - 10-24-2015 at 05:42 PM

Kerjiji,

I did some research on this a few yrs ago and found that this is very common and unavoidable on floating bridge ouds.

Check out this thread :
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=12473&p...

Note that the oud you are considering buying is of higher qualiy than the one i was selling, Khaled Belhaiba is a talented luthier with a great reputation. I found that a slighlty sunken bridge was easier to play since your risha will never hit the face, just be mindful of any buzzing while playing in higher positions. If there is any buzzing , you can always raise the bridge which is very easy to do.

Hope this helps.