Mike's Oud Forums

Newbie to Ouds, Would Love Some Help/Advice

SicilianArmenian - 4-1-2020 at 07:24 PM

Hi everyone, I am really confused and lost in terms of what to do buying my first Oud. I would like to buy a Turkish/Armenian/Greek style Oud. My question is related to how to get the best quality instrument for my budget, which is from 500-1000 dollars. I see two websites that have Turkish ouds in stock, EthnicMusical.com and Salamuzik.com. For example,

https://www.ethnicmusical.com/shop/professional-turkish-oud-by-maste...

Do these websites have good ouds, or is it better for me to buy one second hand or on ebay? I really have no idea what to do because I don't want to waste my money but I am anxious to start playing. Thank you for any help you can offer :wavey:

Brian Prunka - 4-2-2020 at 10:07 AM

If you can find a good quality second-hand oud you can often get a higher quality for the price, but depending where you live this may not be true or even an option. Turkey has gotten very efficient at shipping good quality ouds around the world so prices are pretty good for what you get.

A lot of the ouds on ebay are from Ethnic Musical and Sala anyway. I have no experience with Ethnicmusical.com but bought a riq from Sala and was happy with the service and quality. I'd expect that any of their ouds marked "professional" are probably quite nice.

I glanced at ebay, this one seems nice:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Quality-Turkish-Oud-Premium-Wenge-Wood-by-M... :DwUAAOSwpXFdYmzQ

As does this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TURKISH-PROFESSIONAL-HANDMADE-PREMIUM-OUD-F...

ChanningPDX - 4-2-2020 at 04:14 PM

Kamil Gül's ouds have received some favorable reviews on Youtube. I think I noticed something from Fadel (a fellow forum member) relatively recently that was pretty complimentary of one of his recent Arabic-tuned ouds. For your price range, it'd probably be a relatively safe bet.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the ouds by "Master Ahmet" on the Ethnicmusical site are sometimes also known as Alto ouds. If so, they're not at all bad (my first teacher had one in fact), especially if set up well with good strings, but I'd try to get something a bit better if possible.

There's also this nice used Ramazan Calay oud in New Jersey, but it's a bit higher than your price range: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-Pre-owned-Turkish-Oud-Ud-with-...

For Turkish ouds, Ramazan is one of the best out there, but frankly, for just a little more than that price, you could just about get a new one from him. This one does have the benefit of already being in the States if you happen to be in North America as well, at least.

The one other maker I'd strongly consider is Bülent Eryalman in Izmir. When I checked in with him a couple of years ago, his standard model ouds (walnut or mahogany bowl) were about $900. That's an excellent deal for a very, very good quality instrument. If I were you and looking for my first Turkish oud, this is probably what I'd go with.

Oy, just thinking all this has me salivating. I currently have two ouds--an absolutely wonderful Turkish oud by Ali Nişadır and a decent Arabic oud by Zeryab. I (and, perhaps more importantly, my wife) thought that two ouds would be more than enough, but now I'd really love to get another Turkish one so that I can have one with the bass strings tuned high to old Turkish/Armenian tuning and one with the bass strings tuned low for modern Turkish tuning... I'll warn you now, these things are highly addictive.

Best of luck with your search! Let us know what you get!

Brian Prunka - 4-3-2020 at 09:10 AM

Yeah, the "Master Ahmet" I figured was a moniker for sales purposes, but it's pretty inexpensive and seemed like a pretty nice oud for that price range—the construction looks good and it sounded very good in the video.

One of my students has an Ali Nisadir oud and it's really very nice. He appears to be on instagram, not sure how easy it is to buy from him online.
Faruk Turunz ouds are great (though there was some issue with his workshop a few years ago and I'm not sure what the situation is nowadays).
Also Veysel Sarikus ouds are really nice in my experience.

Good ouds for sale by forum members turn up with some regularity, so if you can be patient you might find a a great deal here on the forum.

That Ramazan Calay oud looks really nice and in my experience a used oud is a better choice than a new one in most cases—it says it was made in 2009 and "renewed" by Calay in 2019 so I'd expect that 1) the sound has opened up with age and playing 2) any settling of the face/bowl/neck has already occurred and the oud is probably quite stable 2) any issues with the settling in were addressed by Calay in 2019.

I wish Turkish makers would stop putting turtle shell on their ouds though. Be advised that you would not legally be able to travel internationally with an oud that has tortoiseshell on it.

It's much much easier to get a good Turkish oud than a good Arabic oud so you really have a lot of options in that price range.

ChanningPDX - 4-3-2020 at 12:15 PM

Very good points about the Calay oud, Brian. Hadn't thought about that. I'd be sorely tempted to buy it myself if I had the money right now.

Ali Nişadır is on Instagram and Facebook. When I was looking for my first oud, he told me that a new oud from him would be about $1,500 with a hard case and shipping to the USA. That was out of my price range, and I was about to order an oud from Bülent Eryalman when a used Nişadır oud came up for sale in the US for $900. As much as used ouds on eBay should be approached with extreme caution, this one turned out to be a great deal. (An experienced Turkish oud player advised me to snap it up immediately. I'm glad I took his advice.)

If you see any other ouds that catch your eye on eBay, I'm sure multiple people here would be happy to offer their opinions.

One tiny caveat about Faruk Türünz's reduced price ouds: the price quoted on his website is $1,300, which is a spectacular deal for the quality of his instruments. However, that does not include DHL shipping and a deluxe hard case that he requires for orders to North America. The total price I was quoted was $1850, I think. Still a relatively good deal for what might be the only oud you ever need in your life, but at that price point, you'd have a ton of other good options as well.

Jody Stecher - 4-5-2020 at 05:45 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Al3Oud  
Hello SicilianArmeniani, I assume you are in the US. If so, perhaps you ought to also consider paying a custom (Duty and taxes to import), if you decide to buy an Oud from Turkey. Not sure what the import Tariffs are in the US for buying an Oud from Turkey!


Import duty/tax etc is entirely up to the whim of the customs officer. It may be $30, $3, $300, or nothing at all. Country of origin is irrelevant. Intrinsic value is irrelevant. Age of the instrument may be relevant as there should be no duty on an instrument over 100 years old. There is no consistency at all. This may not be the official rules but that is how it actually is.