Mike's Oud Forums

"Master Ahmet" ouds?

Neuraxial - 6-11-2020 at 12:19 AM

Does anyone know anything about who (really) makes the "Master Ahmet" ouds?

I read in another thread that it's a marketing name
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=18250#pid118954

These seem to be mostly entry level ouds, but there is one made of wenge and with nice looking rosettes that does not sound too badly.

See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlA3oMRwnsw

Any idea?

Thanks in advance!

kampanas - 6-16-2020 at 06:19 AM

So I've been trying to find out the same thing, so far it seems that "Master Ahmet" refers to ouds made under the 'Alto' brand - a combination of Vefa Aldemir and Ahmet Topan. Aldemir + Topan = Alto. Now, I want to know if anyone has ever bought one of these ouds and can share their opinion on the sound, quality and playability. The Master Ahmet ouds listed by ethnic musical look suspiciously like ouds sold by sala music, take a look at these links:

https://www.ethnicmusical.com/shop/turkish-oud-maple-and-mahogany/
https://salamuzik.com/collections/turkish-oud/products/turkish-mahog...

It may be that Sala order from the Alto factory and re-label the ouds with the Sala name, but I'm just speculating. I'd love to play one of these ouds at some point and see for myself.

If you want, have a look at Ahmet Topan's Facebook page, there's a few pictures of the factory and some videos of his ouds:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014556736769

Jason - 6-16-2020 at 12:02 PM

Ethnicmusical claims to have a shop in Izmir where their higher priced ouds are built. Sala seems to have a wider variety of instruments, some of them by known makers.

I'd agree that the lower priced ouds are probably all coming from the same, or very similar, shops in Turkey.

Neuraxial - 6-17-2020 at 03:51 AM

Thanks, that is really helpful and good to know. Some of these ouds look and sound pretty good.

I was very tempted to get the "master Ahmet" wenge oud I linked to above, if only for the bird motif rosettes! But, while good looking, wenge is not my favorite sounding wood, so can't comment on how the instrument performs in real life, unfrotunately.
Quote: Originally posted by kampanas  
So I've been trying to find out the same thing, so far it seems that "Master Ahmet" refers to ouds made under the 'Alto' brand - a combination of Vefa Aldemir and Ahmet Topan. Aldemir + Topan = Alto. Now, I want to know if anyone has ever bought one of these ouds and can share their opinion on the sound, quality and playability. The Master Ahmet ouds listed by ethnic musical look suspiciously like ouds sold by sala music, take a look at these links:

https://www.ethnicmusical.com/shop/turkish-oud-maple-and-mahogany/
https://salamuzik.com/collections/turkish-oud/products/turkish-mahog...

It may be that Sala order from the Alto factory and re-label the ouds with the Sala name, but I'm just speculating. I'd love to play one of these ouds at some point and see for myself.

If you want, have a look at Ahmet Topan's Facebook page, there's a few pictures of the factory and some videos of his ouds:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014556736769

coolsciguy - 6-17-2020 at 04:02 AM

I just received my master Ahmet oud from ethnicmusical yesterday.

https://www.ethnicmusical.com/shop/shami-oud-black-walnut/

My first impression is that the Oud is well made, clean, and for the price, it sounds fine. I haven't played much with it yet, will report back with the sound quality.

Compared to the Zeryab oud that I recently got from Mike's shop, the Ahmet oud is smaller in size and weaker in build, but this was expected as the price was less by 30-40%.

The Ahmet oud certainly looks appealing, but we shall see if it keeps the shape in a few years.


Update: the sound volume is naturally not as intense as my Zeryab; and it sounds a little Turkish and not the deep Arabic sound that one would expect.