Mike's Oud Forums

Drop tuning on old Ouds

kampanas - 7-27-2021 at 11:57 AM

I'm familiar with tuning down on older and larger scale Arabic ouds, but is there a reason for low tuning on old Turkish/Greek/Armenian ouds?

I've noticed in a few videos of antique instruments restored by Tasos and Dimitris that the ouds are tuned down sometimes up to two steps below Turkish standard tuning. What's the reason for this? Are the instruments larger or frailer because of age? or were they made for these tunings?