- quality of build and attention to details: my Zeryab sounds like what I was expecting and feels good around the neck, so I am currently satisfied
by this purchase and am overall glad I bought it. I went for this model based on my friend's recommendations (he works for a famous shop in europe,
they sell a lot of middle-eastern instruments year round, and often are visited by professional performers, who all say that model in particular is a
notch above its price range) So, again, I like this oud and have no regrets. This said, as someone used to buying guitars and hand drums, I have to
admit that the "finish" quality is definitely not what a guitar owner would expect from a 800 USD instrument. In guitar terms, I'd say this looks like
a 200-300 USD range guitars from mexico or Indonesia. It also doesn't look "new", and if I tried to sell it as such in Japan around its tag price,
literally nobody would believe it's new (lol) Now, from buying multiple drums from the middle-east, I know it seems to be a typical issue, since
literally all my drums came in looking "used", and decorative parts often look B-grade. (sorry if I'm offending anyone's culture, that is not at all
my goal, but simple observation as an international customer)
I'm rationalizing this phenomenon by assuming that there must be a big gap between buying-locally-as-a-native quality Versus
buying-abroad-as-a-foreign-customer. I get it.
This is just my observation, but if I had to put a price tag on this oud, I'd say "this can't be more than 400 dollars", which is probably what the
shop owner pays as a wholesaler.
For 800 dollars, I'd expect the craft team to at least remove wood chips from inside the body, and at least some proper filing/polishing around the
peg holes, some of which were chipped off at the tip. But again, it sounds great, the neck feels good, so I'm satisfied.
My question is, how much does one have to invest to reach the next level of quality when purchasing a second oud?
I'm in no hurry of course, but I have always enjoyed taking my time saving up money to buy nice tools that make me happy. And when I buy a "better"
oud, I'd like to avoid this price/build quality gap.
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