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Recording of Abdo Nahat playing one of his ouds!

Jameel - 9-25-2008 at 06:09 PM

Okay okay, I admit, I don't have a recording to share of the great master luthier. But seriously, wouldn't that be something?

I haven't been reading too many posts lately here, and as I sat down this evening to catch up a little, it seems there is some "extra content" lately that I'm simply bored with. You old members know what I'm talking about. So the idea of a recording of Abdo Nahat popped into my head. I think that would be something. How about even a picture of the man holding one of his ouds, or of ANY Nahat, other than a label shot? Seems like an impossibility at this point. But still, it would be fun to see.

So in the interest of talking about ouds, I'll post a few pictures of one I've been working on for the past few weeks. Nothing super fancy here, but it's an oud nonetheless.

Jameel - 9-25-2008 at 06:12 PM

side shot. Who can guess the wood species?

Jameel - 9-25-2008 at 06:16 PM

Close up showing the rosette material. It's walnut plywood.

Jameel - 9-25-2008 at 06:17 PM

The front of the shamsa.

Jameel - 9-25-2008 at 06:19 PM

Video of trimming the end of the neck block. I love sharp, well-tuned planes. Effortless.

Video

Mike - 9-25-2008 at 06:21 PM

Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Way to go Jameelo! Man, there's something about the dark rosette with bone middle. Very classy.

DaveH - 9-25-2008 at 11:51 PM

See this is just what we're talking about! These fly-by-night dodgy oud sellers trying to pass off their wares as the works of the great masters.

(JUST KIDDING!!)

It's mahogany isn't it? (So don't try and tell us it's 100% macassar ebony, harvested only from branches 70ft up by specially trained lemurs and seasoned in secret volcanic caves for 50 years).

Jonathan - 9-26-2008 at 05:50 AM

sapelle?

SamirCanada - 9-26-2008 at 06:17 AM

Hey Jameel!!
NICE rosette man. this is going to be a classic stunner!

I think its the Oreo cookie factor Mike :P

wood material.
i know the answer to that one but you guys are not even close!!
lol

Monawar Al-Jabar - 9-26-2008 at 06:25 AM

:bounce:

GeorgeK - 9-26-2008 at 06:33 AM

Hi Jameel,

Thats a stunning bowl and rosette!! I'd love to see more pictures as this
project unfolds.

As for wood species, how about .... Makore?

mavrothis - 9-26-2008 at 06:50 AM

Beautiful work Jameel! Great stuff as always!

My guess is cocobolo, b/c I've seen some samples of it that resemble this. But please tell us, tell us! That's a cool look.

I love these kinds of threads!

Take care,

mavrothis

SamirCanada - 9-26-2008 at 06:56 AM

oh Mav your getting colder with wood material.
all of you are way off on this one

this is fun actualy!! its going to go a long way in beating out the prejudice towards some woods.

i will let Jameel make the surprise.

carpenter - 9-26-2008 at 10:28 AM

The old Bait and Switch, eh? Love it.

Good looking bowl and rosette, although insider information prevents me from entering the contest. However, I did find this photo of Abdo's little-known Finnish great-uncle:

GeorgeK - 9-26-2008 at 10:46 AM

OK, I'm changing my guess (I do get 3 guesses right :shrug:

)
My new guess is Butternut ... ok, whats the prize

Peyman - 9-26-2008 at 10:50 AM

it's delicious mahogany

SamirCanada - 9-26-2008 at 11:40 AM

nobody won this yet!
keep scratching your heads.
I know I was really wondering before Jameel told me.
and I was shocked and surprised when i found out what it was.

keep guessing

jdowning - 9-26-2008 at 12:20 PM

Looks like a 13 stave lute bowl to me - nice, natural fluting of the ribs! Are you going to leave it like this Jameel?

Jonathan - 9-26-2008 at 12:28 PM

Its kind of hard to tell from the pics, and not knowing how heavy the thing is.
But, let's go out on a limb:
teak or bamboo

Peyman - 9-26-2008 at 12:32 PM

Yea, Jon might be right. It could be red oak.

Jonathan - 9-26-2008 at 12:33 PM

Jeez, I deleted the oak part of my post. Maybe.

Jameel - 9-26-2008 at 01:43 PM

Keep guessing guys....I'm loving this!

)

Jassim - 9-26-2008 at 02:00 PM

the wood for the sound box is mahogny

samzayed - 9-26-2008 at 02:41 PM

When I first saw it, I thought walnut... (but the grain and color looks like mahogany)... The color also reminds of Brazillian rosewood...

I won't be surprised if its some new high tech material you found, and its not even wood!! Hahaha LOL Looks like wood, smells like wood, but better durability and 1000% improvement in tone???

Peyman - 9-26-2008 at 03:18 PM

is this a trick question? He said "species" so maybe we can't use the common names. It's Swietenia macrophylla (thanks to wikipedia).

Jameel - 9-26-2008 at 05:17 PM

First off, I thought this would be an easy one! I guessed wrong. You guys need to bone up on your wood species identification.

Oak? Sorry Peyman. Not even close. First off, I wouldn't make an oud from oak. Where I live, red oak is everywhere, and used to make the cheapest, ugliest "country" style furniture.

Not mahogany. Not sapelle. Nope, not makore either. Teak? nah. Bamboo? Come on, Johnathan, mister "pink ivory", you've gotta do better than that!

No, it's not a trick question. And no, it's definitely NOT Brazilian Rosewood. Can't afford the stuff. And it's not high tech Sam!

And it's not 13 ribs either. It's 15. And yes, I'm planning not to round the ribs. I like the faceting.

Abdo had an uncle in Finland? Figures. There's always that one oddball uncle...

So, the prize goes to.......(even though he wasn't very decisive in his choice!).........Sam! It's walnut!

Seriously guys, this is some beautiful walnut I scored from an old farmer. It's been sitting in his barn for at least 30 years. The grain is beautiful, and the color is incredible. Most of the walnut you see is kind of a ashen brown, especially if it's been kiln dried, or worse yet, steamed. This is air-dried walnut. It has a such a rich red color, I just love it. The sunlight helps to bring out the beautiful color. For me, it's hard to beat walnut for ouds. It's easy to work, sounds good, looks great, it's lightweight, hard enough, but not too hard. It's hard to look for other woods when I have wood of this quality available. I have another billet just like this. It's about 4" square, so I can get all the ribs for a bowl cut sequentially from the same billet (bowls look great with all the ribs in sequence) with enough left over for the pegbox.

Thanks for playing my little game. It was a lot of fun! :applause:

samzayed - 9-26-2008 at 05:37 PM

Walnut was my first guess... but then I thought, that's too easy... Next contest, I will be more decisive... This was my first wood guessing contest, so I must have been a little nervous

Hahaha LOL

:xtreme:

Jonathan - 9-26-2008 at 06:57 PM

That's stinks. I'm with Sam. The only reason I guessed the bizarre stuff was because of Samir's comments.

Peyman - 9-27-2008 at 07:28 AM

I didn't know walnut could turn that red. Nice stuff. Cool inlay too.

jdowning - 9-27-2008 at 11:55 AM

Well, the consolation is that it is often difficult to determine the species of wood from only the external appearance - more detailed, microscopic examination of the cell structure is required to be certain.
I have some Black (American) Walnut that is a deep purple in colouration but suspect that this would change to a more modest brown colour when exposed to light and becomes oxidised. Indian Rosewood that I have in stock in log form is a deep purple but (sadly) I know will eventually turn brown when cut into fingerboards or whatever. Is there any way to preserve the purple colour - I suspect not.

Jameel - did you cut your rib stock 'on the quarter' or is it 'slab cut'. I have always cut rib stock on the quarter to obtain the best figuring and stability but am interested to know if slab cut stock is generally used by oud makers. Slab cutting might produce a more pronounced fillet or faceting of the rib section than quarter cut - but I don't know.

Jason - 9-27-2008 at 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jdowning
Well, the consolation is that it is often difficult to determine the species of wood from only the external appearance - more detailed, microscopic examination of the cell structure is required to be certain.
I have some Black (American) Walnut that is a deep purple in colouration but suspect that this would change to a more modest brown colour when exposed to light and becomes oxidised. Indian Rosewood that I have in stock in log form is a deep purple but (sadly) I know will eventually turn brown when cut into fingerboards or whatever. Is there any way to preserve the purple colour - I suspect not.

It would be interesting to see an oud built with a purpleheart fingerboard. I have a bass w/ a purpleheart board that I really love. It does darken over time but it is a very unique looking wood.

Jameel - 9-28-2008 at 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jdowning
Jameel - did you cut your rib stock 'on the quarter' or is it 'slab cut'. I have always cut rib stock on the quarter to obtain the best figuring and stability but am interested to know if slab cut stock is generally used by oud makers. Slab cutting might produce a more pronounced fillet or faceting of the rib section than quarter cut - but I don't know.

Yes, it's quartered. Flat sawn is probably stronger, but I like the looks of the quartered face better, much more subtle. And I figure its strong enough. I don't think there's a uniform practice quartered vs. flat. I've seen both.

Peyman - 9-28-2008 at 10:16 AM

I am superstitious with numbers. I am glad you went with 15 and not 13!

More pics

Jameel - 10-7-2008 at 03:03 PM

Just about got this one wrapped up. These simple ones go much faster than the fancy ones.

beard detail

Jameel - 10-7-2008 at 03:41 PM

this is kingwood (rosewood) and holly

Jameel - 10-7-2008 at 03:42 PM

label

Peyman - 10-7-2008 at 04:11 PM

Classy all the way!

SamirCanada - 10-7-2008 at 06:07 PM

Ooh.. Aahh....

nice!!

mavrothis - 10-7-2008 at 07:11 PM

Bravo! Beautiful work!

mavrothis

francis - 10-8-2008 at 01:56 AM

I entirely agree with "classy all the way".
I add "Jameel aux doigts d'or".
It's always a great pleasure to watch your nice an subtil work, Jameel....and to dream one day, may be......

Francis

Melbourne - 10-8-2008 at 02:54 AM

Ok.....first in best dressed!

Whenever Jameel decides to sell this one - I put in the first call

Who is this guy in the photo?

ALAMI - 10-8-2008 at 03:36 AM

It is Jameel without the beard, he put it on the oud face

Simple and classy, I love it.

BTW don't miss Jameel Blog, some beautiful pics and lot of infos there..

GeorgeK - 10-8-2008 at 06:00 AM

Simply stunning. I'm in awe of your work.

Faladel - 10-8-2008 at 07:39 AM

Dear Jameel :
very nice , please more pics.
of whom is it this photo Jameel???? it is of someone of your family or chosen at random ???

Jameel - 10-8-2008 at 07:57 AM

Thanks guys. One thing about my camera, it has a wide angle lens, so it squishes the shape of the oud. This is same bowl as Mike's oud, so you can get an idea. The single hole also makes it look more squatty and smaller.

The picture is of my great grandfather, Salim Ibrahim Khalaf. That photo is probably from before 1910. It's my little tribute to him. Other times I put in a picture of my grandfather, who has the same class and style that I could never match.

Jason - 10-8-2008 at 08:38 AM

That looks great Jameel

I think it's time to quit the day job so you can start producing enough ouds for all of us!

Faladel - 10-8-2008 at 09:35 AM

wow Jameel you have thrilled me for the memory to your grandfather :applause:

Gluing in the rose

Jameel - 10-19-2008 at 04:31 PM

I took a few shots of gluing in a rosette after the face is attached. On new ouds I've always glued these on from the inside, before the face is glued. But there are some real advantages to doing this last, after the oud is done. Being able to adjust bracing or correct a loose brace end, or even scribble the serial # onto the label (something I forgot to do on this oud, but just remembered as I'm writing this!). Yep, I think I'll be doing it this way from now on.

I cut a notch in the edge of the rose just wider than the thickness of the face, then remove a little material from the opposite edge of the rose. This allows the rose to slip in nice and easy. I tie five loops of strings to the rose. The center loop is large, and acts as a handle for pulling the rose up to the face. The other four are placed at 4 equidistant locations and tied to a strong area of the design. I use Franklin liquid hide glue for gluing the rose (it's strong enough for this, and is the only place on an oud where I'll use this not-as-strong glue) since it's tricky to get everything in place before hot hide would gel. I suppose the face could be heated with iron to re-melt the glue, but my iron isn't exactly super clean! I run a small bead of glue all around the rose, I don't want much, if any squeeze-out. The glue isn't on the rose in this picture. I can't glue, and run the camera at the same time!

After I apply the glue I insert the rose, trying not get glue on the face as I insert it. Once it's in I grab the middle loop and pull the rose up snugly against the face, making sure it's in the correct position.

Then I slip in a couple small bars of wood, about 8mm square through the small loops. I cut and remove the center loop so I don't accidentally catch myself on it and risk breaking the rose.

I run some wedges under each side of the bars and this draws the rose tightly to the face while the glue dries. I leave the wedges on for an hour or so, then remove them. I cut the strings and pull them out gently. There is usually some dried glue around the edges and it's easily removed with a small chisel or scraper.

Christian1095 - 10-19-2008 at 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jason
That looks great Jameel

I think it's time to quit the day job so you can start producing enough ouds for all of us!

I'll second that... The rosette is absolutly beautiful. If I could ask, what does it say? (sorry, I don't read much Arabic)

SamirCanada - 10-19-2008 at 07:59 PM

Nice idea with the wedges!

Its way more adjustable then the usual rectangle bar that you twist up way

less of a chance to dent the face this way too.