My latest....

I am truly speechless!!

I love everything about it.. The color arrangement of light and shadow is amazing!!

Wonderful job Jameel, your work is impressive!

jameel please stop building your ouds are ugly and basicly i have no words for you .

dude just playing , i love your style its amazign and the sounds gets better and better. I love the one hole and everything , i really do mate.
Cant wait for the next oud lol.

thx sammy

Jameel

Don't knock your playing, I know why you say such a thing but you should respect your talent more ... really you should!!

The sound of that oud is really something - I don't say that lightly.

You should be really proud - who have you made it for BTW

Best wishes

Leon

Thanks everyone! But the gushing comments must stop! How am I supposed to improve?

Faruk, your words are dearly appreciated.

I think the sound quality of this oud is very nice so far (about three days with strings on). The treble, especially the g (that blasted g course!!) needs to fill in a bit. I also have very light gauge on that course (.029), so a little tweaking may be in order. I think in a couple years of steady playing it will be a great one. At least I'm hoping for it. A forum member asked me to make this oud over a year ago. I'll let him talk about if he chooses to.

Another triumph!

Jameel your work continues to amaze - I'm really enjoying the sandwich top oud. I play it almost every day – is this one another sandwich top?

beautiful.

what are the specs on this one Jameel?

Hi Jameel

This is meant in the kindest way speaking for myself, my comments are not made with any sense of glib, gratuitous gushing compliments. You don't get better just by having your deficiencies pointed out but also what you do well ... you knocked your playing so I thought I would redress the balance a little to help you on your way

Speaking personally I have found there is even more of an art to taking and receiving well than there is to giving. Now if only you would stop making these blessed ouds you might have more time to practice

Please don't change a thing!!

Leon

Pics of the latest

Thanks everyone. This one is impressing me with it's sound. I'm really satisfied with it. Not too much sustain, or overtones, but a clean, balanced, Arabic sound. I think it might be the best one yet. Time will tell. Here are some nice pics we took earlier this week. Walnut was used for most of the oud, with rosewood for the fingerboard, pickguard and peg heads. White parts are ivory. The beard inlay is holly.

The pegs are Chuck Herin's Pegheds. You can read more about them on the Khalaf Oud Blog. I love them. They really do look nice on an oud, and they work amazingly well. They aren't cheap (about $250 per dozen), but I think they are worth it. I'm seriously considering installing these on my subsequent instruments. I like them that much. And they aren't heavy. Basically they are a couple pegs worth heavier than wood. I don't even notice it on this oud.

Absolutely amazing. Wow...

Astonishing craftsmanship.
Truly!

-Clayton

Well....

I guess if I wanted something different on this oud, I would have gone for more detail on the bowl, like double line separators between the ribs - and the inlays. Of course Jameel has proven very capable of achieving that - but am sure whoever commisioned this oud had a budget to stick to

Now I have no idea how much this oud, or Mike's, may have cost - but I have no doubt that this kind of work is worth every penny, because we're talking about a one man show here. And if one was to think about the amount of hours that goes into such work, the figure is always reasonable.

Oh....

Sorry to be so nosy....But I couldn't resist imagining how totally amazing this oud would look with 3 shamasi.... just wishful thinking

oud

Yeah you absolutley right with the whole raqma thing Jameel. I actually learned that the hard way - the oud which I had converted a year or so ago - I did the layout drawings and then gave them to the luthier to build. I spent hours working out where the exact location of the soudholes should be, and the raqma etc. As it turned out, I didn't like the raqma too close to the main soundhole, so I lowered it closer to the bridge, in order to give a balanced look on the face of the oud; such that it wasn't all happening in the upper hlaf of the sound borad, and the lower half looking plain. And so when the whole thing was ready to be played, I naturally found my risha plucking position about a couple of centimetres away from the pickguard leaving the cedar soundboard exposed to danger. Luckily I prefer playing in the lower registers, or maybe I just cant reach high enough!