Originally posted by Elie Riachi
"(I do not have the $125 set of nut files) since the first course and 3rd course grooves were cut too narrow at the bottom which lead to tearing
up the first and third courses' of my Aquila strings."
You don't need a full set of files, only the small round bastard. The grooves should be slightly larger that the string diameter to avoid binding
and the rear of the groove should curve gently and open to allow the string to enter the peg box without bending sharply over an edge. The front edge
of the groove should be broken or radiused to avoid binding on the windings of the wound strings. The grooves can stop short of the top edge of the
nut if you like, just be sure there are no sharp edges that the string has to pass over. The bottom of the string should be 1mm or 1/32inch above the
fingerboard. I suggest checking with the string in place in case there's a drop in the fingerboard at the top nut.
"...In conclusion:
1. The two had the same loudness at about same tension, like Dr. Oud said, loudness is a function of tension."
Loudness or volume is a result of complex factors including tension and mass of the string as well as the structure of the face. Elie's
measurements and experiments are very informative and helpful, but each oud will react differently and each player should experiment to find the best
combination of guages for each of their ouds. We should be thankful to Elie for showing us how to find those optimum string guages unless we are lucky
to have an oud that reacts well to a standard set. The better ouds will, since they are designed to, the cheap ones aren't, don't, need help
and often a lot of it. Guaging can improve these, but you know you can't polish a pig's ear ( or something like that).
"Also I noticed my oud seems to resonate best at F. Any one else made a similar observation?"
Every oud has it's favorite pitch, influenced by the player's preference, strings, mizrab and even the weather. A well made oud can be
designed for a specific pitch range, but the combination of factors will ultimately determine what that is. |