palestine48
Oud Junkie
Posts: 448
Registered: 6-9-2004
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Mood: Free Palestine
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face caving in
In the fair recent past I posted a topic about buzzing on the string. I seem to have figured out why. My face is caving in particularly under my
floating bridge . Im assuming the tension of the 6th string tuned to C is the culprit since I have itstrung on one of the top pegs. I restrung my
oud in accordance to Mavro's website. (Not blaming Mavro) . what can i do to remedy this problem and stabalize the face. I doubt id be
willing to pay to get a new soundboard as it is a commercial oud . Just an idea to keep it stable as much as I can until i get my use out of it
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Ronny Andersson
Oud Junkie
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Registered: 8-15-2003
Location: Sweden
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I don't think it has anything to do with the tuning. The floating bridge seems to put a different stress on the soundboard and a poorly
constructed Bashir collapses within short time.
Best wishes
Ronny
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guitarplayer006
Oud Lover
Posts: 12
Registered: 10-31-2004
Location: Albuquerque New Mexico
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Hi
I'm new to the Oud but i think i might know why your strings are buzzing. I had the same problem with one of my wood guitars where the
soundboard caved in and it caused the strings to be too close to the fretboard making it buzz. THis was due to the wood drying out and it caused the
soundboard not to be flat anymore but to have it cave in like a bowl which made the bridge much lower than it should have been. a guitar humidifier
will fix this problem, they are also very cheap. I don't know if this is the nature of your problem but this would be my guess to why your
strings are buzzing.
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Jonathan
Oud Junkie
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Registered: 7-27-2004
Location: Los Angeles
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Does anybody happen to know why some oud makers purposely made the face a bit concave? I know that Karibyans from the 1960s often have the face
somewhat concave, and I have heard from several reliable people that this was done purposely by Karibyan. That is, it is not a matter of them
becoming more concave as time goes on, but that this is how they left the shop. Does anybody know the reason for this?
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Dr. Oud
Oud Junkie
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Location: Sacramento, CA, USA
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The concave face was developed by Manol, (and possibly before), and adopted by some Arabic makers as well. It is achieved by trimming the top edge of
the body down to drop the face in front of the bridge. It prevents the face from rotating around the center brace due to the torsion of the face glued
bridge. Without this configuration, the face will raise up at the lower edge of the sound hole. Some Arabic ouds are built flat, but the faces are
thicker to resist this condition. The thin faces of Turkish and some Arabic ous will distort under the string pressure causing the face to raise up
and interfere with the strings, and sometimes causing rattles or buzzing.
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Jonathan
Oud Junkie
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Registered: 7-27-2004
Location: Los Angeles
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Thanks a lot. Some how I figured you would be the one to know. Is this still common practice?
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palestine48
Oud Junkie
Posts: 448
Registered: 6-9-2004
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Thanks for the tip guys, I think guitar player might be on to something. I was speaking about it to my uncle today and he told me it is probably the
weather causing it. I live in San Francisco and we have no humidity problems. That stayes constant year round but normally our weathe is the high
60's on average but winter is coming in and weve been feeling temperatures in the low 50's. I only have a gig bag so he recommended I store
my oud in that whenever i dont use it or put a blanket over it to maintain a constant temperature as much as possible.
Do u guys know how i can use a humidifier without a hard case. My understanding is you just drop it in the hard case but I dont have one.
Thanks,
Rami
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mavrothis
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1674
Registered: 6-5-2003
Location: NJ/NYC
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Hi Rami,
I'm really sorry to hear you are having this type of problem. I really doubt that the tuning you are using is the problem, this tuning is one of
the most common. Probably if the face on your oud is caving in this dramatically, there is a defect in the construction. Usually any kind of
extraordinary warping or bending isn't from dryness, but very high humidity.
Sorry again to hear you are having these problems, you should take your oud to a luthier/violin maker for an idea as to what is the problem if there
is nobody near you with specific oud experience.
Take care,
mav
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guitarplayer006
Oud Lover
Posts: 12
Registered: 10-31-2004
Location: Albuquerque New Mexico
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They make guitar humidifiers that go into the sound hole of the guitar and the device is held in place by the strings, this is how you could humidify
it if does not have a hard case, however, most ouds i have seen have decorations over the sound hole so this would probably not work. also if the
problem is due to high humidity simply place the humidifier when it is dry and it will soak up the humidity, usually a good humidity percent for wood
is 40%-50%. Temperature changes can also affect wood in strange ways if its not constant. For my wood guitars they recomend around 70 degrees
Farenheit.
hope you can fix your problem.
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palestine48
Oud Junkie
Posts: 448
Registered: 6-9-2004
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Mood: Free Palestine
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No i dont think it was the tuning set up, so dont worry Mavro i had no intention of making you feel guilty. I was just including that so all
possibilities of my predicament can be explored. There is a guy in the area who can fix ouds, i'll probably take it to him.
By the way any tips on how to get a good risha or make one? Im not happy with everything ive used so far
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mavrothis
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1674
Registered: 6-5-2003
Location: NJ/NYC
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Mood: big band envy
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Hi,
I've been happy with the risha I've bought from Jameel and Elie Riachi from this forum. Also, there are several others who make good ones.
Najarian and Kyvelos have good picks. You can find contacts for Naj and Kyv on my links page.
Good luck with the oud,
mav
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