I've been travelling to Japan regularly since 2010. This year was the first time I took my Oud. So I decided to meet some players there. This is what
happened.
There are a lot of Darbuka players and a bunch of Oud players. There are a bunch of really good musicians active in middle eastern music there.
It's amazing that the Oud has even found it's way to Japan.
I hope that next time I get the opportunity to meet Minoru Fushimi who is based in Yokohama who builds Oud-Biwa hybrids. They sound really cool. I
wonder how they are to touch and play.
Oud fixes
Something I didn't mention on my blog was that one of the Oud players actually put a layer of adhesive plastic on his finger board because it was
developing grooves and he wanted to protect it. He used adhesive plastic used on the soundboards of flamenco guitars (transparent pickguard material).
The result was actually really good. I want to give it a try on one of my Ouds too.
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