I have a wonderful Mohammadi Barbat that I sadly have very little time to play. It is in a hard case and I have kept it untuned with the strings
loose.
But that means I spend a lot of time preparing it when I do have time to play. And it probably keeps me from spending short available time with it
that I usually give over to something easier to quickly tune.
So here are some questions.
1. Is it ok to keep an Oud/Barbat tuned? Or better for the instrument to keep it loose if not played daily?
2. Japan is dry and cold in the winter when we are out of the house, warmer in the evenings when we are home. Central heating is very rare here so we
warm up where we are in the house and conserve power. That means temps do change several times a day in our studio room. Does this factor into keeping
it tuned or not?
3. Summer is another set of problems. Humid, sticky and hot as hell. Again no central air condition and we try to survive without much cooling most of
the season. But temps can range up high in the day and drop of at night. So same question here.
Finally. Is there anything I should be doing to help protect it from the above? It is a shame that this is not my primary instrument because it is a
wonderful creation. But the fact is the Rubab and Sazs get more time because we use them more in the band. So any recommendations to help keep the
Barbat safe and sound for its down time?
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