oudalally
Oud Lover
Posts: 23
Registered: 2-4-2014
Member Is Offline
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Tuning advice for Turkish oud
Hello All.
It's been a few weeks since I was last here, but I'm glad to say that the oud has certainly not lost any appeal since I purchased mine some months
ago.
Currently, I have it tuned to B F# B E A D, which is a wonderful sounding tuning, although I've been told it's somewhat unorthadox as I keep the
single drone string in B rather than C#.
The chap who told me is not (to my knowledge anyway) and oud player himself, although he is fairly knowledgeable with music theory.
Can anybody shed some light on this?
I'm also curious as to what other alternative tunings I could try on a fairly basic Turkish student oud.
With my guitars, I use a variety of tunings ranging from the more usual Celtic tuning (D A D G A D) to less common "drone" tunings (A A B F# A A), but
I'm less keen to experiment with the oud for two reasons.
First and foremost is that I'm very keen not break what is (to me) and irreplaceable instrument. The unlacquered top seems to have more flex to it
than any guitar I've played, and I'm concious that any excessive changes in string tension might do some lasting damage.
Secondly, the whole process of tuning seems to be a little finicky on any instrument equipped with friction tuned pegs, any my cheap and cheerful oud
doesn't like to be retuned frequently at all.
I do have a set of ebony pegs to replace the olive wood ones fitted currently, but until I can find the time to ream out the pegbox to fit them, I'm
stuck with the originals.
It's not that I'm averse to retuning it to play with new tunings, but I'd like to have some ideas of which ones are safe to use before I spend half a
day tweaking it.
Any advice would be most welcomed!
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2916
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Stringish
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I actually quite like olive wood pegs as long as they are well-fitted. I wouldn't replace the pegs just because they are olive wood. Ebony may not
necessarily be an improvement.
The kind of unusual tunings you are talking about don't really apply to the oud, largely because the oud is not a chordal instrument. The whole
reason for those unusual guitar tunings is to have different chords available, to make things technically possible that wouldn't be otherwise. Since
oud is a melodic instrument, unorthodox tunings serve no purpose.
Tuning the low string to B on Turkish oud is not that unusual; yes C# is more typical, but B is popular also.
You could try the "old" tuning of EABead' (with an appropriate set of strings for that tuning—don't tune a C#F# set up that high), or the Turkish
equivalent of Arabic tuning: DGBead'. You could also try tuning down 1/2 step, or a whole step.
As for safety, tuning lower is safe, tuning higher is not. Tuning one string a bit high is not a big deal, but when you multiply it by 11 you can
destroy the top.
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oudalally
Oud Lover
Posts: 23
Registered: 2-4-2014
Member Is Offline
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Thanks Brian, I did have the bottom string tuned to C# when I first got the oud, but as with my guitar tunings, I like to have two open strings to the
same note as drones.
The strings I have currently are for C# F', so I shall refrain from the old E A tuning for now (although when I do restring it, I shall give it a try
I think. Maybe I just need some more ouds....)
The olive wood pegs are fairly badly fitted and not very well cut which is the main reason to my changing them. They also tend to seize a little more
than I'd like when the humidity changes. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to keep the humidity constant here.
My last house was very bad for it due to the stone walls, and the current house is timber framed and seems to have similar issues.
As an aside, just having a look at your website and listening to the recordings.
My foot won't stay still now...  Superb jazz!!!!
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