Knafeh
Oud Admirer
Posts: 8
Registered: 12-7-2016
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Muddy, overly resonant sound: strings or oud itself?
I recently bought a used oud which came with D'addario strings. The resonance on it is so extreme that anything I play on it just sounds too muddy. I
can cough two meters away and it would resonate just from that.
Does anybody know if this is a problem with the strings or the bowl/oud itself?
The oud is a floating bridge model built by Baker Dagher, but it has been damaged and repaired by a previous owner. The peg box seems to have been
broken off and glued back on, and the pegs are a a mess of two different sets that have been manually shaved down to fit the box.
I'm not sure whether replacing the strings with my Aquilas would solve the problem or should I just sell the oud and buy an Ali Khalife I've had my
eyes on instead.
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Jody Stecher
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1353
Registered: 11-5-2011
Location: California
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Try this: put your hand on the strings between the bridge and tailpiece. Now make some sound and see if the exaggerated response is less. If so you
can weave a light ribbon of cloth or leather through the strings between the bridge and tailpiece and that will dampen the response there. Alternately
you can place rubber grommets between the strings in each double course. In any case D'Addario strings are unlikely to be the cause of the problem.
If the problem is caused by the bowl, and not by strings, then of course this won't help.
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2916
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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Mood: Stringish
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Quote: Originally posted by Jody Stecher  | Try this: put your hand on the strings between the bridge and tailpiece. Now make some sound and see if the exaggerated response is less. If so you
can weave a light ribbon of cloth or leather through the strings between the bridge and tailpiece and that will dampen the response there. Alternately
you can place rubber grommets between the strings in each double course. In any case D'Addario strings are unlikely to be the cause of the problem.
If the problem is caused by the bowl, and not by strings, then of course this won't help. |
Good advice, Jody. Floating bridge ouds often have this problem of extra resonance in the (supposedly) non-vibrating length of string.
Resonance generally isn't a problem per se but may not be the desired sound. In general, floating bridge ouds have more resonance than Arabic
fixed-bridge ouds. Turkish ouds are usually pretty resonant. Traditional Arabic ouds go for a more "dry" sound.
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Knafeh
Oud Admirer
Posts: 8
Registered: 12-7-2016
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It made a very small difference, but I'm not sure if the sound is alright. I made two 6 second recordings, one with and one without the muting you
suggested? Can I ask for your opinion?
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0KyxVT71dJ5VDg3c09EOE9XQ3M
It's not as loud in the recording but if you turn it up you can hear the resonance at the end.
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Jody Stecher
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1353
Registered: 11-5-2011
Location: California
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I think it's better muted. Part of the problem of the string resonance between bridge and tailpiece is that it seems to be very much out of tune with
*anything* so it's not a musically supportive resonance.
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OudExpert3000
Oud Admirer
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Registered: 4-28-2017
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Hi Knafeh
The Ali Khalife is an excellent oud, I bought one in Lebanon a couple of years ago for $275 and would recommend buying one if you get the chance and
have the cash.
I had a similar problem to you and after taking it to a repair shop in Lebanon, they informed me it was a problem with the bowl and the hyper-resonate
microstructure tracheids causing too many Feinman oscillations and making it sound "muddy" as you describe. This is sometimes a problem that cannot be
tested for by the manufacturers as it only becomes apparent when strings are attached and the whole instrument is assembled.
I would recommend buying the Ali Khalife you have described and not bothering to fix this as replacing the entire bowl to fix this integral problem
can become costly and more effort than it is worth.
Hope this helps!
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MattOud
Oud Junkie
Posts: 297
Registered: 1-18-2017
Location: Ontario, Canada
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Mood: Feeling Pretty G'Oud
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Hi Knafeh,
I was recently watching this video by faruk tarunz on oud making:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpPk5SncHIw
What i found interesting is his comments starting at the 7:20 mark, here he talks about how he discovered, through trial and error, that the sound of
the oud mostly was affected by how he put support beams(french:poutres). These beams, when placed correctly using mathematics causes the inside
frequencies to change, as oudexpert says above^
As for the Ali Khalife...I own a Zaher Khalife and it is AMAZING sounding to me. I love it. This is Ali's grandson, and I am sure Ali's works was
obviously excellent to pass down such skills...
ps: I wish i could find an oud for 275$ here  I pay more than that just for
customs fees- he hee.
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