Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
Posts: 88
Registered: 7-15-2013
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Change strings before a trip or after
Hello. Time to change strings again. I am going away for a week and my oud is staying here: Should I change strings before I go, and let the oud sit
and the strings "settle"? Or will that virtually do nothing as the strings, perhaps settle by use more than anything else? Thanks for any advice!
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hakimoud
Oud Lover
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Registered: 8-23-2018
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Hi Eric,
It's depend of what type of strings you have, some needs 1-2 week to settle ( Aquila ) other need juste 2-3 days.
The strings need some day of tension to settle and being stable in the tunning, the sound generally come with playing.
If you change your strings now, the tunning will be easier next week.
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Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
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Registered: 7-15-2013
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Thank you!
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
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Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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Mood: Stringish
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The strings will 'settle' as they are tuned. If you put the strings on and leave them for a 30 minutes or a week or a month it will be about the
same.
You can get any strings (even Aquila) to settle pretty quickly, if you keep tuning them.
Nylon or PVF strings will settle in a day or two with frequent tuning, nylgut strings take about 2-3 days. As they settle, they will stay in tune
longer each time.
"Frequent tuning" might look like:
Tune one string
Tune pair to match
Retune first string
Retune pair to match
move to next course, repeat process
Repeat process on first course
Repeat process on second course
move to third course, repeat entire above process
repeat process on third course, then keep repeating the whole process for remaining courses
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Wait 5-10 minutes (you can play the oud during this time, helps speed up the process).
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Repeat the entire tuning process. It should be a lot faster this time.
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Wait 10-15 minutes, then repeat tuning process
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Wait 15-30 minutes, then repeat tuning process
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At this point the oud should be stable enough that you can play for 20 minutes or so with only minor retuning.
Come back once every hour or so and retune the oud.
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By the next day, the oud should be reasonably stable once tuned. Continue tuning once every 1-2 hours until no longer necessary.
This is more or less the process I use to get an oud to stay in stable tuning in 24-48 hours.
The key is to keep tuning. It will take approximately the same number of tunings to stabilize no matter what, so it's up to you if you want to spread
them out over a month or do them in a couple of days.
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Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
Posts: 88
Registered: 7-15-2013
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Brian, I suspected that was the case. Thanks for confirming. Sounds like to have my oud be in tune after string changing, I can't just do nothing and
walk away for a week!
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sylvainbd
Oud Junkie
Posts: 410
Registered: 6-7-2005
Location: France - Nantes
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Hello
I manage to tune and stabilize the Oud Pyramid strings (which I often use) in less than 10 minutes!
Here is my process:
- coarse tuning of the 11/12 strings
- I pull on each string about 3 cm for 2-3 seconds (no more) at the level of the pickguard. The strings relax.
- I still roughly tune the 11/12 strings
- I still pull each string about 3 cm (no more) for 2-3 seconds at the pickguard. The strings relax.
- I still roughly tune 11/12 strings
ETC
Quite quickly the ropes begin to stabilize after 3-4 repetitions...
At this time I fine tune and voila.
It may shock some people but the tension submitted is very fast and absolutely does not damage the oud. To vary over 2-3 seconds an additional tension
in the table of less than 5% is really bearable.
... And if the rope breaks, it was already weakened
Result: it is better to fully relax all the strings during a trip because in the end the tuning will only take a few minutes to redo.
PS: in the world of the guitar, some musicians on stage have a string changed in less than a minute! (Seen from my eyes) But the guitars are
structurally more reinforced. There's no point breaking records
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Eric Stern Music
Oud Maniac
Posts: 88
Registered: 7-15-2013
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Merci Sylvain. J'aime bien vos ouds et ses innovations.
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