TaiwanTuna
Oud Admirer
Posts: 8
Registered: 5-17-2020
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Douglas Fir Soundboard Thoughts?
Hey everyone!
Does anyone have any experience with using douglas fir as a soundboard for an oud or another other stringed instrument? If so, how did it compare to a
spruce soundboard?
I'm planning on building an oud with a prebuilt walnut bowl, maple neck and pegbox, douglas fir with "X" bracing in an attempt to get a VERY different
sound from my cedar oud.
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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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This question has been asked a lot regarding acoustic guitar tops.
The consensus seems to be that is can work, but it not ordinarily recommended and has many potential issues.
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=374838
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=487630
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217121
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=374838
Notably, Douglas "Fir" is not a true fir (which genereally do work as soundboards in my understanding).
Have you built ouds before? Both douglas fir and x bracing are wildly unconventional choices. From a scientific standpoint, it makes more sense to
isolate variables in an experiment. Since the X bracing is a very "non-oud" design and likely to have a big impact on the sound, it would be more
useful to understand how it reacts with a more typical top. Will this be a fixed or floating bridge design? I'd be concerned that the oud might not
resonate well enough with X bracing at typical fixed bridge tensions, but I'm certainly no expert.
Various spruce species, true cedar (not Western "Cedar"), and Swedish pine are all highly regarded traditional tonewoods for ouds, as you likely know.
Personally I wouldn't go through all the work involved in making an oud like that just as an experiment, but would be interesting if you did.
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TaiwanTuna
Oud Admirer
Posts: 8
Registered: 5-17-2020
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Thanks for responding Brian!
1. I haven't built an oud before, however, a friend expressed interest in helping me build one after showing him the instrument. We got lucky with
some douglas fir and thought about making a "practice" oud. We're both aware that this could probably end in a barely usable instrument (if anything
at all) with our general lack of instrument building knowledge, but it'll be a fun learning experience regardless.
2. I thought of the x-bracing idea since douglas fir's tap tone is bell-like but short so what if we were able to get a louder initial note with a
different bracing? I don't know much about bracing physics, but I saw this video with what I'm assuming is an x-braced oud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVpsSUEk7Ng and thought it sounded pretty nice! However, I think your point of douglas fir's resonance differences
and the potential for overmuting the soundboard with an untraditional bracing is a good point.
3. For our project, we're planning on a fixed bridge design.
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