oudplayer
Oud Junkie
Posts: 849
Registered: 5-9-2004
Location: new jersey/ Israel
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Mood: ouds up
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differant between a tourist and other oud
hi what are the acuall differant between a touris oud and a other oud i phrased that bad what i hope u get my point.
i think i have a tourist not sure
thx
its a turkish but i tune it yemeni
thx
sam
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palestine48
Oud Junkie
Posts: 448
Registered: 6-9-2004
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Mood: Free Palestine
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The basic difference and which is probably the most important one is the quality and craftsmanship. Tourists ouds are cheaply made and their main
purpose is souveniers for you guessed it, tourists. I dont know if you speak arabic, but there is a phrase that i use for such things its "bas
la manzar", roughly translated its only for show an style. Meaning it serves its purpose better as an ornament rather than as a performance
instrument. How do you know i you have a tourist oud, basically listen to what a quality oud sounds like and see how yours is. Also see if the
aesthetics of our oud watch those of a quality instrument. Its only natural that with so many ways to style an oud that our eyes can get big and we
want georgous looking ouds, but the sound is always the most important. My uncle who is my teacher has the crudest looking oud but it does the job
sound wise, also he told me Mohmamed Abdul Wahab, one of my favorite musicians, used to play with a very simple looking oud but had excellent sound.
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palestine48
Oud Junkie
Posts: 448
Registered: 6-9-2004
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Mood: Free Palestine
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see if the aesthetics of our oud watch those of a quality instrument
I meant match those, sorry should have spell checked
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spyrosc
Oud Junkie
Posts: 405
Registered: 9-18-2003
Location: Northern California, USA
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Mood: Grateful
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Tourist oud
Dear friend,
Here are some of the characteristics I noticed on "tourist" ouds:
1) Rosettes (shamsiya) usually made of plastic.
2) Pegs (mafatih) usually slip very easily and will not hold a tuning (of course this can happen occasionally with expensive or professional ouds also
but it's usually limited in that case to one or two pegs). Also the pegs don't fit completely into the holes, they may be smaller on the
exit end.
3) Glue left on the rosettes or visible in other places where it shouldn't be.
4) Sloppy woodwork, especially in the joints. If the joints are not clean and completely fitting, or there are asymmetries, things that indicate fast
work.
5) Usually a lot of varnish on the face (so that it can look shiny to the tourist). Most high quality ouds don't have varnish on the face, or
they have very little, a very thin coat for protection but not for "almanzar"
6) Also a lot of ornamentation on the face, a lot of "sadaf" etc (again for the tourist), which kills the sound. I'm not saying that
there are no good ouds with ornamentation, I'm saying as a general rule.
7) The thickness of the face is more than 2 mm or so. Also the face may be pine, instead of more expensive cedar or spruce. Also the grain lines on
the wood of the face are not tight and close together but they are far appart, and there may be swirls and other such lines
8) Thump the face of the oud lightly with your index knuckle around the sound hole, and listen for the sound and how long it lasts. A good oud will
have a deep sound that will last for a while.
9) Pluck the strings and see how long the sound lasts. On tourist ouds the sound will die off very quickly, and / or the strings will sound dull and
dead.
10) If you can put a small mirror (like a dental mirror) inside the main soundhole, so you can look at the braces. Sometimes the braces are not
finished properly but they are just rough or even "broken to size" instead of "cut to size".
11) Some tourist ouds may not have a label inside the main sound hole, or they may have one the clearly indicates a manufacturer who is a known
"masss production" outfit.
Again, as a disclaimer, I agree with palestine48 that an oud may possibly have a lot of these signs but somehow have a magical sound that you love. In
which case nothing else matters, right ?
Spyros C.
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spyrosc
Oud Junkie
Posts: 405
Registered: 9-18-2003
Location: Northern California, USA
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Mood: Grateful
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More tips
Dear friend,
I assumed that your tourist oud was new. There is a whole slew of other things to look for if the oud is not new, for example the bridge coming
unglued, the action being too high because the oud is "collapsing" on itself, the neck showing a gap between it and the body and on and on
and on.... But those things apply to pretty much all older ouds.
Spyros C.
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