Mike's Oud Forums

Question about string distance

LoveLightPeace - 8-23-2012 at 09:10 AM

An oud maker is making me a custom oud, i just would like to know how many MMs should i tell him to place the strings above the neck-bowl junction?

PS: if it helps i wanna play lebanese and iraqi styles on it.


Should i tell him to make it 3 mm or 3.5?

fernandraynaud - 8-23-2012 at 12:09 PM

I vote for 2.5 because 1) the strings tend to rise a bit with age due to deformation of the whole apparatus, more often than the other direction and 2) it is easy to raise them a bit with the loops at the bridge and hard to lower them. So I'd vote to aim for 2.5, and in the end you'll probably be playing around 3mm. But I'm not a builder, so let's see what others recommend.

LoveLightPeace - 8-23-2012 at 09:07 PM

Quote: Originally posted by fernandraynaud  
I vote for 2.5 because 1) the strings tend to rise a bit with age due to deformation of the whole apparatus, more often than the other direction and 2) it is easy to raise them a bit with the loops at the bridge and hard to lower them. So I'd vote to aim for 2.5, and in the end you'll probably be playing around 3mm. But I'm not a builder, so let's see what others recommend.



Thank u so much, and how far should the strings be apart from eachother?

fernandraynaud - 8-23-2012 at 10:47 PM

Oh, dear, that's a level of detail you don't normally specify if the luthier knows how to make an oud.