Novice Oud Project

Hello everyone,
I’m currently trying to build an oud. My main goal today is to share something you might find interesting, and talk a bit about my experience.
It all started several weeks ago when a friend of mine started learning Turkish. During one of her classes the teacher introduced them to Turkish music and the oud. While it would be an exaggeration to say that she fell in love with it, she did like it quite a lot and decided she wanted to learn the oud. I heard a lot about it over the next several days, and it did pique my interest. I’m a pianist but I’ve always been a sucker for microtonality.
One day, I decided to do my own research, and the first thing I found was a blog of somebody making their own oud. I’m sure many of you have read it, the first part can be found here but the end I had to read on the Wayback Machine. I’m a novice woodworker and this looked like the coolest project ever. And so I, always being one to take on big projects without prior experience, decided to build one myself.
The reason that I said my goal is mainly to entertain is because I’m almost done. I’ll happily take any advice or criticism though, I intend to try again a little bit later. Because I’m on a tight budget, I decided not to buy Dr. Oud’s book, though I definitely will for my next attempt. My main resources were the blog above, this forum, and this website. I understand that probably means I missed important details and did things wrong, but for now I’m ok with that. This has been such a fun project, and I’ve learned a lot.
Because of my budget, I decided to do all I could to use what I had already. The bowl is made of butternut, hewn from a tree in my backyard several years ago and drying in my barn ever since. Besides the fingerboard, almost everything else is cherry gifted by a woodworker friend, and the soundboard is the only wood I bought. I went to the building supply store and found the tightest, most quartersawn ceder board I could. Ceder wasn’t my first choice, but I couldn’t afford the acoustic quality spruce. I guess we’ll see soon how it sounds.
My woodworker friend mentioned above mostly works with veneers, and gave me some really cool pieces to use. The pickguard and soundboard accent is fiddlebacked makore, african cherry; and the fingerboard is African Padauk. I know that’s not traditional, but it is pretty, and hard enough. The only things I bought were the ebony pegs and a set of strings. All in all I’ve only spent around $60 on it. Of course at that price point I don’t expect an heirloom quality instrument, but I like to imagine it as paying $60 for 50+ hours of fun. Pretty good deal when you think of it like that.
I regret not taking more pictures during the process, but attached are the current state and when it’s finished I’ll post updated pictures and a video of the sound. I’m happy to answer questions about any process or detail. I’m well aware of several blunders, but I’ll explain as they get pointed out, so please see what you can find. When it’s finished I have been planning on gifting it to my turkish-learning friend, but if it sounds bad I won’t. There’s no pressure though because she doesn’t know I’m building it.
Lastly, I’d like to acknowledge that I’m just a white guy from New England. This isn’t my heritage and I hope this isn’t taken the wrong way. I’ve always found that the best connections I can form with people is through exploring their culture, and so I’ve been using this as an opportunity to learn, not just as a woodworking project.
Cheers!



Here is the current state. The pegbox is the most incomplete part because I broke the first one I made. The soundboard is oversized for the bowl, not yet trimmed.


dry-fit of bowl and neck


Soundboard and supports


Kinda how it'll look, but it will have more of the cool veneer below the bridge.