oud-dude - 10-13-2008 at 05:03 PM
Hi, Oud friends... I just restrung an oud I bought, and when I did, the nut fell off. Can someone tell me whether the nut should be glued in place on
an oud or just held in place by the string tension? I'm a guitar player, so I am used to the nut being glued in place. But there doesn't seem to be
any glue residue on this one.
Thanks... Peter
Jameel - 10-13-2008 at 05:49 PM
It's common to leave the nut unglued. I sometimes put a little dot of superglue on nuts so they don't fall off when restringing the oud.
Boral - 10-14-2008 at 01:36 AM
In guitars, I learned not to restring all the strings at the same time .
You start with the thinnest string and only after finishing restringing it you move to the thickest and so on.
Also if you do like this you maintain the tension on the soundboard and this is important.
Sorry for my bad English
aytayfun - 10-14-2008 at 05:35 AM
just a dot of glue and restringing step by step. All of them true.
Hatem_Afandi - 10-14-2008 at 07:11 AM
Hi Peter,
I am not an expert, but I have several instruments. All of them do not have the nut glued with the exception of an oud "with a long story" that I had
to turn to Master Luthier Maurice for help to fix it and he ended up using a bone nut after replacing the pegbox.
As an observation, some luthiers tend to use ebony wood for the nut, then they glue it. The best and most common material for nuts is bone and it
usually left unglued.
Best regards,
Hatem
rojaros - 10-14-2008 at 12:17 PM
Hi,
As with guitars (concert guitars at least) I'd advise you not to glue the nut - there is besiacally no need to do it if you restring one by one.
Advantage of a guitar or Oud nut not beeing glued is that you can shift it laterally to find the best playing position of the treble string and in
case there is a buzz problem (or a fret problem with the guitar).
Also no need to use force when exchanging the nut for any reason (material, string spacing etc...)
Good playing and best wishes
Robert
Maher - 10-14-2008 at 12:38 PM
"Should my nut be glued?"
Is this question even appropriate for this forum? 
oud-dude - 10-14-2008 at 07:26 PM
Thanks to all who replied to my question. I guess my oud is just as it ought to be. I have a bone nut, and it is unglued. So that's the way I'll
leave it. I really appreciate all the input.
A guitar builder friend of mine always glues the nut, and all the guitars I have have a glued nut. My friend says it helps to better transmit the
vibration. But I guess people have been playing oud without glue for thousands of years. That's good enough for me!
Thanks again, folks... Peter