Zulu
Oud Junkie
Posts: 149
Registered: 6-21-2004
Location: Austin, Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: I'm in the m'Oud for Love!
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Soundholes & Rosettes?
I'm saving for a Fadi Matta oud and have some questions about ouds in general.
In the picture you see 2 ouds with very different sized soundholes and decor.
Questions...
Are ouds with larger soundholes and no rosettes louder and project sound better or even differently than ouds with smaller soundholes covered with
rosettes?
Does oval vs. round make any difference?
Does the number of holes make a difference?, I've seen the most common 1 large hole or 1 larger with 2 smaller holes.
Does this difference in configuration effect sound or is it just personal taste in appearance?
Thanks.
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jdowning
Oud Junkie
Posts: 3485
Registered: 8-2-2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
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Mood: No Mood
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The sound hole size and presence of a rosette can make a difference acoustically in a properly designed instrument due to the so called Helmholtz
resonance effect.
The air mass in the bowl can be made to resonate at a frequency to enhance bass response usually most prominent (by design) at the frequency of the
fifth string on a 6 course instrument like a lute, oud or six stringed instrument like a guitar.
The rosette acts as a filter to 'fine tune' the Helmholtz resonance but an open sound hole can be tuned in the same way by varying the diameter.
This topic has been previously discussed on the forum. Try a search for 'Helmholtz effect' for more detailed information.
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bulerias1981
Oud Junkie
Posts: 771
Registered: 4-26-2009
Location: Beacon, NY
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Mood: John Vergara Luthier Lord of the Strings instrument making and repair
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Zulu, I just saw this post.
Well, interesting fact. The oud on the bottom is mine, and the oud on the top is my friend's in Lebanon! I know because of the sofa, and the oud!
haha, I played that oud sitting right there.
Let me explain these ouds acoustic attributes, because they are radically different even though they are from the same maker, and made about 10 months
apart.
His oud with the three sound holes, and rosettes has a very rich, pure, dark sound. Very fat, and thick.
My oud with the three sound holes and NO rosettes tends to be powerful. Has a lot of projection, and tends to be more bright rather than dark or
warm.
Other examples make me believe that no rosettes means more volume, more projection. Rosettes hold back some sound... more nasally (beautiful in my
opinion) tone.
Are the soundholes the only contributing factor in the case of these oud's unique tone in which I just described?
No. I was in the shop of Fadi Matta (impossible to find by the way) and I've seen some of his bowls super thick! And some of them he makes thin. And I
would assume he had chosen different bracings to achieve different tones.
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jdowning
Oud Junkie
Posts: 3485
Registered: 8-2-2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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I did some experiments recently using a classical guitar and lute to try to find out if the presence of a rosette made any difference to the projected
sound volume of the instruments. The tentative conclusion of the trials was - if I remember correctly - that there was little difference acoustically
between an instrument with an open sound hole compared to one with a rosette - assuming that an instrument is designed to take full account of the
Helmholtz resonance
This was reported on the topic "Old Oud - New Project", page 10.
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