Giorgioud
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High Arabig gg course copper/bronze wound
Dear oudists,
please check the beginning of this video by the Sudanese singer/oudst Ali Al-Sugaid http://youtu.be/1pUAkCQPgNw He's using a High Arabic tuning (ff, cc, gg, DD, AA, G), and as you know, usually the gg course is in bare nylon. But
on this video it appears to be wound (copper or bronze). Does anybody know if there's a brand (or more than one) which issues these sort of sets, High
Arabic with a wound gg?
Thanks in advance
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ameer
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I've never seen a set with it. You'll have to get an individual pair of strings most likely. Talk to Brian and he should be able to set you up.
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Giorgioud
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Thanks Ameer, I will........too many versions of a good thing, one goes berserk wanting to try them all.......
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fernandraynaud
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You can also look for Classical Guitar strings of the right gauge. The D'Addario Oud strings are the same as their classical guitar strings, it's the
same general construction. It's not too hard finding fat plain nylon dd strings, but it may be harder to find wound gg strings. One would have to
estimate the appropriate gauge.
There's a trick to using the String Tension calculator with wound strings, which is to interpolate using tension data from e.g. D'Addario for some
close candidates to derive an effective "mass" for the wound string you're looking at. Once you have the effective mass for that particular ratio of
metal to nylon fiber, you can calculate tensions as if it were a solid string with that mass, and you can interpolate between adjacent gauges. It
turns out to be pretty accurate, if you check your work on strings that have published tensions.
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farukturunz
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Quote: Originally posted by Giorgioud  | Does anybody know if there's a brand (or more than one) which issues these sort of sets, High Arabic with a wound gg?
Thanks in advance |
Dear Giorgioud, you can order 1.006 or 1.007 coded wound string from Pyramid or Kenan Özten, İstanbul: info@kenanozten.com
Regards
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Brian Prunka
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Giorgio, I think I may have a spare pair of 1006 Pyramid strings lying around . . . shoot me a message and I'll let you have them to try.
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Giorgioud
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Fernand,
wow, I happen to have a D'Addario set for Classical guitar....I have to get to work out that String Calculator from the Finnish guy whose name escapes
me......yeah, cool tip, thanks.....but come to think of it, by the same token one could put on one's oud a unwound DD course while using Standard
Arabic (we were talking about it elsewhere on the Forum), were one inclined to try it.....what are your thoughts regarding this?
Mr. Turunz,
thank you also for your tip. I happen to be an admirer of your beautiful creations, whose videos of people playing them I eagerly devour. It's only
the usual money worries which prevent me from investing in one of those beauties, but I count on doing so in the near future, inshallah.......very
rarely I encounter ouds with such a timbre and presence...........they truly are treasures to behold......
Brian,
thank you as well...as it happens, I will be placing an order in about a week or so, a couple of La Bella 80As and something else (maybe Galli, maybe
Aquila....haven't decided yet). I will definetly order that set too, thanks for the tip! By the way, have you got also any Standard Arabic sets with a
nylon DD course (like Ameer)? Never let it be said I'm not open to try anything.....except incest and Morris dancing, of course)
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Brian Prunka
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I have the Pyramid 650 set with plain 3rd, but they don't have the low C course. If you want to get the low C, send me an message at info at
oudstrings com and we'll work something out.
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fernandraynaud
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Yes, Giorgi, you can use a classical guitar nylon pair for the dd course. I forget the gauge but it works very well. Ah, I found it. The ones I've
used were D'Addario guitar nylon 0.039".
In fact, if you look at the gauges, you'll see that doubling a classical (nylon) guitar set almost works on an oud. The top two courses would be a bit
stiff, as a standard guitar nylon e is 0.028" and most oud sets use a 0.022" c course. By the time you reach the 3rd course things fall into place.
And there are low tension nylon guitar sets, or 4 individual strings can be added. The reason it works is because the tuning and scales are different,
so the guitar is pulling these strings up to 6kg tension and the oud only pulls 3 kg. The construction of the strings is the same. Of course we have
specialized oud sets that don't require substitutions, but classical guitar strings are a great resource. For instance the wound bass string in oud
sets often tops out at 0.041", and can be too slack, while guitar E strings can be found in 0.043 and up.
You know, what I've found is that there are two directions that work best for me. The default oud string sets suffer from a break in timbre at the gg
course. That's a nuisance, and a reason why someone would use a wound string for the GG course.
So, for me, one way is to use PVF for the gg and cc course, in thinner gauges for PVF than nylon. Where nylon is around 1100 kg/m^3, PVF is 1800. That
gives a brighter slightly more metallic timbre to these courses, a heavenly good match for the wound DD course. Good quality PVF fish leader line
works great. A pure PVF monofilament is most metallic. A dual layer "premium leader" offers a more gentle timbre. See:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=10889&p...
Another direction, if you prefer that "bang your head on a hollow gourd" classical Egyptian sound, is to make the DD course into a dd course, by using
something like nylon 0.039" plain strings. Ernie Ball (popular at Guitar Center) offers a pretty BLACK nylon 3rd in 0.041".
Both approaches beat the sweet b'cheezus out of the standard ... AA DD gg cc set I think.
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Giorgioud
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Wow, thanks Fernand. That was a pretty neat explanation which, if you don't mind, I have printed and kept in the "oud" file, section "tips,
maintenance, stringing". It's cool to bump into members of the forum who took the trouble to actually experiment with strings first-hand and are
willing to share the knowledge.
I feel inclined to agree with your (exhaustive) explanation. I raised the subject some time ago, but I was told in no uncertain terms that putting
classical guitar nylon strings on the oud would damage it. But I thought, guitar strings are build to whitstand a greater tension than the oud, surely
they can be used on an oud if the gauge is the same? I was quite confused.
But still, that's the way to go.....to experiment and to further the limitations on offer.....thanks for sharing man, much appreciated!!!
And thanks to you Brian too, that's great, Pyramid 650 will be then, it'll be cool to try them......I am just waiting for some money to arrive in my
vicinity so I can place an order....thanks!!!
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