ameer
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Strange... buzzing under the bridge?
I don't know how long it's been there, but today when I tried to tune my sukar down the third course started buzzing. The buzzing is strongest when
the string is open and occurs under or around the bridge area. None of the other courses suffer from this problem regardless of their tension/pitch.
Ideas?
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fernandraynaud
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Of course one thing that comes to mind is a loose brace. There's a very strong resonant node on most ouds around G# to A#, 210-240 Hz or so, as I
recall. What is your third course tuned to? Can you try tuning the third course differently and see if it's not a resonance around a specific pitch
that shakes something inside? Can you try to look inside? Is it 100% true that no note played on other courses buzzes?
Are you sure it's not the way that course is tied on the bridge, and that the two strings are not buzzing against each other? Are you sure the
windings on the strings are intact, that no winding broke?
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ameer
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It's not the typical wood-on-wood loose brace sound so if it is a loose brace it's something unusual.
Quote: Originally posted by fernandraynaud  | | There's a very strong resonant node on most ouds around G# to A#, 210-240 Hz or so, as I recall. What is your third course tuned to? Can you try
tuning the third course differently and see if it's not a resonance around a specific pitch that shakes something inside? |
It gets progressively worse as the pitch approaches C. At D however you can't hear it.
I'll qualify: between 0 tension and the tension at standard tuning, no other course buzzes. It may buz at a higher tension/pitch but I don't relish
trying to find out.
| Quote: Originally posted by fernandraynaud | | Are you sure it's not the way that course is tied on the bridge, and that the two strings are not buzzing against each other? Are you sure the
windings on the strings are intact, that no winding broke? |
I retied the strings and even put on a clone pair (.038" nylon). I'm sure they're not vibrating directly against each other because the bridge is
where the strings are farthest apart. If I use a .041 nylon they vibrate against each other towards the neck and that sounds nothing like this.
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fernandraynaud
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I'll qualify: between 0 tension and the tension at standard tuning, no other course buzzes. It may buz at a higher
tension/pitch but I don't relish trying to find out.
I meant if you play the same notes on other strings does it buzz too?
If so, it's just that the whole oud vibrates very strongly below Kardan, top C, and it's likely something loose, not necessarily near the third
course.
But in ANY case, it's like all of these buzzings, nobody can localize it better than you, as you have it right there. Use a little tube to listen at
different spots, the way car mechanics do. If you have a little microphone, you can try to use it as a high-tech stethoscope.
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ameer
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Well no other course can make that buzzing sound regardless of pitch. Feeling around the inside I can't find anything but the soundboard in that area,
certainly nothing that could be loose enough to make that noise. I'll keep looking to see what I can find.
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ameer
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Interesting- there is in fact a brace around the bridge that actually thins out around the third course. Perhaps it's loose right there and the
extreme thinness of the brace is what prevents it from sounding normally harsh.
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fernandraynaud
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If you have some thin tubing, like the rubber tubing used to whip small children in short pants on the legs to impart good manners, or the IV tubing
that vampires collect as fetish objects, or the little colostomy tubes used with bonsai kittens (1), then you can stick one end in your ear, and the other end you use to hunt around for the source of the noise, like under the soundboard. You
would be surprised at how effective this little auto-machanic's trick is in hunting down clicks and buzzes (please do ignore all claims by the medical
profession to have invented "the stethoscope", an absurd claim given the obvious greater antiquity of the automobile).
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