The great-grandaddy of the guitar--Oud making
A few members, and most notably Jim Becker asked me to post some info on the instruments I make, a sort of "How it's made" (am I the only one who loves that show?:D) for ouds. As a relative newcomer to SMC, I've gleaned lots of great info in the few short months since joining. So I though I should take some time and give a little back, for what it's worth. I hope at least a few of you enjoy this thread.
First off, a little history. The oud is a 5000 year old instrument that is still being played today, most notable in the Levant, the Arabian peninsula, N. Africa, Greece, Turkey, and throughout the Meditteranean. It is the direct ancestor of the European Lute (think Rennaisance paintings). The word "lute" comes directly from the Arabic word "Al Oud". Oud means "wood" in Arabic. The oud made its way through N. Africa up through Spain and became the lute, which eventually begat the guitar. Both the oud and the lute are very similar in form and sound. Although they are played in very different ways. At the end of this thread I'll post some videos of the ouds I make as well as some audio clips.
Okay, on to the next step....
Fitting the ribs can be a real tedious job. I'm a bit of a stickler for good joints, so I shine an LED flashlight behind the joint to make sure its purrrrfect before gluing. Hot hide glue is the glue of choice, but I use regular old AR glue for the bowl. Hide gets used on the soundboard. To compound matters, some bowl shapes curve back in towards the face, so the profile is not a section of a circle. This makes for compound bends and some really fun :eek: twisting and bending. Its not my favorite part!
So here is a finished bowl of 17 ribs, in walnut:
http://khalafoud.com/images/personal/bowl6.jpg
And Cherry:
http://khalafoud.com/images/personal/cherryb.jpg
By the way, I use a RAM Mount to position my mould. It works GREAT!
http://khalafoud.com/images/personal/ramm.jpg
Some bowls are just left plain, some I do geometric inlay on:
http://khalafoud.com/images/personal...aycomplete.jpg
Here is how I do the geometric inlay:
First I make up sandwich blanks from veneer and thin woods. This one happens to be symmetrical.
http://khalafoud.com/images/personal...nlayblanks.jpg
Then I glue them together and end up with this:
http://khalafoud.com/images/personal...inlayblank.jpg
Then I cut this slab into 3/8" wide strips and using a small miter box and razor saw I cut them up into 30 degree blocks to make different patterns. It took me a while to figure this out the first time, but its so simple, because a three sided 30 degree triangle makes 90 degrees, so its works perfectly. That was a fun moment!
http://khalafoud.com/images/personal/blocks.jpg
Finally I glue all these together in a little jig that holds them together,
http://khalafoud.com/images/personal/inlayclamp.jpg
and slice them up. I get about 4 or 5, 1mm or so thick strips from this block.