minstrel: oud

[Dustin]

On Jul 7, 2005, at 6:16 PM, Dustin wrote:

>
> On Jul 6, 2005, at 10:21 PM, nickolas kaugon wrote:
>
>> this is going to be fun fun fun untill daddy takes the flat
>> pick away.
>
> Didn't you mean to say:  fun, fun, fun until the daddy takes the 
> risha* away? ;-)
>
> D
>
> * or mizrap if you play Turkish Oud.
>


Well, I was hoping this might turn into discussions about ouds. 
Congratulations on getting your new oud.

I have had my Turkish now for a little over 2 years now and I love it 
(I still play my hammered dulcimer and harp more, though). The person 
that gave it to me also got it from e-bay. They had a cool store out of 
Istanbul, but I have not seen their e-bay store in almost a year. The 
oud was really cheep ($100), but the shipping was what really bumped up 
the price ($70). Still, for how good this thing is built, it is 
comparable to maybe a $250 guitar. I had to drill new holes in the 
tuning pegs (the original ones were too close to the peg holes), put 
chock on the pegs (to keep them from slipping) and restring it (Bella 
Strings seem to be the best..probably too good for my oud). It stays in 
tune really well (especially for the crappy random weather of 
Oklahoma). I tune it like this (from low to high) E-A-B-E-A-D which 
allows you to drone on the two main keys (E & A). I mostly play 
medieval and middle-eastern music on it, but I found some Italian 
renaissance music like La Catena d'Amore sounds good on it.

So, that makes two of us on this list that play oud. I know there are 
more than us. Who else out there plays it?

Dustin Cooper (Morgan Ellisse)