What are oud strings made out of?

The Oud string has been made from silk or gut in the early dates. In the modern era, the two lower pairs of strings are made from nylon of a 0.55-0.70 and 0.65-0.80 mm diameter. The other three pairs and the uppermost single string are made from silk covered with a very fine alloy made from copper, nickel and silver.

What kind of strings are on an Oud?

Is a Oud a string?

Similar to the lute in appearance, the oud is an 11 or 13 string pear shaped wooden instrument. It has double strings usually down to the lowest string, which will be single. Unlike the lute, the oud does not have any frets and it has a thinner neck. 'Oud' literally means 'from wood' in Arabic.

What type of wood is the Oud instrument made of?

A high-quality oud's face is made from spruce. The tuning pegs and fingerboard are constructed from ebony. Maple, walnut, palisander and mahogany are used for the bowl. The oud does not have any standard size or number of strings.

How many strings does the Arabic Oud have?

The sound of the oud vibrates within its hollow body. The instrument consists of 11 strings. Among them, 10 strings are paired together, whereas, the lowest string remains single. The peg box from the neck of the oud is bent back at a 45-90° angle.

How To Replace an Oud Strings

Why is oud so expensive?

One reason oud is so expensive is its rarity; by some estimates, fewer than 2% of wild agar trees produce it. Experts claim that the very best oud comes from the oldest trees, which are even more scarce. It can sell for $5,000 a pound – or more.

What is oud called in English?

Oud (agarwood, aloe wood, eagle wood, gaharu) is formed in a tropical evergreen tree called Agar tree (Aquilaria species) which is believed to have originated from Assam, India.

How many strings does the oud typically have?

The oud (Arabic: عود, romanized: ʿūd, pronounced [ʕuːd]; Somali: kaban or cuud) is a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument (a chordophone in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification of instruments), usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses, but some models have five or seven courses, with 10 ...

What kind of smell is oud?

The Oud qualities

The olfactory profile of the Oud seduces immediately. Its woody smell is rich in nuances, ranging from sweet to earthy, with some notes of leather and spices. It depends on the species of the tree that produces the resin and on the technique used for extraction.

Is it hard to learn oud?

As a fretless string instrument, people tend to think that playing oud is hard to learn. But a well-tuned quality oud could not be harder to learning than any other instrument.

What is Egyptian oud?

The Oud is a pear-shaped stringed musical instrument commonly used in Middle Eastern and North African music. It can easily be recognized by its lack of frets as well as smaller neck. Ouds first appears in ancient Egypt art which started from the eighteenth dynasty onwards in short and long neck varieties.

How much does an oud cost?

HOW MUCH DOES OUD COST? Extracting the aromatic dark resin from Agarwood trees is costly. A kilo of oud wood yields just 1ml of resin and a 12ml bottle of high-quality oud can cost up to 2,700 euros (3,000 US dollars).

What is the tuning of an oud?

Arabian Oud musicians use mainly the 5 double strings and its tune is G - A - D - G - C. Also exists also with 5 double strings and one «independent» and the tune is D - G - A- D- G - C or D - E - A- D- G - C.

What is the difference between an oud and a lute?

The main difference between the Oud and Lute instruments is that a Lute has a fretted neck and can have more strings or be a larger size than the Oud instrument. The Lute is associated with Western Shakespearean culture while the Oud is the main instrument of Middle Eastern and Arab culture.

How old is the oud?

The first appearance of the Oud was 3000 BC. The desecrated skeleton suggested the form of the Oud. Oud is known as the first stringed instrument in history. The oldest pictorial record of the Oud dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia (Iraq), over 5000 years ago on a cylinder seal acquired by Dr.

Does oud smell like incense?

Also known as oudh, aoud, or 'Liquid Gold' with it's heavy, rich and almost animalistic smell that combines wood, incense, and ambergis, it is a synonym for East where it comes from.

Which country has the best oud?

“The most preferred oud is from India, known locally as oud Hindi and followed by those from Cambodia and Malaysia,” Layana Mohammed, an oud salesperson in Dubai, told Al Arabiya English.

Should I buy a Turkish or Arabic oud?

If you are looking for a lovey-dovey sound with a more ornate overall design, then the Arabic Oud is the one for you. But, if you are after a distinguishable yet simple look with a very clean sound then you should opt for the Turkish.

How is oud created?

The oil is known as oud, and it is made from agarwood, a.k.a. gaharu, the dark, resinous heartwood of a large tropical evergreen tree called aquilaria that comes in 15 distinct species.

Is the oud still used today?

It has been considered one of the most important instruments within Arabic music for centuries and still is considered a holy grail today. The Oud has evolved over the years, in size, sound, and tuning. It is widely played across the Middle East in a variety of styles and genres.

Which tree does oud come from?

Known in the Middle East and the Gulf as “black gold”, black oud is derived from the subtropical Aquilaria tree. This evergreen agar tree is found in Northeast India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia.

Where do oud trees grow?

At present Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are the main supplies.

What is bakhoor made of?

The term Bakhoor in this sense mainly refers to the wood chips that are soaked in fragrant Oud oils; which is the oil extracted from the rare Aquilaria tree. An infectious type of mold takes a hold of the heartwood of the tree and later on, produces a dark fragrant resin that produces the oil.