Brainstorming an oud-ukulele, "oudulele": maybe a fretless 7, 8, or 9-string?

Brainstorming an oud-ukulele, "oudulele": maybe a fretless 7, 8, or 9-string?

I've been putting in a lot of overtime in Afghanistan, and though I've ordered a few cool instruments sent back to my place in the States over the last year (Swedish bagpipe, bandoneon, etc), I'm thinking it would be cool to commission something off-the-wall. Something where, if it lasts 100 years, some future will say "dang, whoever had this built was weird".

I've always liked fretless nylon-strung instruments, and love my fretless Appalachian banjo. The thought occurred to me that I could combine my uke, fretless, and Middle East interests and build some kind of ukulele-oud hybrid. The oud is an Arabian instrument that's spread through much of the Islamic world, basically the fretless predecessor of the European lute.

An oud is generally five doubled courses (Egyptian) or five doubled courses and a single bass string (Iraqi). Translating this over to uke, there are a few ways to do it:

• Three doubled courses and a single bass string
• Four doubled courses (like a fretless 8-string tenor)
• Four doubled courses and a single bass

The first would be a bit limited in scope, the second would be more versatile but wouldn't force the oud-aspect as much since it'd be an easy temptation to just string it as a uke. The last would be cool, but presumably the added bass string would really up the pressure.

I'm also thinking that, though keeping it closer to tenor tuning, to have it on a baritone body since without re-entrant tuning I'm going to want a bit more low-end response.

Aesthetically, a bit hard to figure whether to go more pseudo-Arab, more Hawaiian hybrid, or just avant-gardey


Jack Haas, a rather trippy artist and musician, already have a few "oudulele" clips up on YouTube, though using a conventional fretted tenor. I plan to write to Haas and see whether he thinks a slightly longer fretless neck would increase the scope of possibilities, get some microtonal options in there.

Would appreciate any feedback on this idea, and any suggestions as to what uke makers I might want to hit up about getting such a puppy built.

This is really interesting my Oud is just 7 single courses and likewise fretless. I would have thought that single courses would work better for uke too? The roundback shape and crazy headstock must be kept, though - would love to see it.

I wanted to say I saw an oud-ulele on amazon, but when I looked it turned out to be a lute-ulele, which they call a Baroq-ulele. It's still interesting.

Baroq-ulele

Good luck!

my Oud is just 7 single courses and likewise fretless. I would have thought that single courses would work better for uke too?

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure ouds are generally fretless, though there is a somewhat similar tied-fret instrument called the lauta, seen those in Turkey and such.

I'm not really familiar with single-course only ouds; is yours a specific regional sub-variant?


So far as makers, by sheer serendipity another uker mentioned this outfit in a recent thread: http://www.captainukuleles.co.nz/home.html

This guy seems to have a lot of promising aspects: uses local woods, New Zealand dollar conversion advantage, and he builds a lot of weird uke-type instruments. I do believe I shall drop this cat a line. Likewise Jack Haas (proponent of the "oudolele" style), and the folks at Mike's Oud Forum.

Dangit, why do I always think of obscure musical instruments to commission at the end of overseas tours, vice the beginning so it can be done by the time I'm back...