MatthewVanitas
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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:
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.
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.