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A broken or damaged instrument will not get played and will deteriorate with
neglect. Repair instruction is detailed in the book "The
Oud, Construction & Repair". Fill out the form or email for
details.
Some Common Problems and solutions:
- Slipping or sticking pegs make tuning difficult and unreliable. Click
here for Installing wooden pegs instructions
by Dwain
Wilder.
- A worn fingerboard causes strings to buzz or rattle. Sand it flat with a
sanding block as long and wide as the fingerboard. Start with 100 grit, then
200, 400 and polish with 0000 steel wool. Apply a little oil (any vegetable
oil) to condition the wood.
- A loose neck joint makes the action too high. You can re-glue it easily
if it is hide glue. Test the glue with a warm water. If it softens, you
might be able to just push it back together. Otherwise try epoxy to re-glue
the joint.
- Loose or split soundboard braces can cause buzzing and lose volume
and/or tone. A difficult repair, the rose must be loosened and dropped into
the body. Long clamps may be necessary to re-glue the braces.
- Cracks in the soundboard or back ribs can lose volume or buzz or rattle
as the crack will dissipate vibration. Glue hair-line cracks and fill open
seams with wood slivers of matching material.
- A warped face interferes with the strings' vibration. Some ouds are made
with flat soundboards. These will distort under the string tension and raise
up around the large rose, sometimes enough to interfere with the strings when
vibrating. This can be remedied by removing the edging at the sides and
trimming down the top edge of the top rib. This will lower the face to
provide clearance for the strings.
- A warped body causes high action. This can be remedied by resetting the
angle of the neck or lifting the face and trimming down the top edge of the
body. See the Neck Re-Set page.
- My favorite repair information resource is the
Items for
Luthiers page, a huge information site by
Frank Ford,
the Guru of Guitar repair - lots of useful ideas here.
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