Turkish Oud – Mahogany & Ovenkol

The Oud is a short-neck stringed instrument belonging to the Lute-family. It has a “pear” shape front face and a deep round back. The Oud is fretless and has, most commonly, 11 strings divided into 6 courses (The deepest is single while the others in pairs), but can also be found with 7 or 5 courses with respectively 13 or 10 strings.

Modern-day ouds fall into three categories: Arabian, Turkish, and Persian.
Arabian Ouds are larger than the Turkish and Persian counterparts, and produce a fuller and deeper sound, while the sound of the Turkish Oud is normally higher pitched and have a “brighter timbre”. Turkish ouds tend to be more lightly constructed than the Arabian ones and have a lower string action with string courses placed closer together.

Both the Arabic and Turkish Oud have many different tunings, but it is important to remember that the strings that belong to the same courses are always tuned to Unison or Octaves apart.

Most common Arabic Oud Tunings (From Lowest pitch to Highest)

C – F – A – D – G – C
C – G – D – A – G – C
D – G – A – D – G – C

Most common Turkish Oud Tunings (From Lowest pitch to Highest)

D – G – B – E – A – D
D – F# – B – E – A – D
C# – F# – B – E – A – D

Our Ouds are Handmade in Turkey using high quality materials and are available for testing at Gandharva Loka Music Store, come check them out yourself!