Stenzel Guitars & Ouds

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Generally, wood suitable for instrument making is very rare, and only special trees from any species qualify. This is especially the case with prunus, the family cherry belongs to. But when I found this piece, I knew immediately what to do with it. It has very different acoustic properties from any other cherry I have worked with, maybe because it was stored for many many decades, so long, in fact, that it felt half petrified to me, when I was resawing and bending the ribs.

I built this oud so that the 7th course can be either in the bass, as it is, or in the treble. Currently, it is stringed Ā, D, GG, AA, dd, gg, c'c'. (Yes, you counted correctly - one peg is empty.) But it could just as well be stringed C, FF, AA, dd, gg, c'c', f'f', for example.