I am of the belief that "tone wood" is nonsense. Many oud makers have perfectly good ouds that not only don't use metal strings with electric guitar pickups, but also seem to do nothing about piezo-electric pickups against nylon strings. I got quoted $1800 for a 9-string oud by some time in 2026. It is probable to me that a plank of wood, with nothing more than stable tuning and a flat neck will suffice. A few hundred dollars should suffice:
- a sufficiently rigid body for good tuning stability
- low friction from bridge to tuning pegs, for good tuning stability (a little harder)
- easily substituted nut and bridge to get correct action, and as little fingering stretch on the string as possible
- most of the pricing can end up going into non-functional art, and craftsmanship. my main issue is to get something built that you cannot buy off of any shelf. it has to be custom made.
Once you decide to NOT use frets, you may have a string instrument that is so simple that anyone could build it with primitive tools. There is a reason that an Oud is the predecessor to guitars.
Top side (could be 3D printer bed if it were not made of wood, or printed with a subtractive wood printer.
Bottom side that shows where pegs would go, with guesses on diameters.
