Until the mid-20th century the top three strings of Ouds were installed with gut, a material that had been used for thousand of years and that combines excellent promptness of attack with brilliance of timbre – very different, in other words, from modern nylon strings. And until recently the typical sound quality of gut has been a constant point of reference for Oud-makers, composers and performers alike.
Aquila Corde offers three different flavours for Oud string sets:
OUD REDS
Full sets and single strings for Arabic, Iraqi and Turkish Oud.
Treble strings are made with a newly discovered high-performance bioplastic called Sugar. Wound strings are made of an an-allergic red copper winding (except for the third strings of the Arabic and Turkish sets, and for the fourth strings of the Iraqi set, that are wound with a special grey colored metal blend) with low noisiness under the left hand’s fingers
technical details
- STRING: Synthetic and wounded strings
- COLOUR: All strings are red
- MATERIALS:
- Trebles: Sugar
- Basses: Wound strings are made of an an-allergic red copper winding (except for the third strings of the Arabic and Turkish sets, and for the fourth strings of the Iraqi set, that are wound with a special grey colored metal blend)
- The third strings of the Arabic Oud sets (Ré, or D) and Turkish Oud set (Mi, or E), are usually wound strings that have always been difficult to produce, using the commonly available materials (silver-plated copper or varnished copper). To obtain the right tone with the right tensions, very thin windings had to be used, but these led to a fast deterioration of the string, making it more fragile than the rest of the set. Thanks to a constant research on materials, Aquila Corde proposes a innovative solution, guaranteeing at the same time an excellent acoustic performance, great stability and resistance, and a good balance with the rest of the set: a grey metal wound string, offered by default on all our sets, made with a highly resistant and performing wire, completely hypoallergenic, that will satisfy all those players that are accustomed to playing a wound string in that position;
- EQUIVALENCE: Sugar gauge = Nylon gauge x .91
- TENSION: Available only with standard tension (3.4 Kg average for each string).
OUD SUPERNYLGUT - NEW SETS
Trebles are made of supernylgut, while wound string are made with silver-plated copper winding (except for the third strings of the Arabic and Turkish sets, and for the fourth strings of the Iraqi set, that are wound with a special grey colored metal blend).
technical details
- STRING: Synthetic and wounded strings
- COLOR: Trebles are white
- MATERIALS:
- Trebles: Super Nylgut
- Basses: silver-plated copper winding over a special grey colored metal blend
- TENSION: Available only with standard tension (3.4 Kg average for each string).
DEPRECATED SUPERNYLGUT TREBLES
Single strings for Arabic, Iraqi and Turkish Oud.
These strings are the previous version of SuperNylgut sets, featuring supernylgut trebles (white).
The SUPERNYLGUT Oud strings have a charming natural pearl color and a very smooth and polished surface feels like wax. Supernylgut permits a faster setting to proper tune when new and in a tendency of easily maintaining the intonation when reached.
technical details
- STRING: Synthetic strings
- COLOUR: Trebles are white
- MATERIALS:
- Trebles: SuperNylgut
- Third course is offered as a wound string
- TENSION: Available only with standard tension (3.4 Kg average for each string).
AVAILABLE TUNINGS
TURKISH
ARABIC
IRAQI
- dd
- aa
- ee
- BB
- AA
- E
- cc
- gg
- dd
- AA
- FF
- C
- ff
- cc
- gg
- dd
- AA
- F
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