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Hanna Nahat oud restoration

12/7/2016

This Hanna Nahat oud was made in 1910, Damascus Syria. It belonged to my clients grandfather, and comes from a family of musicians.. so this oud had a lot of playing on it. Coincidentally it had a lot of bad repairs. As a luthier, one of the most challenging thing about doing a restoration is going over bad previous repairs. The soundboard not being original, it was replaced after realizing the braces were notched behind the fragile bone rosettes. There was no strong emotional attachment to the soundboard which also had long cracks in various places. The oud was restored to "Nahat" parameters. The rosette had some pieces missing, and so not much able to be done about that. Scroll through the slide show to see the work being done in chronological order.

John Vergara

Luthier's blog for Lord of the Strings

Testimonials:
6/16/20
Simon Shaheen:
"Master luthier"

6/23/16 Ara Dinkjian, NJ:
"I met John Vergara at the Woodstock Invitational Luthier’s Showcase where he was displaying his finely constructed guitars and Arab-style ouds. Recently, I brought him a student’s oud which had developed a crack in its spruce face. Upon seeing John’s workshop, I was taken by how meticulous he is in organizing his tools. He did a wonderful job with the repair. As a result, I brought a couple of my ouds which needed more complicated work. Once again, he did a wonderful job.
It is obvious that John Vergara is passionate about his work. In return, we should be grateful to have him in our lives."

2/22/16 George Ziadeh, NYC:
"John vergara superb Arab oud luthier his ouds are young but they already sound like an old Nahat ."

2/15/15 Faraj Abyad, NYC: "Just wanted to say that I've been playing my "new" instruments non stop lately. Can't get my hands off them. Your work is amazing. They really sound like completely new instruments. The Oud and my violin sound so much better. And my friends violin I can tell will sound awesome once I put the new strings on. I highly recommend buying some good strings for the one you made. I think it'll take it to a whole new level. Even though it sounds amazing already."

Hanna Nahat oud restoration

John Vergara

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