Description
The Turkish Oud Smyrna opens the new Tapadum Sultan Collection — a line built for players who want a genuinely playable Turkish oud without a professional-grade price tag. Named for İzmir’s historic Aegean identity, the Smyrna carries a solid cedar soundboard and a hand-assembled mahogany bowl, giving new players an instrument that responds honestly to the hand rather than fighting it.
The cedar soundboard is the first thing that shapes this oud’s voice. Cedar tops set faster than spruce, so the Smyrna opens up early — a real advantage for a beginner instrument, since the player hears the tonal reward of practice sooner. The grain runs straight and even across the pear-shaped top, framing a central rosette and two smaller side soundholes, each filled with an ornate mother-of-pearl-style inlaid rose that is as much a visual signature as an acoustic one.
Turn the instrument over and the mahogany and black bowl construction is immediately visible: narrow mahogany staves alternate with black ribs in a tight, hand-fitted radial pattern, finished to a deep gloss that highlights every seam. This striped construction is a hallmark of workshop-built Turkish ouds — it distributes tension evenly around the bowl and gives the instrument its rounded, resonant low end. The neck carries a smooth black fingerboard with a traditional silver rose inlay at the body joint, and the pegbox is fitted with wooden oud pegs on a geared mechanism, which hold tuning far more reliably than the friction pegs found on many entry ouds — a small detail that matters most in a beginner’s first months of daily tuning.
Strung with a set of Kürschner Classic 109 strings, the Smyrna is set up and ready to tune out of the box. Kürschner’s Classic series is a trusted reference among Turkish oud players for balanced tension and a warm, present midrange — the register where Turkish maqam ornamentation and taqsim phrasing live.
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Soundboard | Cedar |
| Bowl | Mahogany & Black |
| Pegs | Wooden Oud Pegs |
| Strings | Kürschner Classic 109 |
| Body Length | 49 cm |
| Neck Length | 19.5 cm |
| Scale Length | 58.5 cm |
The Smyrna is built for new players — students picking up their first Turkish oud, or players moving up from a low-cost import who want a soundboard that actually resonates and pegs that hold tune through a full practice session. Its shorter 58.5 cm scale and 49 cm body keep the reach comfortable for developing left-hand technique, while the cedar top’s fast response rewards the ear immediately, which keeps motivation high in the early months of practice.
Tonally, the Smyrna sits at home in Turkish classical repertoire — fasıl ensemble playing, taqsim improvisation, and the modal maqam vocabulary at the core of Ottoman music. Players coming from a deeper-bodied Arabic oud will notice the brighter, more focused mid-range typical of the Turkish oud tradition, which favors quick ornamented passages over sustained bass.
Care is straightforward: keep the instrument away from direct heat and sudden humidity swings, wipe the strings and soundboard after playing, and store it in a padded oud case or gig bag between sessions. The geared wooden pegs need no lubrication and hold their setting well, but a light check before each practice session keeps intonation accurate as the wood settles in its first months. For background on the instrument’s construction and history, see the Wikipedia entry on the oud.
Worldwide shipping & 15-day return.
