Godin MultiOud: NAMM Show 2011

By: Staff

Canadian guitar maker Godin had a very interesting and diverse collection of guitars and other stringed instruments at this year’s NAMM show. One of the instruments that immediately caught our eyes as we walked into the Godin exhibit is the new MultiOud. Now, we know the Oud isn’t the most popular instrument out there, but once we saw and heard what the MultiOud can do, well, we were more than intrigued at this cool, multi-stringed instrument.

Luckily Godin’s Press and Artist Relations man Richard Bunze was on hand to give us the lowdown on this cool looking new instrument.

Godin MultiOud NAMM 2011

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“This is the MultiOud that we’re totally psyched about, and obviously you’re not going to see this anywhere else. What we did, was adapt the instrument for today’s Oud players. Obviously it’s targeted to the Middle East vibe; Turkey, Greece, Istanbul where most of these musicians are based, and so far they’ve been thrilled. They’re so excited by the fact that they can amplify their Oud now.

Basically what you have here is an Oud that you can tune. We have custom-designed tuning machines, which is something totally new for an Oud. Because beforehand, what you had were like giant violin pegs, which made the Oud almost impossible to tune and keep in tune. So, we rectified the situation.

Players can now keep their Oud in tune and it will stay in tune. But the biggest benefit, because of the way it’s designed inside, you have these chambers with a thinner body, so less sound is getting into it from the outside, from say a full band. And the custom electronics allow you to amplify it and really crank the volume on it.

You can rock out on an Oud on stage and you’re not going to get any feedback, which is the biggest benefit for an Oud player. So, the MultiOud is something totally new and ahead of its time. But, maybe it is time for a MultiOud.

It’s got a solid spruce top, a solid mahogany body, nice solid wood back plate, bolt-on neck, ebony fingerboard, fretless, nylon strings, and you can get it in with two finishes. This is something that’s also totally new for the Oud, it’s a steel string. The natural finish MultiOud is nylon stringed, and the other is steel string. Try one out, it’s unbelievable.

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