Faruk Turunz: An extraordinary luthier (by E. Powell)

Several years ago when Ross Daly told me that his "very expensive" oud was built by an extraordinary luthier named Faruk Turunz who actually "tunes" his soundboards and it's braces, my interest piqued because of my experience in India and with Budhaditya and his "system" for tuning a sitar's soundboard which proved to be an infallible method for producing an balanced sounding sitar. Could it be also possible to tune an oud's soundboard and braces and thereby be sure each time, of creating a balanced sounding oud? After playing just a few notes on Ross's 'Faruk oud', I was convinced that Faruk has definitely figured out how to create an excellent sounding oud.

Some weeks later I met Periklis, my first teacher of makams, who also had a Faruk oud. Periklis, an expert on everything related the oud, spoke very highly of Faruk and his instrument building. It then occurred to me that this was a man I must meet one day, especially since both Ross and Periklis confirmed that Faruk is very open to discussing and sharing his knowledge and secrets with those genuinely interested.

A couple of years after that, I found myself with a sudden and strong urge to play Turkish oud... and since I did not have any immediate plans to go to Turkey I decided to build a copy of a Faruk oud according to detailed drawings I had previously made of Ross's Faruk oud. When it came time to prepare the soundboard I visited Faruk's website where he explains in detail how he tunes his braces, and the complex mathematical formulae he employs. I read and digested all this information and before beginning the actually work, I contacted Faruk via email and to my surprise found him very helpful and encouraging - even though we had never met in person.

I admit that I could not get his math formula to work completely, but the oud turned out quite well in any case.

The following winter I was again on Crete at Ross Daly's musical center, and it was there that I got the inspiration to come up with a design for my triple-neck fretless guitar (Ragmakamtar). Upon returning from Crete I spent 6 intensive weeks building a successful prototype for this new guitar. Later that year I found myself in Istanbul on a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, to study oud with Necati Celik. Obviously this was my chance to meet Faruk, so off I went to his workshop with my tripleneck fretless guitar in hand.

Faruk and I became friends immediately and at the end of our first meeting he invited me to come and build, with his help, a new version or the my Ragmakamtar. How could I refuse? Needless to say, over the next 8 months I was in his workshop almost daily, building, receiving guidance, materials, and even food, from Faruk and his small team of colleagues - all straight from the generosity of their hearts, without being expected to pay even one Lira.

Every day before entering Faruk's workshop I said a small prayer that I may not take for granted the astonishing generosity I was receiving. I learned an enormous amount from Faruk, his partner Svat, and helpers Isa and Yusuf, and more than that, we became dear friends - like a small family.

Faruk's tuning system is remarkable. It is based on the premise that the soundboard is an amplifier. All of the frequencies which the strings are able to produce are duplicated in various parts of the soundboard. The strings vibrate - this vibration is transfered through the bridge to the soundboard. Once the energy is in the soundboard, it "searches" for areas of the same frequencies and rushes to those areas, energizing them and thus producing audible sound. Therefore an oud will sound balanced when the soundboard contains areas which resonate at the desired frequencies in correct proportions. If a soundboard is too thin and flexible it will sound too bassy and flat. If the soundboard is too heavy and thick it will sound hard and metalic.

The first big eye-opener for me was when Faruk helped me to see that when trying to determine what are the "ideal" frequencies to strive to replicate, one does not simply think in terms of the notes of an oud's full register. Yes those frequencies must be there, but what is just as important are the overtones which must be included. Faruk explained that the fundamental plus the first 6 overtones must all be present in the correct proportion in order to achieve a pleasant sounding oud. This truth produces a number of paradoxes; for example, it is not only the flexible parts of a soundboard that produce a nice sound for the bass strings. The 5th and 6th overtones of the bass strings are in fact very high frequencies and must be there to give a brilliant shining sound. The high overtones require very stiff regions of the soundboard.

Faruk, through hundreds of experiments, has identified what are the desirable combinations of frequencies an oud's soundboard needs in order to sound great. Next Faruk has discovered a math formula with which he is able to apply to the combined frequencies of the tuned soundboard, and the tuned braces once they are glued in place. The result is that Faruk is able to predetermine what kind of sound his next oud will have, and using his formula and his tuning tools, achieve this sound. I watched him do this for 8 months. In this time he created about 40 soundboards... each one sounded fantastic!

Equally astonishing and worthy of credit is Faruk's partner Svat, who is a mechanical genious. I nicknamed him "Einstein" but he preferred to be compared to Thomas Edison. In any case, if he was a less spiritual being he could easily be earning millions working for NASA. Svat has revolutionized the mechanical aspects of oud building through the invention and creation of dozens of space-age apparatus which are mostly used in combination with very refined power tools in order to create with mind-boggling speed and surgical accuracy the individual parts of an oud. Thereafter, these parts are individually assembled by hand, and with love, by Faruk's right hand man, a brilliant craftsman, Isa. The fourth member of the team, Yusuf, aside from being a wonderful cook, is totally devoted to creating the perfectly constructed backs for all of Faruk's ouds.

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