Talk About A Turkish Blues

New single by the award winning composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol playing a custom built electric oud Luthier: Mac Ritchey “Ever since I started to experiment with the oud in jazz settings, which would be about 20 years ago, I have always dreamt of having a true electric oud complete with magnetic pickups and steel strings. This was mainly due to acoustic ouds creating feedback in such settings as well as the unsatisfying timbres of what are advertised as electric ouds on the market – personally, I feel that there is something quite repulsive about the timbre of the electric ouds on the market which rely on nylon strings and no magnetic pickups. It was only several years ago when I discovered that my good friend Mac Ritchey was already experimenting with building electric ouds. As a result, I asked him to build an electric oud for me that would be a semi-hollow body with magnetic (and piezo) pickups as well as steel strings. This would transform the traditional oud into an electric instrument simil