# Duduk making



## Gibbs (May 5, 2012)

I've taken up wood working since finding and playing an Armenian Duduk. It has a very Middle-Eastern sound and at times it can sound a little like a bag pipe. It is made of Apricot wood, about 13 inches long, this for one in the key of A. They can vary in length depending on what key you want to play in....lower or higher, with a 1.2cm hole down the center along with finger holes for making notes. 

Pic of my first project part way though. Top is a duduk from Armenia that came to me via eBay. It is an nice enough duduk, but after getting my "concert quality" duduk made by Master Karen Mukayelyan of Armenia, I decided to use his dimension to make a few of my own.







This is before the holed was drilled down the length, and the waste piece near the mouthpiece was cut off. I still need to drill the finger holes, and finish it. I did taper the end to look more like the far end of the duduk after this picture was taken. You use a special double reed mouthpiece that produces the sound, similar to what you might hear in some backgrounds of movies or television shows. The instrument design is quite old, made in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijani and other areas in that region of the world.






Here is a short video of how the Duduk is made today.
Duduk, How it's Made Today
Beautiful music also by Gevorg Dabaghyan.


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## Gibbs (May 28, 2012)

4th Duduk I made the other night.


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## LoneStar (May 28, 2012)

Pretty neat. Watched the video you linked to, dont know if I could wait 25 years for the wood to properly dry


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## Gibbs (May 29, 2012)

LoneStar said:


> Pretty neat. Watched the video you linked to, dont know if I could wait 25 years for the wood to properly dry


I think there is a lot of "smoke and mirrors" to these videos on how they are made in Armenia. I understand they managed to buy metal working lathes, very cheap after the division of the Soviet Union. They are precise enough to simply dial in and turn out duduk, after duduk after duduk with not that much extra attention. Wood lathes are a bit different. They need measuring and adjusting all along the length to make certain you are keeping it within reason of specific diameter and consistency.


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