THE OUD...

...is one of my bugbears - they are beautiful & sometimes incredibly well made. But they are of design, necessarily ultra-fragile.

With this one the head stock had come badly unstuck & had been "repaired" by an optimistic cowboy... Followed by inevitable regret.

Not a difficult job - but putting the strings back on requires an alarming amount of Merchant Navy vocabulary - luckily Cécile understands this - she's developing a plausible vocabulary of her own! :o)