Robin,

Don't get me wrong, tuning is good--it's just that it turns out that there is no way to tune things that will make everybody happy--

As a guitar player, I am used to playing an instrument that it is impossible to tune-also, it turns out that, if you do accidently get it in tune, it doesn't sound right--Those old Tex-Mex 12-string players couldn't keep the octave strings in tune above the 3rd fret, and they always played up the neck. I was once playing some polkas with a couple friends--they kept telling me I didn't sound quite right--finally one guy grabbed the Low E octave string peg and twisted it down almost a half step--everyone agreed it sounded better--

Mark,

I played saz only until I got to know a bunch of Turkish students, all of whom could pick the thing up and play much better than I did--maybe not technically, but in terms of the "feel". Finally just tucked it away and went back to my guitar--You're lucky to have Lebanese neighbors--they have great music, great food, and they love to dance! Also, at least in my experience, very friendly and welcoming--I had a couple Lebanese musician friends that played keyboards with me in high school(both had had to learn accordian to play for church events!) and consequently I play Miserlou real well--

When I was in Philly, I was connected with the Lebanese/Arabic/MiddleEastern community, as well--A favorite tuning related story, is about a keyboard player friend who complained about the fact that the fellow who booked musicians to play for dancing at the Middle East Restaurant there used to book a Druse Oud player and an Armenian clarinet player to play together--The problem was that Armenian used Western Scales, the Druse(a very exotic religious sect from the Lebanese mountains) used Arabic Makams, complete with quarter tones and Pythagorean tuning--and he had to figure out how to play chords underneath it--