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2.8

Average

TrustScore 3 out of 5

9 reviews

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1-star

Hasn’t replied to negative reviews

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The oud was a complete disappointment …

The oud was a complete disappointment for such a high price! What is supposed to be cedar on the face of the instrument turned out to be a laminate that cracked and started to come off! One of the string pairs buzzes pretty bad which I believe was caused by putting mother of pearl on the bridge!
I feel a bit duped! But live and learn!
I wrote to the sales office and gave them some advice to help them succeed if they want to. They seem to accept it. The people seem to be nice but as the french say:” Service, service camarade après “.

10 December 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Horrible quality Oud and extremely…

Horrible quality Oud and extremely overpriced. Also they are zionist Israeli company posing as "Arab Instruments"

Complete scam and they hide their identity and location to fool people. Typical behavior.

Don't buy anything from this company.

15 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I bought a flute from them and even…

I bought a flute from them and even though it was more expensive than any of the other websites I assumed the good feedback on the website meant it was better quality. It arrived and i was in shock for a few minutes. Horrible quality and looks like it was made by a chinese infant for a meal voucher. Not something that cost 70 pounds. Pieces of plastic stuck out in areas and they have not even bothered cleaning it. I am concerned for my health so I refuse to try to use it until I sanitise that disgusting tip. Extremely disappointed.

On a separate note, in case someone else tries to buy from them unknowingly, the "arab" instruments company ships from Israel and the founder is Isreali. Nothing on the website explicitly mentions any such thing and they want you to assume it is an arab or turkish company. Make of that what you will.

1 February 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I bought a drum from them

I bought a drum from them . in the pictures looked beautiful . I paid around 500 dlls for it.
when the drum arrived the head was all scrachted . the drum looked ok at first sight but once I started looking closer the drum had so many details in the painting that were unnaceptable .
so I called customer service and they just responded that all drums are handmade and unique and if I wanted to return the drum I had to paid shipping back to Israel and if the drum gets damaged in the shipping process they wont be respponsible.
so they sent me a new head and bottom protector " to make me happy"
I am not happy at all , and I will never buy a drum from them.
I own around 20 more drums so I know about drums and quality.
never buy from this company

9 May 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

they deleted me as a customer with all my purchsases

i ordered a darbuka with them and a lot of small equipment. i bought also all the videos from them. i try to log into my account order a new darbuka and re download the videos. my account was deleted. i spoke to the chat and asked where i can re download the videos and if they can send me a new password for my account. the customer service answered i was not in the list anymore. so i asked what happened with my purchases. they asked for an order number. i scrolled my email account until i found a lot of ordering numbers and proofed that i am a customer. the customerservice answered. the access is only valid a year!!
why did you ask me for an order number when you know you deleted me. you hoped i wouldnt find the receipts.. and why you dont announce anywhere until today that the customer have access only a year?

btw they werent really friendly but they send me a link to rebuy them.

all in all i can not recommend their service. they are sending you your product for your money, but they dont provide any after care, friendliness or service.

that was the reason that i bought today (one week later) my new darbuka from gahwarettelfan original homepage. lets see what kind of service they provide.

in my opinion you should not support a non transparent company with that little to nothing customer care. if they offer you to buy twice the same thing they are only interested in you money.

i also dont think that they are really smart business people. someone who sends you many receipts and proof himself a loyal customer, you dont trade 15€ euro for a potental buy of 500€.

this behavior comes equal to a maximum of greed or an IQ of a flying duck!

luckily i found the darbuka videos on dropbox and thank you for protecting me with your chat behavior from a rebuy..

3 January 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

UNPROFESSIONAL AND RUDE

UNPROFESSIONAL AND RUDE
THEY DO NOT WANT TO REVEAL LOCATION.
UNPROFESSIONAL AND RUDE TONE.
I WILL NOT GIVE THESE .... ONE CENT.
I DONT RECOMMEND ANYONE TO BUY FROM THEM.
THERE ARE OTHER BAD REVIEWS... CLEARLY IT SHOWS WHAT THEY ARE.
this is writeen about them on mikeouds...
Regarding Arab Instruments, i find it ironic that a Company based in Israel owned by an Israeli Assaf Kassel should be called Arab instruments, they try to hide this fact by having no address on their website which is suspicious in my opinion. The number is NYC and they state that they're based in the Middle East no mention of Israel, I wonder why. There is a lack of transparency, I wonder how many customers would make a different buying decision if they new that this was an Israeli owned Company trying to sell Arabic instruments to amongst many of its customers lots of Arabs.

1 January 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I got used and damaged electric Oud

I got used and damaged electric Oud. Its body is damaged from the neck, side and back due to friction with human body. Addition to that scratches from everywhere, the paint and polish were very bad and the paint quickly disappears from it. Moreover, since it is an electric oud, it has equalizer attached to it, but it is broken so it is stuck and can't be removed.
The most dangerous thing about this company is that remove negative reviews on their website. I was fooled when I saw it and bought the oud based on the good reviews there.

Update [26/07/2021]. The oud in fact was broken. Its headstock was broken and fixed in very poor way. I and now again it broke out from the same place.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE TO BUY FROM THIS COMPANY, THEY ARE FRAUDSTERS!!

27 May 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I Don't recommend it to anyone

I bought a music instrument from this website and it was very bad quality and very expensive compared to other websites.
I was fooled by the positive feedback on the products but when i tried to write my experience, it didn't go through, so obviously they have some type of filtering to the negative feedback.
Please be careful.

23 May 2021
Unprompted review

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