Videos with William King Long Scale Tenor

I finally got around to recording a couple of videos using the William King long scale tenor 'ukulele I got a couple of months ago. It's far and away my favorite and I think the videos captures some of the nice tone this uke offers up. Hopefully you'll enjoy these.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps:


Going to California:

Lineup Update

It's been a while since I've done one of these lineup updates. (or updates of any kind) I finally found some time to take some pictures of all of my ukes. It's grown to 13 ukes now with still a few in the works. I definitely need to be getting rid of some of these ukes to keep things sane. The hard part is, almost all of these have some redeeming quality that makes it hard to part with. But I'm going to have to make some decisions soon.

New this time around are: William King LS-tenor, Pono Ebony Dlx, Compass Rose Walnut, National Mahogany, and Kiwaya KTS-7. Except for the King LS-tenor, these are "curiosity buys". I would say that the Kiwaya is the only one of the "curiosity buys" that was completely satisfying. The Pono Ebony Dlx is pretty nice, but it pales in comparison to the King. (then again, the 12 other ukes I have pales in comparison to the King) It stands out because I got it just a few weeks before taking delivery of the King and they both have spruce tops. It's not fair for the Pono but that's how it worked out. The National has a very unique sound that's loud and piercing. I'm not sure it's for me, but I do think it's a high quality uke. The Compass Rose came to me with very high action, which was very disappointing since I've read that Compass Rose ukes have almost exceedingly low action. I'm attempting to adjust it lower, but haven't had much time to do it, so it has been sitting in its case.

Anyway, below are some closer shots of each group of ukes I currently have. Enjoy.

Tenors & Baritone: Compass Rose Walnut, Pono Ebony Dlx, Pineapple Sunday, William King LS-tenor, Koa Works, Tom Guy Cigarbox, Bushman Cedartone Baritone.

Concerts: Pete Howlett Uklectic, Kanile'a "Custom SS", National Mahogany, Honu Super Dlx.


Sopranos: Kiwaya KTS-7, '30s Martin Style 1.

Kiss from a Gypsy Rose?

Well, over a year after placing the order for the Kepasa Little Mac/Gypsy Rose, I finally got to see a few pictures! Kevin Crossett sent me a link with a few pictures of the top, back, & bent sides of the Gypsy Rose. He had 2 redwood tops ready and I got to choose one. I went with the striped one on the left side.
The uke is obviously not completed yet and I have not idea when it will, but at least there are some parts completed. Hopefully it won't be that long before it's done. It's certainly a cool looking uke.

Long time no post

Hmm...I'm not sure how many are still checking out this blog, since I haven't posted in over a month. I'm going to try to post some stuff soon. I've actually got a lot of 'ukulele material I could be posting, but I really haven't had much time. What I'll do here is share some of what I could be posting and hopefully get around to some of these in the near future.

As my last post indicated, I have acquired a Kiwaya KTS-7, Compass Rose walnut tenor, and a mahogany National concert (all used). So I could possibly be reviewing these some day. The Compass Rose was a huge disappointment though, as it arrived to me with very high action and the supposed D-TAR pickup is actually just some unknown passive pickup. I kept it anyway figuring I'd fix up the action, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. The other two "new" ukes are both really nice.

So now I have 13 ukes in my possession. Truth be told, I pretty much only play a few of them these days. By far the most playing time goes to the William King LS-tenor. I also play the Bushman Baritone a little bit for the different sound. The Bluegrass cigar box also gets some occasional play as it sits in my office right now. The Kanile'a supersoprano is now tuned to ADF#B and once in a while I bust it out for some Schizophrenic Snowflakes (by Aldrine Guerrero). Other than that, I haven't played the other ones much other than a few courtesy playing time. So I think I'll need to thin the herd sometime before the winter.

I really would like to post some videos with the King tenor and perhaps do some commentary on it, so that's probably the first new thing I'll post on this blog. Not sure when I'll get around to it, but hopefully not too long from now.

I'll try to get a lineup update picture in sometime and also rank them all.

Despite already having too many ukes, I still have a few custom ones on order. The Glyph mezzo-soprano is scheduled to be built in a year and a half, so that's a long ways off. The Kepasa Gypsy Rose was supposed to be completed this past March. It is now July and I have not heard from Kevin Crossett about it for 3 months, so I'm not expecting to ever see it. That's fine with me as I already have too many ukes. It's a good thing there was never any deposit involved for this uke. I had also ordered a Santo reproduction soprano from Mike DaSilva a couple of months ago. I'm not sure when that's going to be done, but perhaps September or October. So that's what's coming (or not coming, in the case of the Kepasa) in the future.

Anyway, that's the plan for now. I hope to at least get around to some of these. If you're still reading this blog, thank you very much.