Thursday, November 4, 2010

That pesky UAS....

I've been pretty much free of UAS for the past year or so. However, I knew UAS never really goes away and I think I'm getting a little bit of the UAS itch again. I have already ordered a Lanikai Zebrawood concert that I really have no business getting (should be arriving on today). And now I'm getting intrigued by a relative newcomer to the ukulele world. Mya-Moe.

Mya-Moe (pronounced "Mai-ya, Mo-eh") came onto the scene with some interesting resonator ukuleles in 2008. While I found them kind of interesting, I had pretty much no interest in them when I first learned about Mya-Moe because I had already went through a National resonator and decided that resonators weren't for me. I really had not paid too much attention to this builder after some initial surfing of their website. They did build traditional ukuleles, but they were not true customs in the sense that you can design whatever you want, but rather more like built to order models with options limited to wood choices and appointments.

Fast forward to now. Since the arrival of my long awaited Glyph mezzo-soprano, I had gotten a jolt of motivation to learn some new songs and also started checking out ukuleles again (it also helped that I had acquired a "grail" in the "other" hobby). Mya-Moe has been getting some serious buzz on the Ukulele Underground forums, so I've been taking a closer look. What I found intrigued me quite a bit. For starters, I've long wanted a ukulele made with Myrtle wood, as forecasted before. Mya-Moe seems to have made Myrtle one of the main options for their ukuleles, as their location makes Myrtle a local wood. Even though I have a Myrtle Ko'olau CE-1, it really doesn't count because I think the wood on these ukes are purely decorative. Another thing that intrigued me about Mya-Moe is that they build using a "production line" approach and their output of about 140 ukes a year gives them the unique opportunity to refine their ukes in rapid order. This makes sense because compared to a typical custom ukulele luthier, they build much more ukuleles and can try and learn more stuff in a shorter period of time. Yet the output isn't so huge that they can't individually work on each ukulele. While the ukes still aren't true customs in my book, they receive individual attention from the luthiers and the end product promises to sound as good or even better than a typical custom built ukulele.

So I've been contemplating the possibility of adding a Mya-Moe myrtle concert to my stash of ukuleles. I'm not sure how realistic it is at this point, as I REALLY don't need another ukulele, and I'm low on play money at the moment (3 kids sure costs a lot of moola! LOL!), but if I really wanted to order one, I think I can sell off some of my collection of "stuff" to fund it. I guess since I'm even writing this post, the possibility of it happening is kind of high. We'll see. Haha!

In the event this does happen, you can be sure I'll write something about that here. I guess UAS resides in my blood....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do let us know which one's you're selling on the UU forums!

TheJumpingFlea said...

Here is a video with my Myrtle uke from Mya Moe. I *love* this instrument.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukKA-DUuduI

GX9901 said...

Hey Matt,

I've seen your video and your Mya-Moe definitely fueled my curiosity about them. I actually need people to discourage me from getting more ukes though, so you're not helping me. LOL!

Lexxy said...

I wonder which ones you're going to sell..Hmmm.

Which uke should I bring on my next trip to Oahu???

What's the maximum you'd spend on a ukulele case for your best uke?

If you could steal one of my ukes, which one would it be???

How curly do you like your koa? (preferably on a uke)

What's the maximum number of ukes a perfectly sane person should have???

Poll: How often do you play the ukulele???

Poll: Which guitar company's approach to ukes do you prefer???

Poll: What's your favorite type of headstock???

Poll: The new basic Collings concert uke (UC-1) sells for about $1k, your reaction is: