Touch (with background singer!)

I've been meaning to take a video of me playing Jake Shimabukuro's Touch for a while now, but either haven't been able to play it smoothly enough or haven't had time to do it . Well, I decided to give it a try today while my daughters are taking their naps. A couple of takes into it, my 3-year old came downstairs and wanted to "help" me with the video. So she sat on the floor behind me and started singing some song she made up when I started the camera. I ended up with about 4 or 5 takes and each time when I restarted she started singing her song. It was pretty cute even though I have no idea what she was singing. She didn't get tired of singing through the retakes either. Each time I restarted she just started singing. After it was done, she wanted to climb up to my chair and watch the video too. It's so much fun having little kids around. I need to make sure I savor these moments because they grow up in a blink of an eye.

So here we are with a video of Touch played on the William King LS-tenor, complete with background singing by my daughter. Enjoy.

Desperado

I had seen a video of the Eagles' Desperado on ukulele quite some time ago by NatoUkulele on Youtube and thought it was really cool. When Dominator put the tabs on his website, I knew I had to learn it. I've learned this song for a while now, but have not gotten around to posting a video of it until now. It's pretty easy to play and sound decent on the William King long scale tenor with its low action and crystal clear notes. Hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Yeah, I screwed up toward the end. Perhaps I'll try another take sometime later....

Pineapple Delight

KoAloha Ukuleles is known for building great sounding ukuleles that are a bit "different" from other ukuleles. From the pointy headstock to the Musubi soundhole to the Unibrace, KoAloha builds some of the more distinctive ukuleles available today. One of the more distinctive models they offer is the Pineapple Sunday.

When I first saw one of these it was love at first sight. The normal "pineapple" ukes had not been something I was too interested in, but this looked great to me. Everything on it contributed to what I consider a "true" pineapple look. It has the pointy headstock. The bridge has a spiky appearance. The upper bout has a pointy shape. And of course, its top is debossed with a pineapple pattern. The ukulele just looked great to me. I had also read many testimonies from various internet forums regarding this ukulele. In just about every instance, it was held in very high regard. So I knew it was a great sounding ukulele as well.

At around June of 2007, I decided to pull the trigger on one of these babies. At the time, the Pineapple Sunday was close to be retired, as KoAloha had planned to offer a new "Masterpiece Series" ukulele soon. (they have since brought it out of retirement due to great demand) I thought if I wanted one I had better act soon. So I found one from Hawaii Music Supply.

I had very high expectations for this ukulele at the time, and I was more than satisfied with it upon receiving it. It looked as good as the pictures indicated. And it played and sounded much better than anything I had experienced at the time (admittedly I was only about half a year into ukuleles and the best uke I have a the time was a G-String soprano). It was my first venture into the high-end of ukulele world, and I was blown away.

So what do I think of it now, about a year and a half after acquiring the Pineapple Sunday? I still think it is a marvelous ukulele. It remains the easiest player in my collection, with action lower than both the William King and Koa Works tenor. (this is not a given on Pineapple Sundays though. I played one in Hawaii in January, 2008 that had almost unplayable action) Because it is strung with Worth BL (light) strings, the string tension is pretty light. Coupled with the low action, it is really easy to play. The Pineapple shape also works very well. It is easy to hold, and the upper bout is essentially like a cutaway, so access to the higher frets is very easy. It is quite neck heavy though, since it is more or less a super concert sized uke with a pretty heavy headstock that has sealed Grover tuners. Some might not like the neck-heaviness of this uke. I personally don't have an issue with it, but I do notice it each time I play the uke.

Sound-wise, I would describe it as a mix of ukulele, mandolin, and a pinch of resonator uke. It is higher pitched sounding than most ukes and has excellent volume. I've come to prefer a more percussive and boomy sound produced by bigger bodied tenors such as the William King tenor and Kanile'a super tenor, but the sound of the Pineapple Sunday is still first rate and definitely very unique.

I think my Pineapple Sunday is probably from the middle or end of the first run of these ukes before its first "retirement". It has a Pineapple Sunday specific soundhole label and Tusq nut and saddle where the early ones have a standard KoAloha soundhole label and ebony nut and saddle. Current production Pineapple Sundays have a few different details. It now has a rectangular bridge with ebony reinforcement instead of the spiked all koa bridge mine has. I believe it's due to the problem of strings cutting into the softer koa on too many of these ukes. Mine also had this problem but the cut was not too deep into the wood and I have since made some "grommets" from old credit card to to prevent the strings from digging into the wood (you can see in the above picture). I think the old version of this bridge looks much cooler, but I guess KoAloha had to do something to stop the "bridge cutting" complaints. The other updated detail seems to be koa bindings on the fretboard instead of ebony bindings. I personally think the ebony bindings look a bit more classy. I suppose KoAloha is trying to find way to maximize their koa stock, and I can't blame them in this economy.

All in all, the Pineapple Sunday is a very good and very unique ukulele. It plays and sounds great and probably has a lot of collector's value down the road. If you enjoy a higher pitched sound from your ukulele and like the styling of this uke, I would highly recommend it.

Here's an old video of me playing the Pineapple Sunday a little over a year ago. Yes, I sucked at playing ukulele even more back then.

Koa impluse

Over the last few weeks, I let my curiosity get the best of me and pulled the trigger on 2 tenor ukuleles that I probably should not have gotten given how many tenors I already have in my possession. It didn't help that musicguymic lowered the price on both of these tenors while the Microsoft cash back deal was at 25% & 30%. So I essentially got the Kelii tenor for about $350 and the Kanile'a super tenor for $580, assuming the cash back actually happens. If not, they were still good deals, so I was comfortable pulling the trigger on them. (I will really need to get rid of some ukes from the "inventory" though :P)

The reason I wanted the Kelii is because it has a slightly longer tenor scale at 17.25" and I had not tried one in Hawaii. I've heard good things about Kelii ukes for a long time now so I've been curious about them. It seemed that Kelii ukes are in the class of other Hawaiian made ukes (such as KoAloha & Kanile'a) at a much lower price, so I wanted to see for myself.

As for the Kanile'a super tenor, I had been curious about it's larger body since I first saw it online. I thought it looked really ugly (reminded me of a fat kid's face with puffy cheeks) but when I was in Hawaii last year and saw a few in person they didn't look as bad, and I liked the deeper/fuller sound the larger body produced. MGM had one in his ebay store for a while that looked like it had some really nice koa. When he put that one up for sale a on black Friday, coupled with the 30% cash back, I could not resist it.

So now I find myself with 2 new koa tenors basically bought on impulse. The Kelii arrived last week and the Kanile'a arrived this week. Both are impressive in their own ways. I've only had them for a very short time, so I can't really review them. But here are some quick thoughts:

Kelii Tenor:

-Nice bright sound. Very good sustain.
-Action was a bit high, and there wasn't much room to lower it.
-Good looking wood. More curly than the average production ukulele.
-The back is much more rounded (a bit of a bowl shape) than other traditional ukes.
-The thinner than normal body does not compromise sound or volume at all.
-Has a nice and beefy neck. Feel thicker than any other tenor I have. I like it.
-I really do not like friction tuners on a tenor ukulele.
-I'd probably slot it in at the #8, behind the Honu concert and in front of the Compass Rose tenor on the most recent ranking list.


Kanile'a Super Tenor:

-Nice deep sound. Boomy. It's near custom level.
-Feels good to play. Has some of the "feedback" that the custom ukes has.
-I think changing the strings to Worth might improve the sound. The Aquilas seem a bit restrained. The sound is not as crisp as it could be. If the Worth strings provide a crisper sound, this would really be an outstanding uke.
-The action is a bit high, but there is a lot of saddle to take down.
-The super tenor shape is still kind of ugly to me, but it does serve it's purpose.
-The large body seem to have less internal volume than my William King long-scale tenor. It's not as deep and long as the King.
-The neck is probably thinner than average. It's actually thinner than my Kanile'a supersoprano that's over a year old. Perhaps Kanile'a changed their neck thickness between then and now. I kind of prefer a thicker neck but this one feels good and I have no issues with it.
-Right now I'd rate it at #4 on the ranking list.

What I really need to do now is to move some ukes from my collection. I suffer from TMUS: Too Many Ukes Syndrome!

Blue Gypsy Roses Falling

A while back I had mentioned that I wanted to learn Gypsy Ukulele in anticipation of my Kepasa Gypsy Rose. Well, as the delivery date of the Gypsy Rose kept getting pushed out, I ended forgetting what I had learned of the tune. So now that I have the Gypsy Rose, the best I could do at the moment as far as posting a video with it is Blue Roses Falling.

I probably did about 6 or 7 takes but kept screwing something up. This is probably the best take before I gave up. I think it does give you an idea of what the Gypsy Rose sounds like.

Updated lineup rankings

Well, it's been forever and a day since I've rated my ukulele lineup. Since the last time, I've acquired many new ukes. Since the last lineup update, I have acquired a Sonny D purpleheart/spruce tenor and the Kepasa Gypsy Rose, while the Pono Ebony Deluxe has been sold off. Also, thanks to the Microsoft cash-back program and some musicguymic sale, I have a Kelii tenor and a Kanile'a super-tenor on the way. In addition, I have a DaSilva Santo reproduction that's being built (ETA unknown), so I'll need to get rid of a few more ukes soon.

The top candidates for liquidation are: Martin style 1 (don't play sopranos much), Compass Rose walnut tenor (probably an easier sale than the Sonny D), Kiwaya KTS-7 (soprano), and possibly the National concert (not a huge resonator fan). Look for some of these ukes to pop up on various ukulele sites and/or ebay in the near future.

OK, so that outlines what's currently in my collection. This time I'll rank the top 10:

1. William King long-scale tenor: William King enjoys a great reputation in the ukulele community and this uke definitely back that up. It has gorgeous master grade (I think) curly koa back & sides and a nice and tidy spruce top. It's also got a Jake Shimabukuro style slotted headstock with my last name in Chinese character (which coincidentally means "King") inlaid in abalone. But the reason it ranks #1 is because it sounds and feels soooooo good. Compared to all other ukes I own, this one has the best clarity and punch when picked or strummed and the feedback I get from it while playing is only experienced in the other two custom level ukes I own. The Mi-Si pickup also works great. Overall, it's far and away my favorite ukulele to play.

2. Kepasa Gypsy Rose: This is the second custom specified ukulele I own and I've been more than satisfied with it since receiving it in October after about a 16 month wait. It sounds as good as the Koa Works tenor and has the distinctive look of a Maccaferri guitar which I love. I also specified a strange headstock that was replicated by Kevin Crossett wonderfully. It's really an outstanding ukulele.

3. Koa Works tenor: This is the first "custom" ukulele I've owned and before receiving my King tenor it was the best sounding and playing ukulele I've played up to that point. It has great artistic appointments and it sounds and plays wonderfully. Along with #1 & #2 on this list, these three ukes are head and shoulders above all other ukes in my collection.

4. Bluegrass Ukulele cigar box tenor: Great sounding and playing uke that has added cigar-box mojo. Now that I have Jake Shimabukuro's autograph on it, it's even more special. It ranks with the best production ukuleles I've played in terms of sound and playability.

5. KoAloha Pineapple Sunday: I loved the shape of this ukulele when I first saw it and it sounds magnificent as well. It has a fairly distinct high pitched sound and is very loud. It's probably the easiest playing uke in my collection and very unique.

6. Kanile'a Custom SS: It's got some great looking curly koa and has a distinct deep sound. I really like the super soprano size and it is very well suited for travel. Looks and sounds great.

7. Honu deluxe concert: I really liked the honu themed design with the honu fretboard markers and bridge. With Worth CD strings, it sounds marvelous. Very long sustain and a nice and pleasant sound.

8. Compass Rose walnut tenor: This is really a great sounding uke. I strung it with a set of D'Addario J71 strings and I think it sounds great. What keeps it from being higher rated on my list is the narrow nut width. I haven't measured it but it is definitely less than 1-3/8", which I already find a bit narrow to begin with (my preferred nut width is 1.5"). So while this is a very nice sounding uke, I haven't found myself playing it too much due to the nut width preference.

9. Sonny D purpleheart tenor: I bought this uke because I was curious about purpleheart and also because I wanted something purple (I'm a Vikings football fan). It's a nice sounding uke but is a bit softer than the Compass Rose. I expected more oommph from the spruce top but it does not have the punch I thought it would have. Still, a sweet sounding uke from a pretty famous (I think) maker.

10. Kala tenor neck spruce top soprano: I got this baby for $110 from Elderly instruments. It really surprised me with pretty good sound and long sustain. I have other ukes that ranks below this one that sounds better, but it's hard to beat the bang for the buck on this uke. It's well made and have all the necessary appointments such as body & fretboard bindings (plastic), side position dots, and geared tuners. It's a great knock around uke.

Well, that's the top 10 rankings from my little collection. You might notice that the National concert and the Kiwaya KTS-7 didn't make the list. Both are great ukes but I just don't play them much. For the National, it's mainly because I'm not that into the resonator sound. While I recognize it's a high quality uke, the sound haven't grabbed me too much. Maybe that will change in the future. As for the Kiwaya, I haven't played it much because it's a soprano. I'm hoping that the DaSilva Santo reproduction, with a 1.5" nut width, will entice me to play the soprano scale more.

OK, that's it for this time. Hopefully it has been somewhat informative. I'm going to try to throw out a few reviews and videos in the coming month. Hopefully I get around to doing those. Thanks for reading!

Rose inlay sticker

I wanted to dress up the headstock of the Gypsy Rose so I got some "inlay stickers" from ebay. One of the stickers is a rose designed to be put on headstocks. I gave it a whirl and I think it really looks pretty good on the headstock of the Gypsy Rose. No, it's not a real inlay, but I thought it looked decent enough. Hopefully it doesn't peel off easily. :p

Gypsy Rose Pictures

I've had the Kepasa Gypsy Rose concert ukulele for a few days now and so far I've been completely satisfied with it. It came to me strung with Worth BM's and seemed to buzz a little bit. I changed them out to Worth CDs and now it is perfect. Now that I've had a chance to compare its sound to some other ukes I have, the Gypsy Rose is actually closest to my Koa Works tenor. It sounds pretty similar with the same awesome feel. It is perhaps a tick punchier than the Koa Works tenor. Considering that the Koa Works tenor is one of the best ukes I've ever played, the Gypsy Rose has certainly exceeded my expectations.

Once I've had a bit more time with it, I'll try to post some commentary on it. (...I suppose I should get going on the commentary on the William King tenor huh? :P)

Here are a few pics I took:

Gypsy Rose, Initial Impressions

Well, the Gypsy Rose arrived today. I had a chance to play it for several minutes, so here are some quick impressions of it.


First off, the sound and feel are excellent. I was hoping that it would approach the Koa Works tenor in terms of feel, and it does indeed have that nice feedback/vibration while playing it. It's hard to explain in words, but when you play these great custom ukes, you can tell. The sound is similar to the William King LS-tenor, so it is on the punchy side, which is what I like. The redwood top seem to result in a similar tone as spruce tops. So based on some limited playing, I'd say I'm very satisfied with how the sound turned out.

It certainly looks very cool, to me anyway. I've always thought those Maccaferri style guitars looked cool (that's why I wanted one of these in the first place) and this little uke certainly does a good job evoking the Maccaferri gypsy guitar. I specified an odd looking headstock, as seen in the previous post, for this uke just so it has something different, and I think it turned out pretty good. At least I like it now that I have seen it in person.

I haven't had a chance to check out the Mi-Si pickup, but it works great in the William King LS-tenor, so I'm sure it will be just fine here.

I ordered some inlay stickers that I intend to dress up the headstock with as it currently have nothing on it. Hopefully one of the stickers will look nice on the headstock. I'll post pics once I get the sticker applied.

So my initial impression is very positive. This should beat out the Honu concert as my favorite concert uke and should be good enough to vie for the "second favorite" spot behind the William King LS-tenor. I will try to post more complete impressions once I have spent some more time with the Gypsy Rose.

Gypsy Rose, Finally

Well, it's been over two months since I last posted here. Kind of wondering if anyone is still reading this blog. I actually have a lot of ukulele stuff that I could be posting but just haven't had the time or motivation to do it.

Anyway, I just got notified that my Kepasa Gypsy Rose ukulele had shipped yesterday and is scheduled to be in my hands this Thursday. I ordered it in June of 2007, so it has taken a while to say the least. Kepasa ukes have a good reputation and is highly endorsed by the likes of Craig Robertson and Nipper. I ordered a Little Mac, which has evolved into a Gypsy Rose, with a D-soundhole, wide body, and a cutaway. I specified a redwood top, walnut back and sides, maple top and bottom bindings, and a Spanish cedar neck. The fingerboard and bridge are ebony, with diamond shaped position markers. It has a custom headstock shape with PegHeds tuners and is fitted with Mi-Si Acoustic Trio active pickup.

I had planned to to learn "Gypsy Ukulele" in anticipation of receiving this uke, but between the extended build time and being busy with a lot of other stuff this summer, I managed to forget most of what I've learned of the tune (which was about half of the tune). Hopefully once the uke is in hand I will manage some motivation to learn it.

I find myself not beside myself waiting for this ukulele, mainly because I already own what I consider the ultimate ukulele, the William King long scale tenor (hmm...I should get my butt going on a blog entry about it huh?). But also because I've waited so long for it, a few more days doesn't seem like much. To be sure, I am very much looking forward to it and I have no doubt that it will be a very nice playing and sounding uke. I would be very very happy if it is in the same category as the Koa Works tenor in terms of sound and feel. It will be interesting though, as I had asked for a more "guitarish" sound with this uke. So I'm pretty curious about how it turned out. It certainly looks cool.

Here are a few pictures Kevin sent me:

Custom headstock shape I drew and sent to Kevin. Kind of funky!


PegHeds tuners.


Redwood top. I choose a striped piece of redwood.


Mi-Si Acoustic Trio pickup.

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.

Been Busy

It seems that I have not posted anything here for a while. I've been really busy with life and it'll probably be that way for quite some time. I still love the 'ukulele and will keep this site going. Maybe posts will be fewer and further between, but it's not a sign of dwindling interest. Quite the opposite. But I think I will try to concentrate for myself on the music made with the instruments instead of acquiring instruments themselves. It's hard to believe, but I think I'm done with UAS. Maybe not forever, but in the foreseeable future.

I still want to share my thoughts on the custom King tenor and a few other ukes I've acquired since the last lineup update. In that update, I wrote that there are three ukes I still was very interested in checking out, and I ended up getting all three! So there are still quite a few things I could post in the near future, and I will try to share those sometime.

For those who check out this little site, I'm sincerely humbled and glad that you might find the things here entertaining to read. I hope that even though I may be decreasing my involvement in the 'ukulele community, we all continue to spread the wonderfun little instrument that is the 'ukulele.

Thanks!

Arrival!

The postman brought me a nice big package today. It's the William King long scale tenor! Man it's so exciting to receive a masterpiece custom ukulele, even my dog wants a piece of it.

Anyway, this is a little documentation of the arrival of the custom 'ukulele. I will following up in the upcoming weeks with my impression of it.

The Ameritage case coming out of the package:




Custom size Ameritage case for the non-traditional size of the King tenor:




The King tenor inside the case. Notice how it takes up every inch of the case:




Showing the extremely curly koa back. Note the Mi-Si charger. It's small enough to fit inside the case accessory compartment:

Preview

Woohoo! My custom William King long scale tenor is at last complete! William has put up a few pictures on his website. I must say that I'm more than thrilled with it! The headstock looks better than I had imagined, and although I had no idea what the rosette was going to look like, it turned out better than I had imagined too. Here are the pictures William posted today:

Dancing with 3 tenor ukes

I saw some videos from UKISCOCIETY from Ukulele Underground comparing some tenor & soprano ukes. He basically played one song and switch ukes throughout the song. That got me interested in trying something similar. I ended up playing Let's Dance with the 3 regular tenor 'ukuleles I currently have, Koa Works, Pono Ebony Deluxe, and Pono Cedar top.

It's actually a bit difficult to distinguish the sound of the 3 ukes from the video. If you've been reading this blog, you would know that the Koa Works is miles ahead of the other ukes. But the Ponos are definitely nice ukes too.

Electicfying (sic)

I have always been intrigued by solid body electric 'ukuleles. They are something different and have the side benefit of being pretty silent when not plugged in, making them good late night practice ukes. The first such 'ukulele I learned about was the Risa Uke Solid. I bought one about a year ago. It was different and kind of cool, but I wasn't compelled to play it very often so I sold it. The next solid body uke I bought was a BugsGear Eleuke that had an active pickup and on-board volume & tone controls. It had some frets sticking out and wasn't very comfortable to play because of that. I eventually got a file to file those frets down and it was a lot better. Still, I didn't play it too much. When I saw a Pete Howlett Uklectic on the FMM Marketplace at an attractive price, I jumped at it and sold the BugsGear. I had known about the Uklectic for a while and have always been interested in it. It looked cool and is made by Pete Howlett, who is a well respected luthier based in the U.K. Now that I've owned it for a couple of months, it's time to review it.

Specs:

• Blister figure sapele top.
• Rosewood fingerboard, bridge, & faceplate.
• Pin type bridge.
• Bone nut & saddle.
• No-name gold friction tuners with pearloid buttons.
• Spanish cedar semi-hollow body & neck.
• 2 gold plated strap pins.
• Plastic pickup jack w/unknown undersaddle pickup.
• Finish is Minwax wipe on polyurethane from Home Depot applied by the previous owner.

Looks:

The Uklectic is a very good looking uke. My particular one has a blister figure sapele top that stands out when light is reflected off the wood. The body is similar to the shape of a Les Paul guitar, which is probably my favorite guitar shape. The fingerboard comes to a point similar to Martin ukuleles at the body end, and that point is repeated at the headstock, making for an attractive and cohesive design. The uke just looks very classy and high quality with one notable exception, the plastic pickup jack. The black pickup jack doesn't really look cheap, but it doesn't really look very high end either. A gold plated jack would look a lot better. I believe all the Uklectic made now have the combo endpin & jack at the tail block, unlike mine, where the jack is off to the right lower bout.

Feel:

This is a concert sized ukulele with a nut width of 1-3/8". I normally prefer 1-1/2" nut width, but this one doesn't really feel too narrow for me. Perhaps it has wider string spacing than typical ukes with 1-3/8" nut widths. The neck feels very comfortable to me. It's about medium thickness and has a flattened D profile. The uke is a little heavier than a normal concert acoustic 'ukulele, but not overly so. It's pretty easy to play it without a strap standing up. The action is setup about medium and fairly effortless to play with the Ko'olau concert strings I installed on it. This is better than both of the previous electric ukes I owned. For some reason, both the Risa and BugsGear felt a bit hard to play despite having relatively low tensioned Worth BM strings on them. Overall it is an easy and comfortable uke to play.

Workmanship:

This uke has great workmanship. Every piece of wood is seamlessly joined and the fret work is very good, with no frets sticking out. The tuners are not Gotoh or Grover, but they work well enough. Again, the only thing that I have an issue with is the plastic pickup jack. I guess it will probably be durable enough, but I would feel a lot better if it was metal. I would feel better about that if the pickup itself performed a little better (see next section). The pickup jack is offset to the right of the lower bout. When standing, it works just fine with a cable hanging off it. But if you are sitting and plugging the uke to an amp, you will need an "L" shaped connector or it will interfere with putting the uke on your leg. I guess if you are getting a newer Uklectic, the combo endpin/pickup jack should alleviate this issue.

My particular Uklectic was ordered without finish by the original owner. As mentioned in the specs section, the finish is applied by the original owner using Minwax wipe on polyurethane. He only put on 2 coats so the uke almost feels unfinished. It's not bad though. Spanish cedar has a strong scent and you definitely smell it every time you open the case. If someday I feel like adding new coats of finish, it shouldn't be too difficult. Overall it feels like a quality instrument worthy of Pete Howlett's reputation.

Sound:

The sound of this uke should probably be evaluated in 2 ways. Unplugged and plugged in. This uke has a surprisingly good sound when unplugged. Where the Risa Uke Solid and BugsGear Eleuke are pretty much true "silent" ukes when not plugged in, the Uklectic actually has a decent volume output. I guess that could be a negative if you're looking for a silent uke that outputs almost no volume for late night practice, but for me, I actually prefer being able to hear good sound when the uke is unplugged. It doesn't compete with the volume of a acoustic 'ukulele, but it's a lot louder than the aforementioned silent ukes. The acoustic sound of the Uklectic, with the Ko'loau Golds I installed, is trebly and complex sounding. I think the sound quality is pretty high in this regard.

When plugged in, the Uklectic does very little to distinguish it from the other electric ukes. I don't think the plugged in sound is any better than the BugsGear or Risa. In fact, the C & E strings seem to dominate the sound, making it a bit unbalanced. I think that was also the case with the BugsGear & Risa, but it seems a little worse with the Uklectic. I don't think the pickup is of very high quality based on the plugged in sound and the cheap plastic pickup jack. It's kind of a pity that a high quality instrument does not have a great pickup. But I understand that Pete Howlett was trying to keep the price of the Uklectics down, so that probably sacrificed the pickup a little bit. If I ever feel like doing the work, I might try to replace the stock pickup with a Mi-Si pickup or something like that. I do have a L.R. Baggs Para-acoustic D.I. (pre-amp) that allows me to adjust the sound coming from the pickup for treble, midrange, bass, and a couple of other things, and it does improve the sound a little bit.

So when it comes to sound quality, surprisingly I like the acoustic sound performance on the uke a lot more than the plugged in sound. In fact, for me, it's the nice acoustic sound that makes this uke superior to the electric ukes I've owned previously.

Value:

If you order a new Uklectic from Pete Howlett, the advertised price on his website is $495 + shipping for a basic concert sized instrument. Assuming this has not increased (the dollar is pretty weak so I'm not sure) I think that's a pretty good value. While it costs quite a bit more than a Risa or BugsGear, you do get a luthier made instrument that looks great and works well enough plugged in (maybe the current pickup used is better mine, which might be a prototype insturment) and has surprisingly good tone unplugged. If you have a higher budget, it's possible to order one up with a lot more options and bling. I paid $348 for mine used, which I think is a great value.

Overall:

The Uklectic isn't perfect. I'm not completely satisfied with its plugged in sound. However, compared to the Risa Uke Solid and BugsGear Eleuke I owned previously, I think the Uklectic is the superior overall instrument. And since I pretty rarely plug in the uke at home, most of the time when I do play it, it is played acoustically. The superior acoustic sound makes playing this uke a pleasant experience unplugged. When I played the Risa or BugsGear unplugged, I usually don't play very long because it sounded uninteresting.

If you're looking for a solid or semi-solid body electric uke, the Uklectic is probably the top choice out there right now.

Here's a sound file of me playing "Me & Shirley T" (badly) with the uke plugged into the computer directly and recorded using Audacity.

Here are some more pictures:

The back of the Uklectic. The black plastic covers up the pickup jack and wires.




















The sapele top of the Uklectic. Notice the blister figure.


The pickup jack is offset to the right. Newer models have the combo pin/jack at the tail block.

Traveling 'Ukulele

I was on a trip to Taiwan last week and decided to bring along a 'ukulele. Since it had to be a small uke, I decided to take the Kanile'a custom SS. I decided to take this one because the only other choice I have is the Martin style 1 and I like playing the Kanile'a a lot more, not to mention that it's also the more durable uke.

The case I used was the soprano Guardian case I got with one of my previous soprano purchases. It's actually quite a bit bigger than the soprano size, so I stuffed a t-shirt in the body compartment to keep the uke for sliding around inside. Taiwan is very humid but I packed a Herco humidifier for the plane ride. When I got the Guardian case, it didn't come with any straps so I took a strap from a Lanikai case so I can carry the case on my back. The uke plus the case is very light so it was very easy to travel with. I just threw the strap across my shoulders and it feels almost weightless on my back.

I took two flights to Taiwan this time and it was with Northwest and EVA Air. Neither airlines gave me any trouble with carrying on the uke in addition to a wheeled carry-on case I took with me. The uke made it to and from Taiwan with no problems. While I was in Taiwan, I got quite a bit of playing time in while we watched my kids at my in-laws home (it was not an exciting trip). I practiced Jake Shimabukuro's "Touch" for a possible performance at a friend's wedding in June and I think I have it learned now.

This is the first time I took a 'ukulele this far and it worked out great. Ukes are perfect travel companions and I'm definitely taking mine on many future trips away from home.

Sneak Peek

After about half a year of waiting, I finally saw some glimpse of my new custom tenor made by William King. William has put up some pictures of the almost finished ukes and it is looking good. Here they are:

Photo 1: It shows the back/side with the ebony binding. I didn't know what the curly koa would look like as it wasn't something I got to select, but I'm very pleased with the looks here.

Photo 2: A straight on shot of the back.

Photo 3: This photo highlights a different tenor (rosewood/spruce), but mine looks like it's off to the left side. Notice the maple binding on the fingerboard for contrast with the ebony binding on the body. William was very pleased with the look in his correspondence with me. I think it's going to be outstanding as well.

Hopefully in a few days there will be full blown photos of the finished uke and a couple more days later it will be in my hands. This is so exciting! I can hardly wait!

A Dog and 'Ukulele

Well, I haven't had too much to post about on this blog in the past week. I did take a few pictures of a couple of my 'ukuleles with my dog for a thread on Ukulele Underground, so I guess this will have to do for a little while. I do have some semi-exciting things planned in 2-3 weeks, not the least of which is the arrival of my first custom 'ukulele. I'm really looking forward to it and I will share my thoughts on it here a bit after I receive it.

Until then, it'll probably be quiet here over the next 2 weeks. Happy uking!

Watching the Master.

Tonight was the night Jake Shimabukuro visited the Twin Cities for the first time. The weather didn't quite cooperate as we greeted him with some light snow and temperature in the low 40's. (It's almost MAY! This is NUTS!) I found out about this concert 4-5 days ago and immediately went and got a couple of tickets for it. Being pretty late to the party, only the "cheap seats" were left. However, I was very excited at the prospects of witnessing the true superstar of ukulele in person.

When I arrived with my wife at the Dakota Restaurant & Jazz Club, I was a little surprised by how far back the seats I got were. I almost couldn't see the small stage. I was also surprised by the number of people who occupied the place. From what I could tell, it was sold out. We were there about 45 minutes early so we settled in and ordered some expensive dinner (I had some "Hawaiian Blue Marlin" for $24).

The show started around 7:10 or so and Jake started off playing an extended version of Let's Dance. Other songs he played included Me & Shirley T, Misty, Spain, Orange World, Dragon, In My Life, Time after Time, and of course, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. He only played a couple of songs that I have not heard or watched on Youtube before, but it was such an experience for me to be watching it live. Some of the sounds coming out of his ukulele are really incredible. I have no idea how he does some of the stuff that he does.

After the show, Jake and one of his assistants (or manager) stood just outside the restaurant meeting with the fans and selling some T-shirts and the In My Life CD. I got in line and when I made it to him, he immediately noticed my Ukulele Underground T-shirt. I was SO star-struck at that point I think I was shaking. I don't remember ever being this star-struck before. Anyway, I chatted briefly with him and told him I hope he comes back sometime. I got a picture taken with him and asked him to sign my cigar box uke. I'm not sure if he's seen a cigar box uke before, but he thought it was interesting. He is such a nice guy too. From talking to him and observing his interaction with other people, I feel that he's genuinely appreciative of the support from his fans.

So that's my first Jake Shimabukuro experience. I really felt very happy to be able to meet with him after the show. I mean, how often do you get to meet with your musical hero after watching the concert? I think Jake is able to do this because he's not a house hold name in the mainland United States. I wish him nothing but success in the future, but I also hope that his fans can continue to have that up close experience with him as long as possible.

A couple more pictures:

With Jake after the concert.


Jake signing my cigar box uke.


Jake's signature on the cigar box uke.

Jake Shimabukuro in Minneapolis!

Woohoo! I just found out today that Jake is going to play at the Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant in Minneaplis on April 27th! I found out about him shortly after taking up the ukulele 15 months ago and if you saw any of the videos I posted on Youtube, you know I'm a Jake Shimabukuro nut. So once I found out that he's actually going to be here on 4/27, I immediately went over to the website and booked a couple of tickets. I really thought Jake would never appear in Minnesota so I always figured that if I was ever going to attend one of his shows it would have to be at Chicago or some other city outside Minnesota. Needless to say I'm really excited to finally see him perform live in a few days! I don't even know what kind of seats I bought but it'll be cool. I hope he will have some time to sign my cigar box ukulele.

If you're from the Twin Cities and want to attend, I think there are still tickets left for the 9:30PM show. Don't miss it!

Lineup Update

It's been a while since I updated the collection picture. Compared with the last update, the G-String soprano and the BugsGear Eleuke are gone. In their place, I've acquired an Oscar Schmidt Bell uke, a Pete Howlett Uklectic (used), and a B-Stock Bushman Cedartone baritone. So the total uke count has been upped by one. I guess my policy of one-in-one-out isn't working so hot.

Why did I get the 3 new ukes? The Oscar Schmidt was an impulse buy at a great deal. The Bushman baritone was to satisfy my curiosity about baritones (and it was really cheap). The Uklectic was something I've been interested in and I jumped at the chance to get a used one at a great price.

The departed G-String was not getting played much and I've decided that I'm not really into sopranos (this could change at any time though). The departed BugsGear wasn't getting played much either and when I bought the Uklectic, it had to go.

There are two custom ukes that are scheduled to arrive pretty soon, so I guess I'm going to have to think about which ones needs to go next. Of the ukes pictured, the Pono, Oscar Schmidt, Martin, and Maccaferri doesn't get played much. The Maccaferri was cracked when I used it to film a video for the Ukulele Underground April Contest, so I guess I can write it off from the uke count. That leaves the Pono, Oscar, and Martin. I think I'll keep the Martin, so I guess I'll try to find the other two a new home sometime down the road.

You know, UAS is a difficult disease to fight off. Even though I couldn't be more satisfied with the Koa Works tenor and have two pretty sweet customs coming soon, I'm still constantly looking at other ukes online. I'd be very interested in a National reso-uke, a Kiwaya KTS-7 (Martin style 3 copy), and a Compass Rose tenor just to name three. I sure hope those custom ukes kill off UAS for a while. Wish me luck...:p

For Whom the Bell Tolls?

Curiosity is probably UAS's best friend. And for the person with a serious case of UAS, it's not good news. My curiosity got the best of me about two months ago when I hunted down an Oscar Schmidt Bell shaped concert 'ukulele. I had seen pictures of some vintage Washburn bell ukes and also a couple of bell ukes made by Duane Heilman of Black Bear Ukuleles. It is certainly an interesting looking 'ukulele and when I saw that the Oscar Schmidt version is made of solid wood, I pretty much decided that I would like to try one.

When I searched the net a couple of months ago, it appeared that the street price for one of these is around $280 or so. Some further digging landed me at Elevation Music, where at the time I ordered, it had a price of $210 plus free shipping. At such a deal I thought it was a no brainer and went ahead and ordered it. Pretty much right after I ordered it, the price on their website changed to $269. Perhaps they realized that they priced it wrong after I bought it?

When I ordered it, I knew it wasn't going to blow me away simply because I already own some pretty high end 'ukuleles. But I thought maybe it will bring something different to the table. So how does it fare? Let's go into some details. First the specs:

• Solid Trembesi top, side, and back.
• Plastic bound rosewood fingerboard with 21 frets.
• Rosewood bridge.
• Bone nut & saddle.
• Off-white plastic binding.
• Abalone (not sure if it's real) headstock logo, position dots, and rosette.
• Multi-color "rope" purfling on soundboard.
• Grover sealed gear tuners with ebony buttons.
• Satin finish.
• Custom bell shaped case.

Looks:
I think this 'ukulele looks quite good. I have no clue what trembesi is but to me it looks kind of similar to koa. The only information I found about trembesi online is that they use it for furniture wood in Indonesia. Since this uke is made in Indonesia, that makes sense. The bell shaped body looks interesting and the decorations are pretty nice. I think the multi-colored "rope" purfling look very cool. I'm not sure about the abalone used on this uke though. It does appear to be real abalone, but I'm just not sure. It looks decent for the rosette, but the Oscar Schmidt logo on the headstock looks kind of like an abalone decal. The shape of the headstock, body, and bridge are all pretty faithful to the original bell uke, as far as I could tell. The only part that doesn't look faithful to the original are the tuners. But frankly I much prefer geared tuners to friction tuners so this isn't a problem for me. Those "ears" probably would keep a few purists from considering this uke though.

Feel:
This is a concert scaled 'ukulele. The nut is 1-3/8", which is a little narrow for my tastes (I prefer 1-1/2"). It has a fairly round neck profile, almost a slight "V" shape, that I don't particularly care for either. So right off the bat it doesn't quite fit my preferences. Holding the 'ukulele is also a different experience. If you hold it by cradling the bottom of the uke in your right arm, like how you might hold it standing, it feels normal enough. But when holding it while sitting down, I find that if I rest the uke on my right leg, the pointy part of the bell kind of digs into my right arm sometimes, depending on the arm position. I've concluded that this isn't the most ergonomic shape for an 'ukulele. In fact, I think the cigar box uke I have feels more ergonomic. The action was slightly high when I got the uke, so I sanded down the saddle and now it's fine. Overall it certainly doesn't fit my preferences all that well, and the bell shape is kind of awkward, but none of the issues I have with it has to do with quality, and for the right person, it can feel really good.

Workmanship:
I suspect that this 'ukulele is made at the same factory as Pono ukes. I based that suspicion mostly on the fact that this is made in Java (Indonesia) and has the exact same Grover geared tuners as my Pono cedar top tenor. But the workmanship of the bell uke also seem to be Pono-esque. I would say it's definitely on par with Pono ukes. The insides look clean. All parts fit together well. No sharp fret ends. Those quality Grover tuners. In short, the workmanship is great, especially when you consider the price.

Sound:
This is a pretty difficult category for me to rate because to be honest just about all the other ukes I own are of much higher sound quality. They also cost a lot more, so there's not reason to expect this bell uke to sound as good as say the Kanile'a super-soprano. Judging it on its own, I think it's a fine sounding 'ukulele. It came strung with Aquila strings, which sounded just OK. I installed some Worth CD's on it and to my ears it represented some improvement. The sound is clearer and it rings better at the higher frets. The volume is pretty good, about the same as the previously mentioned Kanile'a super-soprano. It's sound is what I would describe as a bit artificial. I don't exactly know what that means, but that's the word that comes to mind when I listen to its sound. The intonation is good. Overall I would say that for the money this is a fine sounding 'ukulele. I think it's on par with Ponos I've played and at least as good or better than most Lanikai or Kala laminated ukes.

Value:
This is where this 'ukulele shines a little bit. For the street price of $280, you get a good sounding, nicely decorated and uniquely shaped solid wood uke plus a very nice custom bell shaped case (reviewed in this post). The case quality is at least on par with the Ko'olau hard cases, so it would be reasonable to say that it's worth $50-60. That means you're spending about $210 or so on the uke itself, which is very reasonable, I think. It compares favorably on the value front against Pono ukes.

Overall:
If you've read this far, you're probably thinking that this 'ukulele isn't that great. While I would say it's not a great uke, it's certainly a good 'ukulele. It's not going to make you forget your KoAloha or Kanile'a concert, but it's a fraction of the cost. If the bell shape appeals to you, and you do not own ukes of higher sound quality than Ponos, I would have no problem recommending this ukulele. If you own one or more Hawaiian factory made ukes or custom ukes, this one probably does best serving as a good sounding novelty uke in your collection. Hey, playing Christmas songs on this uke should be a lot of fun right?

Here is a sound clip of me playing this 'ukulele.

Some pictures:

Back.


Soundhole & rosette.


Bound fretboard and soundboard purfling.


These tuners are exactly the same as the ones on a Pono cedar top tenor.


With custom case.

Gypsy Master

I recently saw a video on Youtube that really caught my eyes. It's a video of Mike Okouchi playing "Gypsy Ukulele". So of all the new ukulele videos that pops up on Youtube all the time (including my ghetto videos), why did this one make a special impression? That's because I have a "Gypsy Rose" ukulele being built by Kevin Crossett of Kepasa Ukuleles!

Mike Okouchi is, of course, awesome in this video, but when I saw it, I just thought "how awesome would it be to play this song on a Gypsy Rose!" So, I'm determined now to learn how to play this song using Dominator's tabs for it. It's going to be difficult though, as the song's difficulty seems to be above my skill level. It will probably be a month or two before the Gypsy Rose will arrive, so I've got some time to do it. If I'm successful, I'll be sure to post some results here.

Meanwhile, here is the kick butt video of Mike Okouchi playing Gypsy Ukulele: