Bring Your What???

Your Adz, that is.  So I have no idea what Adz means and I'm too lazy to google it, but I managed to learn a reasonable facsimile of this song from Jake Shimabukuro's "Peace Love Ukulele" album a few months ago.  The video was recorded a couple of months ago, but I haven't had time (read: lazy) to post it until now.  I'm pretty sure I played the main riff incorrectly, but I haven't tried to learn the correct way.  In fact, I don't think I can play this song all the way through right now because I haven't played it at all lately.  Maybe I should try to re-learn it at a later date.  Perhaps wait until Jake's "Peace Love Ukulele" tab book is released! (I just learned about this tab book today.  Too bad it won't have Blue Roses Falling in it.  I get many messages via Youtube asking for Blue Roses Falling for some reason)

Anyway, here's the video.  I think I've reached my ceiling as an ukulele player as I don't feel like I've improved in the last year or so.  That's OK though.  Considering I'm playing stuff now that I never dreamed that I would be able to play when I started playing the ukulele, I'm happy just being a hack!

Happy New Year! (2012)

Aloha!  And happy 2012!

Holy buckets!  I can't believe it's been almost half a year since I've posted on this blog.  If you've been reading this blog, you probably figured that I've moved on from ukuleles.  After all, not only have I not written any posts here in a long time, I've also not been active at all on the ukulele forums.  But, while it's true that my online ukulele presence (ha, I said presence...) have been minimal, I've been playing my ukuleles as much as ever.  So why have I not been updating this blog or visiting uke forums very much?  Basically there are a couple of reasons.  First reason is that I have 3 kids that are now 1.5, 4, and 6 years old.  Those of you out there with kids might be able to relate.  I have to say my kids are actually very well behaving for the most part, but because of my wife's work schedule, I have to take care of the kids by myself quite a bit, so it seems like I never feel the motivation to type these posts when I get some free time.  Also, as a byproduct of this, I don't seem to have time to record one of my ghetto videos to post here (although I do have one recorded a few months ago that I haven't had a chance to upload).

The second reason is that I've basically been UAS-free.  Since this has kind of been a blog about my UAS advantures, this means I don't have a lot of content I can post.  The last ukulele I bought was the Les Paul, but that was pretty much just for shiznits and giggles.  The last real ukulele I bought was the Mya-Moe.  While that ukulele was received in April, I ordered it in 2010, so I think that qualifies me to the no-new-real-uke purchase club for 2011 right???  Anyway, I really have been satisfied with the ukes I own now, and hopefully it stays that way.  I mean, why would anyone need 15 ukuleles???

So, what does the future hold for the ukulele ghetto?  I'm not sure.  I do want to keep it going, and while I don't have a heck of a lot to post about, I have been dragging my feet on a post about Eddie Vedder's ukulele album (pretty old news now), and besides the one ghetto video I have recorded, I could probably do another one or two now.  I guess we'll see if I can get around to it.

Now for some ukulele related new year resolutions:

1. I'd like to learn a few new songs to play.  I'm playing the ukulele pretty much everyday right now, but I mostly cycle through stuff that I've already learned.  The songs I play the most now are Kalei Gamiao's "Shore Break", "Bohemian Rhapsody", and WS64's version of "Hey Jude".  I'm not sure what new songs I'd like to learn, but hopefully I get motivated to learn some new ones real soon.

2. Continue to be UAS-free.  This has been pretty easy, as I've been happy playing the ukes I have and haven't looked at ukes online for a while now.  I do have a potential temptation in the form of a trip to Hawaii this year, but I do plan to bring the Glyph with me, so hopefully that takes care of my ukulele playing needs on the trip.  Still, when you are in ukulele paradise, it's hard not to think about getting another one.

3. Play more of my ukes.  Right now I rotate through my concerts pretty good.  The King LS-concert and Glyph gets the lion's share of playing time, but the Mya-Moe is also getting some decent playing time.  My tenors have not been played a heck of a lot though, and I plan to make it a point to play them more.

Anyway, I have no idea what I'll be posting on this blog down the road.  Hopefully I find some energy to devote to this blog and post more.  But whether or not I do, I hope you guys who stumble upon this blog continue to enjoy playing the ukulele.  Ukulele is in my blood now, whether you see me much online or not, I'll always be strumming.

Is Les more???

Whoa, it has been 2 months since I last posted here.  Not sure if anyone is still checking this blog, but it's not dead.  I just got more busy as summer has finally rolled around in Minnesota.  Also, I've contracted some other "AS" so UAS is in remission, thus less stuff to post here.

Regardless, I had ordered an Epiphone Les Paul uke after it was announced at one of the NAMM shows.  I ordered it from Sam Ash, and it took quite a while until they finally had stock to ship around the middle of June.

So why would I even bother with something like this?  After all, it's more or less a novelty uke made with laminated wood.  Well, the reason is simple.  I've always been a fan of Les Pauls.  No, I can't play guitar, but I've always thought Les Pauls looked cool in the hands of guys like Slash.  I once bought a Kiwaya K-Wave ukulele because it resembled a Les Paul, and I've wanted an Earnest La Paula for the same reason.  A Les Paul shaped ukulele made by Epiphone, no matter how bad an instrument it turns out to be, would be an actual, genuine Les Paul, and that's enough for me to want to get one.  The fact that these sell for $99 made it a no brainer.

So now I've had this ukulele for a little while, I will do a quick review of it.  First off, the stock strings that came with it are complete garbage.  The ukulele sounded pretty bad and dead out of the box.  I don't know what those strings are, and frankly I don't care, as they probably sound worse than my dental floss would have sounded strung to this uke.  So my initial impression wasn't good.  I thought I had bought a $99 novelty.  At that point, I figure it wouldn't hurt to slap some Aquila strings onto this uke.  I'm not a fan of Aquila strings, and pretty much every uke I have that came strung with Aquilas got a string change in quick order.  So I had plenty of Aquila strings on hand.  I know Aquilas were at least good for bringing low end laminated ukes to life, so I gave it a shot.  I wasn't expecting much, but to my surprise, the Aquilas significantly improved the sound of this uke.  With the Aquila strings installed, the ukulele actually sounded pretty good.  In fact, I liked the sound better than some lower end solid wood ukes I've played before.  This was quite a pleasant surprise, and immediately made the ukulele worth the $99 and more.

The next thing I noted was the action.  It's setup probably on the high side of acceptability for me.  I have no problem strumming on it, but finger picking beyond say the first 3~5 frets takes a little bit of an effort.  Do keep in mind I'm pretty used to playing some custom ukes with very easy playing actions, so it's probably better than what I've described.  I've read that the nut and saddle are plastic and rather crudely finished, and that was the case on mine.  On the saddle, there is a mold line right on the edge where the strings contact the saddle.  Pretty terrible place for a mold line in my opinion.  So I took a sandpaper and sanded off that mold line.  The nut slots also looked a bit crude with some burrs on the sides of the slots.  However, other than looking bad, I didn't think there was enough of an issue for me to work on it.  The overall action was acceptable for me, so I didn't do anything to lower it.  It does have a bolt-on neck, so if needed, it should be rather easy to adjust the action.

Reviewing this backwards, let's talk a little bit about the package.  It comes packaged in a trapezoid box with Epiphone graphics on it.  Beside the ukulele, it comes with a very thin gig-bag and a chord to plug it into an amp.  The box also contained some Epiphone catalogs and an Epiphone bumper sticker.  Not a bad package for $99.

The Les Paul uke has an undersaddle pickup installed.  I only used it once so far, but I thought it worked really well.  The volume was pretty balanced from string to string, and it was fun playing it using various effects on my amp.  So as an electric uke, it seems to do the job.

While the sound, once the Aquilas were installed, surprised me, the looks was what I expected.  The sunburst on the body looked great, as is the curls in the laminated wood.  The workmanship besides the nut and saddle looked good to me.  The uke is on the heavy side, but that was expected as I've read that the body (besides the top) was routed from a block rather than glued together, making the sides and back fairly thick.  One quirk I found is that the normal ukulele position dot at the 10th fret is now at the 9th fret, which is where they place a dot on the guitar.  This does screw me up a bit because I usually look at the side markers (the Les Paul also have side markers) when I play, and having the one at 10th fret moved to 9th fret will take some mental adjustment.  It's not a huge deal, but it would have made the uke more playable for me if the dot was at the 10th fret.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the Epiphone Les Paul.  As long as you make sure to change out the crappy stock strings, I think it's a pretty fun ukulele that sounds surprisingly good.  I've actually played it a lot more than I thought I would.  I think it makes a good knock around ukulele, one that you don't need to worry too much about humidifying and can just leave anywhere in the house.  It looks cool, sounds pretty good, and is cheap.  In my book it's well worth the $99 price of admission.

Front shot

Back shot

Hey, it's a Les Paul!

The bolted neck.

Bridge & saddle.

Pickup plug.

Back of the headstock.  It's made in Indonesia.

Notice the position dot at the 9th fret.

Comparing a few concert ukes

Since receiving the Mya-Moe concert ukulele, I've been meaning to do some sort of a demo between it and some other concert ukes I have.  I got some free time this weekend so I decided to make a video playing it and three other ukes: William King ls-concert, Glyph mezzo-soprano, Collings UC-1.

Each of these ukuleles were strung with different kind of strings, so perhaps the comparison isn't as un-bias as it could be.  But I have found that at this level of ukulele, strings don't really change the basic dynamic of their sound anyway.  These ukes pretty much should sound good with any reasonably good strings.  The string setup:

Collings UC-1 (Aquila strings)
William King long-scale concert (Southcoast medium tension)
Glyph mezzo-soprano (Worth CD)
Mya-Moe concert (Worth CM)

Besides sharing the same scale length (the King is 1" longer than the rest), all of these ukes have radiused fretboards.  The Collings have a 1-3/8" nut while the other three have 1.5" nuts.  The string spacing are also all different, with the Mya-Moe being the widest followed by Glyph, King, and Collings.  This made it slightly challenging to quickly play the same things on these ukes in succession, as you will see a few mess ups and messy playing on the video.  But I think it gets the point across.

I won't make any comments on what I personally thought about the sound of each of these ukes, so you can form your own opinion.  I'm actually not sure if this exercise is of any benefit to anyone, but I guess it could just be a fun excuse to post a video featuring four different ukes or something.

Anyway, here's the vid:

Curly Brothers

My Glyph mezzo soprano had been back at Dave Mean's shop the last month for a little fretboard issue caused by winter dryness.  The issue occurred during the winter and caused me to play the uke a lot less than I would have liked (I wanted to wait until the weather warmed up a bit before sending it back for repair).  So in effect I basically have not played it for what seems like 4-5 months.

The repair is a minor one and the ukulele returned today.  Man I really missed playing this ukulele.  When it's right, it's perhaps my favorite sounding ukulele, certainly one of the very best I have.  Like the great custom built ukulele it is, it plays effortlessly and feels really alive while I play it.  It's hard to explain but the notes really bounce out of this thing.  I guess I better pay better attention to humidifying it next winter so I won't be without it for an extended length of time again.

Anyway, as I've been playing the Mya-Moe myrtle concert a lot lately, I just had to compare the curly wood found on these ukes.  The Glyph was supposed to be AAAA curly koa, and next to it, the Mya-Moe looks to be similarly curled.  I like this type of curly appearance very much, and I'm very happy with the appearance of both of these ukes.

One thing I noticed is that the scale length of the Glyph mezzo soprano is exactly the same as the Mya-Moe concert.  The mezzo is sort of a "long-scale" mezzo soprano in that it was joined at the 14th fret and Dave Means make the scale longer to place the bridge at the ideal spot.  I thought the scale length is just a little less than a concert scale but at least when compared with the Mya-Moe concert, it is exactly the same.  So I guess the mezzo soprano is something of a large bodied super-soprano, or a small bodied concert.  Or a long-scale mezzo soprano...

Ok, enough of that, a couple of more pictures of the curly bros:

Curly sides

Curly backs

What do you get with your Mya-Moe?

I've had my Mya-Moe myrtle concert ukulele for about a week now and for most of the past week, I've been playing it almost exclusively to get accustomed to it and also kind of start the break-in process.  So far it's proven to be a nice and robust ukulele and I've enjoyed playing it.  I plugged it in a few days ago and am very happy with the performance of the pickup.  This is the first ukulele I have with a K&K twin spot pickup.  The three other acoustic ukes I have with pickups all have Mi-Si.  I plugged it to my cheap acoustic amplifier through an L.R. Baggs DI and I thought it sounded pretty good.  All strings sounded loud and clear through the speaker, and that's all I pretty much ask for.  I'm still hoping that in time the sound will open up a little more, but even if it stays the same, it is a good sounding ukulele and I can't really complain.

So what else do you get with a Mya-Moe besides the ukulele itself?  If you ordered a Tradition model, which is the least expensive model they have, you're supposed to get a canvas foam case.  However, mine came with an upgraded Uke Crazy case.  I did upgrade the wood to curly myrtle and added the pickup, so perhaps they just threw in the case upgrade.  I don't know.  It's a pretty nice case, but the latches it has makes me just a little bit nervous.  They are the flip open type (you can see that they are in the open position in the above picture).  There are only two of them and they strike me as being easy to open.  They are probably just fine, but they just don't feel as secure as the "hook & latch" type found on Ko'olau and Ameritage cases.  I guess I'll just take extra precaution if I ever take the case out of the house.

Besides the case, you get a Mya-Moe micro-fiber cloth, a small bottle of lemon oil, a Mya-Moe sticker, and a spec sheet.  The micro-fiber cloth has the Mya-Moe logo on it, so you know which uke it's supposed to wipe.  The lemon oil is used to maintain the finish on the ukulele.  The spec sheet contains the build specifications and serial number on the uke, so if you ever pass it down to your kids, they know exactly what they're getting.

Anyway, I thought the stuff they included with the ukulele are pretty cool.  I will be spending more time with the Mya-Moe concert and post some random stuff about it from time to time.

Spec Sheet

Lemon Oil

Bohemian Rhapsody on the Mya-Moe

I've been playing Bohemian a lot in the last month or so, in hopes of being able to play it better than I did when I posted a video of this song a couple of months ago. I definitely feel like I've improved (I mean, I better be after practicing for two months right?), but it's still a work in progress. Then again, I'm not sure I can play any song cleanly, especially in front of a camera. With the arrival of my Mya-Moe concert, I thought I'd post a couple of videos up with it, and Bohemian Rhapsody is the first one.

Early Bird

In my last post, I said that Mya-Moe has completed my myrtle concert ukulele ahead of schedule. Well, it appears that UPS also got into the early bird act because two days ago while checking the tracking number, UPS indicated that the package will be delivered ahead of schedule, on 4/26 instead of the original 4/27 date. Lo and behold, the ukulele showed up today! I'm not sure if I'll experience this kind of ahead-of-the-schedule-ness for the rest of my life, but I'll take it this time! I must say the Mya-Moe experience has been really exceptional. Their awesome uke tracker kept me up to date on the progress of the uke. The build was complete ahead of schedule. And they even upgraded my case to a deluxe case (the Uke Crazy case seen in the picture above). Before the build, Char even checked with me to see if I was interested in another piece of curly myrtle she found in her shop. She could have easily just built the ukulele using the piece of myrtle I've already chosen, instead of making the effort to check with me on the new piece of wood. I really think they provide exceptional service, which is consistent with everything I heard about them before deciding to place an order.

Since I've only had this ukulele with me for half a day, I can only share some early impressions. The first impression is very good. I opened the case and saw a very well made ukulele with some seriously curly myrtle. I love curly wood and this makes me happy! (hey! get yer head out of the gutter!) The Mya Moe headstock, which I have to admit wasn't exactly my cup of tea from all the pictures I've seen, looks really good in person. The headstock is well executed and there is a thin layer of ebony between the veneer and the mahogany, giving it a nice higher-end look. I have not gone through the ukulele with a fine-tooth comb (and probably won't. I generally don't do that.), but there are no noticeable cosmetic issues on the exterior and the interior looks clean. I ordered a K&K pickup and it is neatly installed and wires are affixed to the side of the ukulele so it doesn't dangle around. The neck is of a one-piece construction, which is something I personally really like. I just really like it when a ukulele doesn't have a stacked heel and multi-piece headstock construction. Gimme a neck carved out of one piece of wood! Dammit! (LOL!) Anyway, going onto the fretboard, it appears to have a bigger radius than any ukulele I currently own. But as with my other radiused fretboards, it isn't something that's consciously noticeable, so the radius isn't too large and it feels comfortable. Another detail that I like a lot is the small angle carved into the outer edges of the fretboard. It is meant to prevent the fret ends from ever sticking out far enough to cause discomfort. It's a nice little touch, and hopefully the fretboard is well seasoned so it won't shrink in the dry winter here to cause any fret-end sticking out issues. This ukulele feels relatively heavy, at least compared to my feather light Collings concert. I was kind of expecting it to be super light like the Collings, but the weight isn't anything that bothers me. After all, it is still lighter than my heavy duty William King ebony concert that remains my favorite ukulele.

So the Mya Moe is pretty much a homerun in terms of looks and workmanship. As for the sound and playing feel, the first impression is not quite as rosy. This ukulele certainly sounds good, and when picked, it seems to be in the same level as my other custom concert ukes. However, when strumming it, I felt that it seemed a bit tight. I don't recall ever thinking that playing any of my other custom built concerts or the Collings. Played side by side with the William King concert and the Collings concert, those two did feel more open when strummed. Of course, Mya Moe did send a note saying that the ukulele should open up with consistent play over several months, so hopefully this slight tightness in the sound would go away in time. As is, it's still a very nice sounding instrument, but playing it next to my other ukes, I think it would do well if it opened up a bit in the future.

The ukulele came with about average height setup. I didn't measure it, but it feels that way to me. Given that it's a concert scale, I didn't need it to be super low because the string tension is relatively low. It is easy to play and the vibrations while playing it feels good, as it should on a luthier built instrument.

Overall, my first impression is very positive for this ukulele. The only improvement I would like to see is for the strummed sound to be more open, and I'm hopeful that it will open up a little bit in time. If that happens, this would truly be a great ukulele. I will try to record a video or two with it soon. Until then, here are a few more pics of the new addition to my stash 'o ukes:

The back of the myrtle concert. I like it!


The sides have matching curls.


Hanging out with a couple of other concert ukes with one-piece necks.

Mya-Moe is completed!

How about that! A custom ukulele actually completed ahead of schedule! Woohoo! Ok, so I don't actually consider Mya-Moes to be true customs, since you don't get to design every aspect of the ukulele's look and you can't really get custom inlays on it, but they are still bespoke instruments made by two people only, so they can't be considered a factory instrument either. Either way, my Mya-Moe concert is now completed. The original promise date was April 27th, and they've beaten that by almost a week. If you look at the uke tracker for my uke, it appears that they even took a vacation between April 6th and April 19th, so it could have been even earlier. Anyway you slice it, I'm impressed by how accurate they were on their promise date.

And another word about their Uke Tracker. It has to be the coolest thing any ukulele luthier has ever put on their website. It's so nice to be able to punch in your ukulele number and follow the progress as it builds. There's no guessing on where they're at with your instrument. No need to email for updates. And it's just plain cool to have this level of traceability for a bespoke instrument.

Anyway, it's supposed to be shipped out today, so I should be seeing it sometime next week. Judging from the pictures, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I love tight reflective curls and this is pretty much what I envisioned when I went with this piece of Myrtle. I trust that the uke will sound and play wonderfully, but I'm still very anxious to try it out. This will be the least adorned custom ukulele I've ever ordered, with no bindings or even position dots on the fretboard face, but I was going for a basic look with this one, and I like what I see on the pictures.

Since I have not learned any new songs since posting my rather broken Bohemian Rhapsody attempt, so maybe I'll try to make a video playing Bohemian Rhapsody (hopefully a better attempt) and perhaps something else that I can play in my sleep (maybe Gently Weeps) as a demo of this ukulele. Anyway, I will probably try to post a couple of videos with this ukulele.

Well, I will have more to post once this uke arrives. Until then, here are the other pictures from the Uke Tracker:

Eddie Vedder's ukulele album

A few weeks ago I noticed on the forums that Eddie Vedder will be coming out with a solo album titled Ukulele Songs. While I can't say that I was especially excited, since these days I'm more into ukulele instrumental music, I was certainly happy to know that Eddie Vedder will release a ukulele-centric album. I've been a Pearl Jam fan since I was in high school (that's like 20 years ago! Damn I'm old!) and the very first song I learned to play on the ukulele was Eddie Vedder's Soon Forget, so this is a album I'll be getting for sure. The release date is May 31st.

In other happenings, it appears that my Mya-Moe custom concert ukulele is ahead of schedule. In this day and age of delays after delays, it's pretty refreshing to see someone meeting a promise date, much less improve upon it. The pictures on the uke tracker is looking really good. The curly Myrtle is looking great and I look forward to checking it out to see if Mya-Moe is as good as advertised.