The Beatles, sans John, playing blues on ukes, 1994
And did I mention that I decided to swap my mahogany uke for another one in koa? Well, I did, along with a bit more of my money, since the new one is an upgrade from the Mainland.
In the guitar world, this is called GAS, i.e. Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. Uke players called it UAS, for what should be obvious reasons. But I'm done. Two is my limit.
No, really. I mean it. Seriously.
Got a terrific deal, and hereunder the twain:
Above, top: MM tenor in koa; Pu'uwai tenor, koa, bottom. The MM is slightly narrower across the bouts, but a hair deeper through the body.
Below: Pu'uwai, left, MM, right. Note that the tops are book-matched. (Book-matched, which means they take a piece of wood and split it, open it like you would a book, then glue the mirror-images together along the edge.)
The new one came equipped with a pick-up, a K&K Twin-Spot, which is similar to the stick-on transducer I got with the Roland Micro Amp, for my guitar.
Plug it in, it makes things louder, and with the reverb cranked up about 2/3rds on the British Combo setting, I get a nifty echo-EFX that works great for "Hotel California ..."
Gotta get back to work, book is waiting ...
One of those ukes in the film looks like it has a resonator. Heh. You probably need one of these, being as how you're sort of a natural blues guy. Or maybe a cigar box guitar to play a little open G slide. Trust me, you'll never run out of guitars and ukes to buy.
ReplyDeleteOh, I know there are worlds of instruments through which I could wander. I looked at resonators -- both the guy who I took a couple blues lessons from and the woman who taught us voice classes have those, and they have that tone. There's a guy up in Port Townsend, where we used to live, what makes 'em, and they are spiffy axes. Saw some cigar boxes at the instrument show, too. I'm depending on my iron will to keep me from going to the poor house ...
ReplyDeleteI have discovered you can make some nice jazzy chords, sharped minor 7ths, just by barring a fret straight across with that GCEA tuning. Noodling around, I realized I could do a version of George Benson's "On Broadway" just by sliding that barre this way, then that way.
ReplyDeleteWay cool.