What is U-bass?

Posted on March 7, 2012 by julesd

The term U-Bass is a relatively new one, owned by Kala. It is there trade name for their 4-string full range bass ukelele. It has a half-scale neck that measures 21″ that uses special polyurethane strings reproduce the sounds of a full size upright bass. The ‘u’ part of the name stems from the fact that it is built around either a solid or an acoustic baritone ukelele body. It can be bought either as a 16 frets (with the neck meeting the body at the 12th fret), fretted or fretless model.

On Sunday evening I was lucky enough to meet Paris from The Pukes and she let me have a look at her solid body u-bass. We suspect that it might be the only solid body u-bass in the U.K. at the moment, but if you know of any others, we would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.

Paris reckons it plays really well and the short chance I got to play, it felt nice in my hands. The strings didn’t feel at all sticky, (see the Ashbory below for more on that) but I didn’t get a chance to plug it in.

Paris was also kind enough to flip the u-bass over and let us take a little look inside the preamp cavity. You can see in here a small CR-2032 battery, the same kind that is inside the pre-amp of my Kala Tenor uke. In the years I have owned that uke, I have only ever had to change the battery once or twice and they are available all over the place now. Our local 99p shop sells 5 for a pound 😉

So Paris has the only solid body we know of, but we did see this acoustic version down at John T’s Shopand we were very impressed with that. It is smaller than a guitar, but has a warm acoustic sound like a upright bass.

I had played a Ashbory DeArmnd short scale bass a few years ago. Like the u-bass, this half scale unit was a light weight, poly-stringed bass and I guess in many ways it inspired the newer u-bass. When I played this, the strings were a little sticky, but it was perfectly playable. The company Ashbory is now owned by Fender.

It also has a little pre-ap built into it’s cavity which you can find pictures of below.

You can download the schematic for the Ashbory’s preamp from largesound. I think this could be a very useful schematic for any nylon string uke pre-amp you might be building.

The PUKES @Boston arms,Tufnell Park 5/3/2012

Posted on March 5, 2012 by julesd

As Promised, last night I went all the way up to Tuffnell Park to see a band called ‘The Pukes‘. Well, I say ‘band’ but that really does not do them justice. They are more of a ‘punk ukulele collective’ or, to use their own terminology ‘a ukulele anti-society for punks’.

I am guessing, but I would hazard a guess that there were around 15 or more people on that stage thrashing the guts out them little Ukuleles. Mostly ladies, mostly with different colored hair. Mostly tattooed. Totally a spectacle to be seen.

I have been talking to Clara from the pukes over email for a little while now. She sent me a list of their gigs a while back (see the events calendar for their next gig). Now there a few guys in my office over from New York for a few weeks running training courses. One of them asked me if we could go to a punk gig, and I remembered Clara had told me of this gig, so I took my New York workmates up to Tuffnell Park. They couldn’t believe what they saw. The pub was full of leather jackets, bright coloured mohawks and big boots, but my New York mates just couldn’t understand people looking like that but still able to ask them ‘scuse me, mate when they wanted to get past. Apparently, New York punks have much lower standards etiquette than London punks.

So the Pukes rolled through a great list of 2 1/2 minute punk standards that, although admittedly never written for ukulele, belonged on the 4-stringers, if they belonged to be played at all. Further more, every member of the band and the crowd enjoyed what was going on. If you play Uke yourself, you will most likely know that sub-conscious grin you get when you play a tune on it, and you know that by all the rules it just should not work, but it does. That exact same grin permutated through the crowd. Even the most hardened punks were bouncing.

Of course, if that wasn’t enough, to top my evening, I went back stage to meet the band, and I was also lucky enough to get a quick play on what we think might be the only solid body Kala U-Bass in Britain at the moment. It’s owner, Paris, was kind enough to let me take some photos of it, but I am going to save most of them for another day. These U-basses need further investigation, and I know just the website… stay tuned!

Want to try punk uke yourself? Download ‘The Pukes Punk Songbook‘ now!

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King Julian

Posted on February 27, 2012 by julesd

King Julian strumming away on his Electric Ukulele

What do you get if you cross ‘King Uke’ and ‘julesd’ ?

That’s right, it’s King Julian playing an electric uke! Amazing! He really loves that egg!

For around $5, every street kid in Indonesia can have a ukulele and sing.

Posted on February 11, 2012 by julesd

There is a kind of revolution occurring on the streets of Jakarta, where punk sensibilities, brotherhood, music, desire for freedom and ukulele’s have met each other in one place. I have been trying to write an article on this for quiet a while now but the subject matter has made it difficult for me to phrase the correct way. Luckily, I have found a friend, Ayumi Nakanishiwho, has first hand knowledge of the situation, and likes to document her findings with photos. The text and pictures that follow are hers.

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Jakarta Punks by Ayumi Nakanishi

First arriving to the country 20 years ago, now the scene has grown as the biggest in Asia, the spirit of punk has perfectly fit in the Indonesian society, where there are reasons to be angry about. The gaps between poor and rich are huge, daily lives are surrounded by irrationalness. There were no human rights, no freedom of speech, or no freedom at all, especially during the Suharto regime for his 3-decade-long dictatorial presidency fallen in 1998. That was when student activists like Mike & Bob chose “punk” to fight for their “freedom,” and soon their loud voices began to reach out.

Formed in 1996 by Mike and Bob, Marjinal, a punk band from Jakarta, has not only helped uncountable numbers of street kids earn cash by teaching them how to survive on the streets by busking with ukuleles; affordable, easy and small enough even for a child to play anywhere, but they also sent their message with the true spirit of punk that is “punk is for everybody.” TaringBabi community ran by Marjinal, is the home to many punks of all ages for long, and opens for “anyone for sharing and learning together.” They give free music lessons and art workshops such as screen-printing, and give away their music, logos and artworks for reproducing for survival. Those who reside at TaringBabi, learn how to survive by caring and helping each other.

The residents include the youngest, a 12-year-old, Ucil, who is from a broken home. “TaringBabi is my family,” said Ebet, 20, whose parents had passed away and has been living there for years. Mike, 33, and Bob, 32, who take care of all, try to make their living by selling their paintings or tattooing that they sometimes exchange tattoos for rice. Living on the edge, they still keep going.

Their activities, and poignant & powerful messages in their songs about the suffering and struggles, government corruption and injustices in Indonesian society made them so charismatic that those followers who have now become the messengers of the band, sing their songs on trains, buses, streets of Jakarta and throughout the country. “It’s about how we take care of our friends.” “We survived until now, it’s not because of the band, but because of the community. We have the mission. It’s about life. We have the reason for that, and the band is a tool. We never stayed until now without our friends,” said Mike on their 14th anniversary in December 2010. They do what they do for so long “to make the revolution for people in Indonesia.”

The Marjinal guys have now been facing a crisis of survival to keep their home “Taringbabi” community because of the economical issues, trying to take care of many punks living there as well as maintain their activities, which are always operating in the red, as it all comes to depend only on Mike and Bob. Marjinal guys have always been struggling though they still let anybody in, let them stay, feed them and give them education, those include street kids living on the streets.

At the moment, their financial condition is quite serious, and the best way to support them now perhaps is to buy their artwork or products for them to earn some kind of cash to survive. So that they can eat and keep the home then go back to their activities. ukeland.co.uk and Ayumi Nakanishi are trying to work together to establish a way that we can support Marjinal by selling their artwork, products/ band merchandise which include their woodcuts prints, T-shirts, pins, patches which are all made by hands. It is not proving easy at the moment as Ayumi is back in her home country, Japan, trying to help people there recover from the natural disasters that have happened over the last year or so, and the Marjinal / TaringBabi team are difficult to contact due to their economical issues.

If you have any ideas on how you can help, please contact any of the following :-

Us: electricukuleleland@gmail.com
Ayumi: photo@ayuminakanishi.com and at her website www.ayumi-nakanishi.com
Bob Marjinal: dosakoe@gmail.com

While we work out how we might be able to sell merchandise for them, please think about raising money and awareness by writing and recording a ukulele punk song, donating some proceeds from a gig, or simply just sharing this story on your social networking sites

“For around $5, every street kid in Indonesia can have a ukulele and sing.”

OK Go – Needing/Getting

Posted on February 5, 2012 by julesd

Ok Go are a quirky rock band from Chicago. They just made this video on a 2 mile stretch of road in the desert and it seems to me that the only instrument the band play is a Ukulele… everything else is played by the Chevrolet they drive!

Gibson pump polish

Posted on January 16, 2012 by julesd

Just thought i’d share this little nugget of instrument care wisdom. Gibson do a non aerosol spray polish for cleaning up your instruments. I fully recommend you grab a bottle of this for the next time you change the strings on your uke. It degunks any built up dust and grim without clouding or breaking the varnish on your instruments. The polish is safe for use on all types of finishes and has no unnatural chemical propellants or nitrates.

It also gives a slinkier feeling to any fretboard. Although it is unlikely to make much difference to the sound of your uke, it is still worth a few spray shots while you have the strings off to make your uke look and feel all brand new. Anyone who has opened the case of a new Gibson guitar will already recognise the smell of it too. Smells like rock and roll. I’m not sure why, but for some reason, Gibson seem to have left the word UKULELE off the label. Bah!

julesd’s quick guide to ukulele power chords.

Posted on January 5, 2012 by julesd

Power chords (or fifth’s as they are sometimes known) are a staple of rock and metal music as played by guitarists, but are not largely documented for ukulele’s. They go widely unnoticed in chord books and charts because ‘the man’ does not want you to rock out on your uke. Well, we got two fingers for him. If you a bit too much of a mummy’s boy, you should stop reading now. The rest of the article is for the hardcore only. 🙂

So, what is a power chord? They are 2 note chords consisting of a root note and a fifth interval. When these notes become amplified, the resonate against each other in a way that screams ROCK! This happens because the relative frequencies between the 2 notes are close to being 3:2 and as such, they drive each other along, creating more power. Obviously this works best if you add a touch of distortion which has the additional benefit of making the 2 resonating notes gain a further dynamic that sounds 1 octave lower.

On a uke, these power chords are very simple and can open up a whole new level of fun when you are playing. If you have ever seen the console game ‘Guitar Hero’, a handful of these uke chords can replace the coloured buttons on that dedicated controller for simple rock fun. The trick is to only play 2 out of the 4 strings. You can mute the other 2 strings however you like, or simply don’t play them. A little practice will help you find your way with this method.

You might want to try using power chords to replace other chords when you are playing just to see how it feels. Try replacing, say, an F with an F5 and listen to the difference it makes. There are 2 positions for each power chord. Typical rock music is empowered by the low version of the chord, but you can still use the higher version as an alternative chord.

julesd’s quick guide to setting up a virtual amp

Posted on January 1, 2012 by julesd

So you have hooked up your uke with a pickup and now you want to jam hard with it? Well, you could go out and spend lots of bucks on a marshall amp and stack, you could make your own battery powered mini amp, or now days, you can even plug you uke into your pc and rock out.

You can now pick up a USB guitar lead for same price as a second hand copy of “GUITAR HERO : METALLICA” and you can have much more fun with it. Search on google shopping or ebay for “USB GUITAR LEAD” and look for something like this :-

There is no need to buy an expensive version that comes bundled with software, we are going to show you some windows software right now that can turn your £20 uke with a budget pickup in the mother of all axe wielding rock stars. First of all you will need to download a VSTi host. If you have some recording software like cubase, you may not need this step and the other instructions will be different for you, so today we will concentrate on a simple AMP setup. For those who are new to this game, a VSTi is a virtual instrument plugin. The concept was introduced by Steinberg with early versions of Cubase but many other Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software uses these plugins as well now. There are huge numbers of VSTi developers out there… We are just looking at one that has a bunch of good amp and pedal settings for your uke.

So first of all, we are going to download VSTHost from the VSTHost download page

Unfortunatly it does not come with an installer like most modern windows programs, but rather just a zip file that you will need to open up and extract the files from.

Create a directory called ‘C:\Program files\vstihost\’ and extract your files into there. It is a good idea to take the opportunity to create a VSTi directory at the same time, so we have a place to drop our VSTi plugins into.

Next, download the amp simulator FreeAmp 3 Full from the freeamp download page and open up the file.

Again, you need to extract it’s contents into the directory we created earlier, ‘C:\Program files\vstihost\VSTi\’

Now launch your “C:\Program Files\Vstihost\vsthost.exe”, open the file menu and click on “New Plugin”

Locate the vsti dll you extracted earlier

This should set you up with a input -> vsti -> output like this :-

Next we need to route our inputs and outputs. My uke plugs into my input 3 and my speakers are output on on 1+2. Open the “engine” menu and chose “Configure…” and then chose your inputs and outputs as required.