AWOL the ukulele noob

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It is with great joy that we are able to introduce AWOL to our team. He will be bringing us ukulele news from far and wide to keep us up to date with everything ukulele! 4 strung is for warned :-

So before I bring a new perspective to Ukeland, perhaps I should introduce myself. I’m AWOL, yes as in not being where I should have been. That long story however is not about ukes and therefore probably of no interest to you.

My fascination with this wonderful little stringed instrument came from my wife. Who after hearing my life regret of never learning to play music insisted I get an instrument and learn (the ‘it’s never too late’ speech). With a gleeful new outlook I ran to the first place I figured I could get a guitar, craigslist. Nothing fit my meager budget. BUT… there was a 30$ ukulele. Humm I knew that it seemed too good to be true, even figured there was a mistake. Called the dealer and arranged to drop in. Turned out it was a new but slightly flawed ukulele that he couldn’t sell to an outlet and this was why it was so cheap. I snapped it up and was beaming. It didn’t take long to notice people with guitars on the trains and buses and how cumbersome it looked compared with my new little bundle of sound. How if I were to travel I could have mine as carry on vs stowed away. Oh the reasons for why my choice was so perfect were really stacking up. A few cheap lessons and I knew some chords and was playing a few songs.

Now I’m the guy behind ukulele army as well as a few other ukulele adventures. Soon I’ll even be taking on some of my own electric ukulele builds and sharing the experiences with the readers here.

I’m looking forward to sharing more ukulele adventures soon…

Kingcaster uke build : part 09 – How to paint the body – part 1

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I’m back with another installment in my story about what it takes to build an electric ukulele. Pretty much all the fiddly stuff is done. In my last update I talked about wiring up the electrics. Daniel Hulbert has suggested that I check that it works before I go too much further. Thanks Daniel… I will do that soon… I promise! Not before I’ve painted the body though! Ha ha! Catch me if you can!

In search of inspiration…

 

I wasn’t looking forwards to the wiring, and I haven’t been looking forwards to the painting. I’ve done a bit of this before and the results were poor. Granted some of this was simply down to a lack of patience but I knew this time that I needed help. I hit Google+ hard and before I knew it the advice was flowing in thick and fast. Many thanks specifically to Gavin Scully and Jonathan Martin for your words of wisdom. I couldn’t have done this without you guys! But before we start high-fiving let me reveal that this hasn’t all gone according to plan. Let me explain…

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Bass Ukulele Build : part 03 – Complete!

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The body was given an orange color and a clear coat.

An extra long locking clamp (e.g. a non-medical hemostat) was used to thread the wires through the body.  The preamp cavity was narrow and deep, so this tool helped out tremendously.

I originally thought that the rod piezo would be tucked into the space at the back of the bridge. After some testing, this setup wasn’t working as well as I wanted it to.  The weight of the wood and the bridge dampened the sound too much.

After putting the rod piezo right behind the string saddles, the sound was much more responsive.

The neck was attached with an oval jack plate.  (This seems to be a signature feature of my electric instruments.)   A strap peg was placed in the middle of the plate.

The battery compartment was installed in its place at the bottom.

The smaller preamp and the battery holder work together to make a great setup for this bass ukulele.  There are no onboard volume or tone controls, but those things are easily controlled on the main amplifier.

This bass ukulele turned out great.  I was worried about my color choices when I started out, but I think it looks awesome.

This little ukulele also produces nice sound.  The Road Toad strings have a really nice feel to them, and they help make sweet music.

I met all of the goals that I had for this project.  I now have a slick little instrument with great sound and looks to match. This project was a rousing success!

 

Check out the deep and rich sound that this little bass puts out.  

 

To see more of my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel (Circuits and Strings).

 

Jakata Street Punks (video)

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A group of friendly street punks in Indonesia’s capitol, Jakarta.

We had heard the punk ukulele scene in Jakarta was big. We bumped into these punk kids the first time we went out for a walk around and they were happy to let us record them playing uke. In the few days we were there, we meet more new ukulele friends than you ever could have expected. It seems a uke to these kids is like a PSP or a blackberry is to kids in the UK. It gives them amusement, entertainment and above all, a voice to tell everyone else about how they see the world.

Kingcaster uke build : part 07 – How to fit electric ukulele tuners

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This is my second ‘how to’ for today and it was almost a ‘how not to’.

Machine Heads… Tuners… Gear Heads
I’m fitting these standard Strat-style tuners to my Electric Uke

For those of you with a worse memory than me, I remind you that earlier today I busted a scratch plate. I left you hanging with the promise of a post on how to fit the tuners. I’ve done that now and here’s how I did it…

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The Ukulele Festival of Great Britain 2012

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Today’s post celebrates the fun that was the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain. I dragged my family along kicking and screaming and a great time was had by all! Apologies in advance for the poor photography. I’ve included as many of the photos as possible, with a few scans interspersed in between. There’s no particular order to the pictures. If it’s uke-related then it’s probably got a mention somewhere below. I’ve stuck in as many plugs and links as possible. Sorry if I missed anyone. And sorry if I’ve got any of my facts wrong. Just shout if you want anything fixing…

The Ukulele Festival of Great Britain; Cheltenham; 1st – 3rd of June, 2012
There’ll be no festival next year apparently. No details were given. I’m as much
in the dark as you.

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Kingcaster uke build : part 06 – How to make the scratch plate

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Kingcaster Custom Electric Ukulele

I’m back and I have another update on my electric ukulele build. Most of the shaping has been done and now I’m on to the fiddly bits. In my last post I battled with my demons and fitted the frets. This post is a whole lot more laid back… but this is no time to become complacent! Today I show you how I made the scratch plate.

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