the latest NEWS

All the latest stuff. Dave's musings, announcements, deep thoughts, haikus...all that kind of stuff.
2019 Palm Strings Ukulele Festival – Redux

2019 Palm Strings Ukulele Festival – Redux

The 2019 Palm Strings Ukulele Festival is in the books and we're finally getting a chance to write down our thoughts about it. It was a very good festival for us and we loved being able to reconnect with so many of our ukulele ohana.  We debuted our latest micro bass...

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San Diego Festival of Arts

San Diego Festival of Arts

Diana and I just got back from the 2019 San Diego Festival of Arts held in Waterfront Park. We decided to go to the festival sort of at the last minute and we're glad we did. It was a terrific show, we got to hang with lots of friends, made many new friends and also...

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news UPDATE

We've been doing some backend work on the websites recently. We updated security on the front- and back-ends and upgraded a number of other things. Now we can get to some overdue updates and keep getting back in the groove.  It's kind of short-notice, but we've...

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Stepping Back Into the Sunshine

2018 has been a... significant year. The most significant event was that my Dad died May, 24, 2018. After a difficult few years, he passed away quietly of natural causes. While I could see it coming for some time, when he actually died, I wasn't quite as...

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Looking forward to 2018

2017 has been a watershed year. It's been a year of unforeseen events that have significantly altered our view of the world as well as our role in it. These events have not been ukulele related, in fact the ukulele part of our life, in stark contrast, has been a...

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Palm Strings Ukulele Festival III

Palm Strings Ukulele Festival III

Festival season is about to begin and we are heading to Palm Springs to open our year. 2016 was a challenging year with Diana having back surgery in May and me having shoulder surgery in August, but all things considered, we're both doing pretty darn well. Diana's...

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What’s with the bridge?

What’s with the bridge?

The New Drilled-Through Bridge In our most recent ukulele builds we've changed over to a drilled-through bridge. There are a number of reasons for this and we'll go over them here. Besides looking very clean and simple, the drilled-through bridge offers several...

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Cutting soundboards and backboards

Cutting soundboards and backboards

As I rehabilitate my shoulder, I'm doing what I can in the shop, making the various bits and pieces I need for building our ukuleles. I've got some beautiful Poplar and a nice piece of Mango that we've been cutting up. Poplar is so varied. It's amazing how different...

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Headless or not? That is the question.

Headless or not? That is the question.

Headless or not? As we've been playing our first solid body electric basses, we've definitely noticed the weight, particularly after playing ukuleles. Our v1.x basses, while lighter than most full-size basses, still are quite hefty. So the notion of going headless, as...

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Workshop – V2.2_opt.B

Workshop – V2.2_opt.B

Design of the workshop continues apace Space planning is fascinating to me. We recently re-designed our kitchen and it is now a functional masterpiece. You won't see it's modest design featured in Architectural Digest but whether you're cooking for two or 22, it...

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Back to the bass drawing board

Back to the bass drawing board

So the "California" bass gave us a LOT of information and we're incorporating some changes into the next design in the development of our short-scale bass. Here's a bit of a rundown on the changes. Scale Length We're actually going to open the scale up just slightly....

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We’re just about ready for Reno

We’re just about ready for Reno

Our favorite show of the year, the Reno Ukulele Festival, is right around the corner. After a very successful show in Palm Springs in February, we hit the ground running and went right back to the shop. And now, after a lot of steady work, we're ready for Reno with a...

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Our Short Scale Concept Bass is done!

Our Short Scale Concept Bass is done!

The "SSC" or Short-Scale Concept bass is too much fun! She's a 30-inch scale, solid-body, electric bass and the compact size is outstanding for smaller hands. Her body is simple plywood and and she has a fast, shallow-profile neck in quarter-sawn, book-matched ash....

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iUbass prototype is in testing

iUbass prototype is in testing

The short-scale bass concept is complete and we've started testing her. First Impressions Love the EMG passive "Geezer" pickup. Simplicity at it's best. No battery, just volume and a single tone control. Works well with the short scale, which doesn't leave much room...

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Finished up the bass body

Finished up the bass body

Base Layer The finish started out with a layer of deep red. This is Milk Paint and it has a very, very flat finish. This is the base layer.   Top Layer The next layer is Oyster White This will be the final surface. Milk paint starts out very flat but with a...

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Routing the iUbass body

Routing the iUbass body

Constructing the iBass body out of two pieces of plywood makes routing out the body cavities much easier. It gives you complete access to the interior of the body for cutting cavities and then the two pieces can be glued together. It's not only convenient but allows...

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A nice shipment of K&K Aloha Twin pickups just arrived

A nice shipment of K&K Aloha Twin pickups just arrived

The Aloha Twin pickup from K&K Sound is our go to pickup for our ukuleles. This pickup has been optimized for acoustic ukuleles and we are very happy with them. They require no battery, are very lightweight and we think they sound just grand. These are for the...

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From GCEA to EADG

From GCEA to EADG

From GCEA to EADG So I've recently made a little change. I don't play just GCEA anymore. I've picked up the bass and have made a move to the dark side. EADG. It's very intriguing. The deep, full tones of a bass are a totally different experience from playing an...

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