What’s Happening
In the Workshop
We Learned a Lot at Napa
After chatting with lots of folks at the Wine Country Ukulele Festival, we came away with good information about what people are looking for in ukuleles and we went right to the workshop. We're building up several new Keystone tenors and a couple of concerts to start....
Shop Update – The Monkey
August 28, 2012 The Monkey got his fretboard yesterday and now we're fine-tuning the frets. We're almost ready for finishing. Here are some update pictures. August 23, 2012 And so more updates to The Monkey. In this episode we attach the soundboard and backboard...
Shop Update – The Monkey
First update for The Monkey, a Birdseye and Poplar tenor with a Maple neck. We're actually not sure of the origin of the name but we couldn't resist placing this video to put us in the mood. Shock the Monkey! So now that we have a soundtrack to our update, here we go!...
Shop Update – Little bit of this, little bit of that
I think we did just about everything today. We bent two sets of ribs, braced a soundboard, installed two pickups, slotted some fretboards, installed some frets, glued a fretboard, shaped two necks, glued a neck and worked on two semi-hollows. Not bad. And luckily it...
Shop Update – Chopsticks!
The mad scientist is back at work. It's a new bracing experiment that we're calling chopsticks, because, well... they look like chopsticks. It's not just a frivolous experiment either. In our ongoing search for new and better ways to build our ukuleles we came up with...
Shop Update – It was Fretboard Day today
It was a zen day today. Fretwork is always zen-work. Yesterday we cut fretboards, slotted them and installed frets for our four Keystones making their way through the shop. We dressed the fret-ends this morning and glued up the fretboards. Then we finished the day...
Shop Update – Dislocated my finger building ukuleles
So I was pushing down on some bracing that I was gluing and my ring finger just bent completely backward. If it had been anyone else's finger I probably would have been sick because it looked horrible, but since it was mine I just thought, "Wow, that's weird." I also...
Lots going on in the ukulele shop
As always, a dearth of posts means that lots has been going on in the shop. We've had to adjust our work schedule because the weather is heating up. It's supposed to hit 106 degrees on Saturday so we'll be trying to start around 6:00am so we can finish up in the shop...
Shop Update – “Roni”
Ukulele "Roni" is named for American film star and pinup, Veronica Lake. As such, we've gone all blonde on her wood, with Birdseye Maple on her sides and Curly Maple front and back. Even her neck will be executed in sleek quartersawn Maple. We're moving along nicely...
Shop Update – “Duke”
Duke is flowing smoothly through the shop. Terrific progress. He'll be in finishing this week. Smile when you play that!™
In Other News
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....
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Workin’ on the websites
So we've got our fancy new WordPress theme going and it's time to make the websites work and look better. As you may have guessed by how often I update the websites, it's not my favorite thing. It's not a lot of fun sitting at the computer tinkering with widgets and...
Ukulele "Dragon" is complete! Click to see her complete update and gallery.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Palm Strings Ukulele Festival
February 25-28, 2016
Hilton Palm Springs
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Reno Ukulele Festival
April 14-217, 2016
Nugget Hotel, Sparks, NV
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