Iucci Banjo Mute
April 24, 2011 at 3:54 am | Posted in Banjo, Gold Tone | 1 CommentTags: banjo, banjolele, jamming, learning, posts, uke, ukulele
Today I had a little ukulele jam session here in Normal, IL and it turned more into a banjo uke session, and that was fine by me, but Dave (Chap on UU) brought the coolest thing.
The Gold Tone Iucci banjo mute
It is genius in what it can do. It really works and brings even the loudest banjo uke down to “normal” uke volume. Dave uses it when he goes and takes classes. It is the only way he does not over power the room.
Just know that it is worth the $25 if you want to play with other ukulele players
From Gold Tone – $25
Amazon – $18.75 with free shipping for prime members
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DIY Banjo Uke
April 21, 2011 at 8:22 pm | Posted in Banjo, Projects, Size | 4 CommentsTags: banjo, banjolele, cheap, DIY, home made, learning, posts, uke, ukulele
Some people know that I am a DIY kind of guy (Hey, that rhymes!) and because of that passion I frequent a site call Instructables.com. Today I was looking at it to find some ideas on how to build a jig to cut large pieces of plywood for a new fireplace mantel, and low and behold on the front page was an article on how to make a banjo ukulele, it was a sign that I had to post about it. I know there are people out there that could make one from rim to neck without having to buy anything. This is for those with out a full woodworking shop.
Here is the original article;
http://www.instructables.com/id/Home-made-banjo-uke/
But there are issues with it, one is that the person is french, I have no issues with the french, but it can be a little confusing and they call things like a hand drum a tambourine. So I have added some links below for the parts that I have found. good luck and make sure to check in and tell everyone about yours. If you like, send me a few pics and info on it and I will add it to this post. Believe me, I will be doing this soon.
Rim/heads:
- This one looks like the one in the article - tunable
- One just like the one on the Firefly - Not tunable
- Cookie Tin or metal lunch box – Who says you have to use a rim and head type thing to make one of these? Be creative!
Neck/Fretboard:
- One referenced in the article – Funny thing is that on Amazon it has the kit under “Other items people have purchased” when you look at the hand drum.
- Mainland has the parts - Currently not on the website, but I called and they have necks, fretboard, and most other parts needed to make a banjo uke. Call or stop by the shop.
Bridge:
- Make your own – Not super hard, I made mine by shaping one out of maple with LOTS of sandpaper and a really flat piece of MDF to attach the sandpaper to.
- Mainland has parts – I assume the same nice 3 leg bridges on the Mainland banjo ukes
- Elderly Music – They have 9 different 4-string ones to choose from.
About the coordinating rod; not sure that it is needed for this build. when I do mine I am going to look in to it and see what I feel is going to work. I will find something like these hanger bolts and a block of wood shaped to fit in the rim to bolt the neck to the rim and not worry about the coordinator rod.
Good luck, hope to see some home made ones soon.
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Banjo Ukulele Week Kick-off
April 17, 2011 at 6:35 am | Posted in Banjo, Eddy Finn, General, Gold Tone, Lanikai, Magic Fluke, Mainland | 10 CommentsTags: banjo, banjolele, Laminate, learning, NAMM, uke, ukulele
Welcome to Banjo Uke week!!!
Doing it a little different for this post, it is all video.
Intro
Anatomy of a Banjo Ukulele
Deering Banjo Video
Keep checking in everyday this week for more banjo uke fun.
This week I will be reviewing:
Eddy Finn Soprano
Lanikai Soprano
Mainland Concert
Lanikai Concert Resonator
Gold Tone concert Banjolele
Fleamarket Music Firefly (Fluke banjo uke)
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Chords4Uke iPhone App Review
March 15, 2011 at 2:25 am | Posted in Products, Reviews | 2 CommentsTags: Application, Chords, learning, posts, tuners, tuning pegs, uke, ukulele
A few weeks a go Calven Eggert of Mulva and Gipple contacted me about a free (Yes as cheap as free) app for the iPhone called Chords4Uke. I don’t own a iPhone currently so I convinced one of my co-workers to install it on his phone, and have been stealing his phone for lunch to play with this wonderful little app.
Side Note: This will work on an iPhone touch also, the tuner may have issues on some of the older ones that do not have a built-in mic, but remedied with iPhone head phones with the mic or attach one with one of the many adapters.
Pros:
Free- Great if you are like me and like to find new ways to play chords, like G, D, D7 are great at the second fret. A lot less movement of the fingers and more control over muting or jazzing things up.
- Since it is on an iPhone it is with you all the time (assuming you are like me and carry your phone with you.)
- You can easily switch from C to D tuning, so if you are new to baritone you can actually play with the “regular” uke people.
- Simple to find the chord anywhere on the neck and add the 7th or augment it.
- Intuitive interface.
- Did I mention that it is free?
Cons:
- Tuner is not perfect compared to my clip-on tuners, but it works in a pinch.
- I wish it was a Flash web app (I don’t own an iPhone, so….)
And please comment below about what you think.
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$5 Hard Ukulele DIY case
February 14, 2011 at 5:56 pm | Posted in Cases, Projects | 16 CommentsTags: cheap, cigar box, DIY, home made, learning, posts, uke, ukulele
Up front, I lied a little…The case is $5 and you could leave it as is and not spend any money, but it is hard not to look at this and just make it awesome.
Case with legs installed
I was walking around the Beast (What we nerds call Best Buy) and I saw that the DJ Hero cases were $5, and I looked at it for a good 5 minutes and wondered if a uke would fit in it? And by chance it is a perfect size for a concert ukulele (25″ x 12″ x 5.5″) , except that to make one fit I had to modify it a little, the bottom has legs that screw in to make it a Dj hero stand. So the adventure begins.
- DJ Hero Case (dimentions 25″ x 12″ x 5.5″)
- Small Thin sheet of metal found at most hardware strores, thin enough to cut with tin snips
- Tin Snips
- Hand Rivet Gun (cheap one with 4 sizes works great)
- 16 Rivets Sized 1/8″ X 1/4″
- 3 Rivets Sized 1/8 X 7/32″
- Padding
The first thing I did was to throw the legs away and pull out the the pieces that were there to store the legs in the middle of the case. They are just glued in with a rubber cement . Then I unscewed the the nuts and bolts for the plastic pieces that the legs screwed into. This left 4 holes in the bottom of the case.
Legs screw into this bracket
Metal patch and rivets. Notice the one with a washer, It was to fix the blown-out hole
At first I tried to use the exsisting holes that the leg brackets came out of but figured out that it leaves a corner that can’t be riveted since there is a big hole under it. That is when I cut out the rounded squares and used the 1/8″ by 1/4″ rivets. The rivets will not go all the way threw, they will expand and wedge into the hole that you drilled leaving a nice flat surface on the inside. I did have one rivet that blew out the hole, but that was when I tired a larger rivet and I had to use a rivet washer and a longer rivet (1/2″) to go all the way threw to the rivet washer on the inside.
Post Rivet-polooza
After the bottom holes were covered I noticed that some of the rivets for the case had either fallen out or never put in, so I used a few 1/8″ x 7/32″ rivets to secure the corners.
Case closed, Nice feet.
Beyond that I took some foam that I had around and cut it to fit the bottom and used double stick tape to hold it down.
Hollowed case with padding I cut
At this point if I wanted to I could cut foam to make it work for a concert uke, but for now I am leaving it free form. I like the fact that I can use it for a concert or use the padding that came with it and the other pieces to fit 2 small ukes like a Kala Travel soprnao and an Ohana sopranino, and still have room for some music books.
Case with padding that came with the case holding my OU-2 concert
Kala and ohana layer 1
Kala and Ohana layer 2
As of today (Feburary 13, 2011) my Best Buy has 5 cases on the shelf, but none online.
Gallery
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- Case closed, Nice feet.
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- Case with padding that came with the case holding my OU-2 concert
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- Case with legs installed
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- Legs screw into this bracket
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- Bottom part with legs and side walls still
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- Hollowed case with padding I cut
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- The metal I cut and riveted over the hole
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- Post Rivet-polooza
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- One of the holes with the metal patch and rivets. Notice the one with a washer. It was to fox the blown-out hole
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- Case with its intended cargo
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- Kala and ohana layer 1
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- Kala and Ohana layer 2
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First Double Ukulele Hard Case
October 26, 2010 at 1:59 am | Posted in Projects | 4 CommentsTags: Care, DIY, home made, learning, posts, uke, ukulele
I will explain the pictures and what are in them, I don’t plan on posting a how-to on it just yet, I would like to make a few more. For my first case I am pleased though.
The fabric is a canvas with plastic leather corners to hide the seams.
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Banjo Ukulele Head Replacement
October 22, 2010 at 8:05 pm | Posted in Banjo, General, Projects | 4 CommentsTags: banjo, banjo head, banjo ukulele, banjolele, DIY, head, home made, learning, posts, uke, ukulele
When I purchased my vintage banjo uke, I knew I was taking a chance that it would be a wall hanger. The head was torn and I had never replaced a banjo head or tried anything like that before, but I figured what the hell, how hard could it be? It is not hard to do once you know how, but finding out how ro replace a head of an in-line banjo ukulele compared to a regular banjo head with the outside brackets proved to be impossible. That is why I wrote this. So that someone else who is looking for how to do this may find something on it.
What was I suppose to do? I e-mailed Elderly music and asked and they responded with instructions on how to do it for a normal banjo. It even came with a PDF, but not what I needed. I was happy that they at least took the time to respond since they really could have offered to fix it and I would pay them. I searched and searched and stumbled on to Aaron Keims Ebay listing for a banjo uke with an in-line head like mine. So I messaged him (Yeah we are friends on Facebook, but really he has a billion friends) and he replied with a simple set of instructions that basically said to just do it and not to tighten it all the way. it made sense since you tighten a regular head after it dries so leaving room to tighten seemed good. thankfully I had enough to do it twice.
Any how, thank you Aaron for taking the time to reply and giving me the confidence to do it.
Here is how to replace an in-line ukulele banjo head
Head is off, but some remains
1. take the old head off. Just loosen each screw a little at a time and moving around the ring until they are all loose. You could just take each screw out, but I worry that the tension on the existing head will make the screw holes widen when it pulls on them. Do it how you like, I might be weird. (NOTE: The first step normally would be to mark the orientation of the outside ring, but I figure the ring is old and needs paint. If not painting make a line on the ring and body so you know how it was before you took it off. Old instruments are not perfectly round)
2. Prep the outside ring and body. The outside ring on mine was rusty so I took a wire brush to it and then sprayed it a flat black. Paint all sides of it, it will get wet when installing the new head. For the body make sure that none of the old head in the space where the ring holds the head down. It can be stuck or slightly glued. As a precaution I filled the screw holes with a small dab of glue. I do this to close the holes a little. The holes will not completely close and will leave a dent for you to feel where the screw goes. Give it a day or two to harden and for the paint to dry on the outer ring. Now is also the time to do any sanding/refinishing/repairs to the body and neck. You will not want to take the head off once you get it back on.
3. So you think you are ready to put the head on? Let us do some prep work to avoid some easy mistakes. As I mentioned before, the body is not perfectly round. The outer and inner ring will usually fit one way. Find that orientation where they just fit. The outer ring will just fall in and match-up with the screw holes. Once you have the orientation make a pencil mark on the ring and body to help when you are installing the head.
Skin cut to size
4. Cut the head to size. Some people will cut and oversized piece then trim later, but I found that wastes the head material. I just put the body down and traced it. Where the neck is just finish drawing the circle. I also made sure to cut my head as close to the edge of the larger 14″ piece as I can. If you do that you can get 2 heads out of it if you mess up the first one. Once you have a circle drawn on the skin cut it out. Mark the smooth side because you will not be able to tell when you are putting the head on because it is wet. Just a small pencil mark on and edge will do. I wrote TOP.
Soaking my head
5. Now you have a stiff piece of goat skin cut to size. How do you stretch it and make it bend o your will? I like to torture it with really hot water. Find a bucket or something that would cover the skin if it was standing on its side (That is how it will float, very surreal looking) I used a small cooler. Fill it with the hottest tap water you can and soak the skin for 5 minutes. While it soaks get everything you need to install the head with in arms reach of where you are going to do the deed. Once you start you have a limited time before it starts to get stiff again.
6. Pull the head out once it has soaked for 5 minutes and dry it with the towel. I just put it on the towel and rolled it in the towel to get the surface water off.
7. Make sure the inner ring is in place and laying flat and lay the head on the body. Make sure that the smooth side is up and that it is centered as possible.
8. place the outer ring on making sure that the pencil lines are aligned. Press down the outer ring until it is half way in.
9 . Take your awl and poke a hole through the head at each hole of the outer ring.
10. Insert the screws into each hole and screw them in until they are flush with the outer ring as it is halfway in.
At this point you are now tightening the head and things can get really hard.
11. Start going around the outer ring and tightening the screws a few turns at a time until it is just level with the body. You can tighten more but don’t, you need room to tighten after it drys. A note; I found it almost impossible tighten it as I got it close to level with the body. I found that pushing the ring in with my fingers a little then tightening down to meet the ring really helped, you just need really strong hands.
12. Let the head dry for at least 5 days (longer if you live in a humid environment). You will feel that it dry the next day but it may still be wet under the outer ring so give it time.
13. Once it is dry try to tighten the screws a quarter to a whole turn to do a final tighten. Tap to make sure it sounds generally the same all the way around and tighten low sounding spots. You will never be able to tune the head like a regular banjo so don’t go crazy.
The head is now replaced!! Now you can do it for others who are too scared to try.
I hope this all made sense. I am sorry there are not more pictures. I got caught up in doing it and did not take a ton of pictures. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments so others can see them, or feel free to e-mail me with questions. Either way I will do my best to answer you.
The Post on what and all I did to the this uke to make it playable is in this post.
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Fleamarket Ukulele rebuild
October 3, 2010 at 4:01 am | Posted in General, Projects | 3 CommentsTags: Care, cheap, DIY, home made, learning, Play, posts, sale, seconds, uke, ukulele
Some would say there is a special place in hell for what I did to this uke. The first rule when finding a vintage ukulele is to never, I mean never ever strip the original finish off. So I did it anyways. In my defense the name on the head was gone, head was torn, and the tuning pegs were shot. Not to mention that there was no bridge or tailpiece.
Go HERE to see pics of it before I “restored” it.
So here is the list of what I did:
- Pulled it a part
- sanded it down
- stained it reddish purple
- Sanded and repainted the ring that hold the head
- Put a new head on (Here is the post on how)
- changed the tuners for some smaller ones (Had to do a washer to cover the hole from the banjo tuners)
- Made a new bridge from maple
- Stole the tail piece from a mandolin I purchased several years ago
- Strings and all is done
- Made a case from cardboard duct tape (A post after the head replacement post)
I learned a few things while doing this and made a few mistakes along the way. I wish I would have not sanded the fretboard as much as I did, I scalloped it a little. The good thing is that it makes it faster, I just have to remember not to go all the way down to the fretboard sometimes. I did find a really cool micro file set to make the notches for the strings on the bridge. As a whole Aaron Keim played it and said I did a really good job when I brought it to the Milwaukee Ukulele fest.
I could not have done this with out Aaron, he was the only person who replied to me when I asked them how to replace the head. His instructions gave me the right basic steps on how to replace a head like that.
Please stay tuned for the next 2 posts about the head replacement and my cardboard case.
Sound Sample
Zoom A2.1u Pedal
August 3, 2010 at 3:27 am | Posted in Products | 1 CommentTags: Electric, jamming, learning, Play, posts, review, tuning pegs, uke, ukulele, zoom
Here we have another NAMM acquisition. I must confess that I have owned one of these pedals for 3 years now, but it is not this version exactly. Mine is a little older and I did not get the software with mine. My serial # 000115, the new one is 502105, not that I think 500,000 were made after mine, it is just mine is pretty old in comparison.
While I was on the floor at NAMM I walked by the Zoom booth and just stopped to see if they had anything new, and they do but it is pretty much just for electric guitars, not super useful for ukulele players. I noticed they had the same pedal I have and started to talk to a rep about it and they seemed excited and wanted to send me the new one with the software and all so I could write about it. 3 days after I got back from Nashville, TN it was at my door. I guess they were excited for me to do something with it.
Now a little over a month later I am getting to writing about it. Made a video a few weeks ago but never had the time to write about it.
Why I purchased my pedal; I had just purchased my Risa solid for my 30th birthday and liked it well enough, but it seemed to be a little annoying when I played it just straight out of an amp. Nothing was wrong with the uke, it was just a weird sound and I wanted to take the head off of it and make it sound more acoustic. I tried a few cheap pedals and an equalizer but never was satisfied. That is until I found a Zoom A2.1U in the clearance area at a Guitar Center in Chicago, figured what the hell it was $80. It was exactly what I wanted and more.
I was looking for a way to make my Risa sound acoustic but I got spacey, techno, electric, and like I am in a big empty hall, along with at least 10 different acoustic sounds that I wanted. I love it because manly it lets me experiment with different sounds and the pedal is really fun (Set it to D4 and it is like a whah whah pedal from the future, sounds really cool when I play Flaming Lips songs)
The only thing I am not wild about is how hard it is to come up with your own custom sounds. I have found that it is a lot of work to create something that is different from the built-in effects.
An added bonus that I don’t use very often is the USB port. With it you can record to your computer. It comes with Cubase LE 4 (Cubase LE 5 is out but does not come with the pedal) I have been using an open source product called Audacity for my small recordings. It is free, kept up-to-date, and it has a lot of free plug-ins and sounds. I just found it simpler than Cubase. The pedal will also work with Garage Band if you have an Apple. I found one thing to be surprising , the lag. When you record it is a step behind. So if you want to over dub (Play while listening) and you go back to the tracks it will be a step behind. Not a huge deal, you just move the last track down a bit and all is good.
I have used it at an open mic and it has every output you would need, including a mic 3 prong if they don’t have a regular jack. It was nice to have the tuner built-in and a bypass if I just wanted to hear it straight or with another pedal.
Watch the video below of me wandering through the different sonds.
Places to buy
Ukulele World Congress 2010
June 9, 2010 at 3:51 am | Posted in Events, Shows | 4 CommentsTags: fest, festival, home made, jamming, learning, Martin, Open Mic, Play, posts, uke, ukulele
What do you get when you have a bunch of ukulele players come to an old hippy commune to play a 8 hour open mic, camp, eat and jam all day long?
A FRICK’N GOOD TIME!!
Stage durring the day
I missed last year’s UWC and I was really bummed and I am so happy that I was able to go this year. The atmosphere is like nothing else. The thing is that it is not a festival but more of a large party to celebrate the ukulele and its community. There are no formal classes, but you learn a ton if you want to. There are no headliners waiting backstage to go on and wow the crowd. Trust me there were plenty of people there that could be the headline act at most any ukulele festival (Dominator, Ukulele Zoey and Jodi AKA Gigapus, Flea Bitten Dawgs, Shani Fawni, and Mike from Mainland Ukes to name a few)The great thing about the UWC is that the performers are everyone there. Everyone has a chance to go and play and get a big round of applause no matter how they did. I am a little embarrassed that I screwed up my set on Friday night. I got up there sang a Flaming lips song then tried to do doc of the bay and could not remember it at all and I really wanted to go back on Saturday to redeem myself but by the time I got back to camp the signup sheet was way to full. When I got off the stage I was greeted by Ukulele Zoey and a bunch of others who made me feel like I was not a total screw up and everyone applauded just as loud for me as every other person that went up there. It is a great place to get up and sing for people if you have never done it before.
Dominator and I
Things to know about the UWC, a lessons learned if you will.
1. Come Friday; There are a lot of people there on Friday and the potluck is amazing. Also if you show up Friday you can explore Nashville and all that fun stuff Saturday.
2. Bring some food and plenty to drink, not just beer. At this year’s, like last years, there was a potluck that is made up of food that the locals bring. it was good. Saturday you will more than likely spend away from camp exploring so you can eat in town. So there is no need to bring full meals, just bring snacks and stuff to share with everyone.
3. Be prepared for any weather. If you are camping make sure that you have clothes for Hot, cold, and wet.
4. Sign up for open mic as early as you can. If you wait you will go on at 1am. People are allowed to stay up there as long as they like, most did 3-4 songs.
5. Be prepared to buy a new ukulele. You may tell yourself that you don’t need it. It is hard to not go to Weed Patch or Mainland and fall in love.
6. Be prepared to stay until 4 pm on Sunday. There was a ukulele class from 11 -4. I heard it was pretty cool
7. Get on Ukulele Underground and start participating in it. The UWC is also a place for many people who communicate on the forums to actually meet and have a “family reunion” of sorts. It will help when you get there.
FIRE
I had a great time and hope that it happens again next year. One of my big highlights was going to David Gills house to see his workshop. That story is coming soon.
Please comment below with your experiences or go to the Ukulele Underground forum where people are already posting their favorite moments.
More pics on the facebook group page
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