Friday evening . . .
Well, I have fit the bone nut and saddle and have installed the tuners (Gotoh deluxe peg tuners). All that remains now is to wait until tomorrow to string this baby up and do all the adjustments for the action!!! I can't wait (but I will have to).
Okay, here's another one, this time a partial rendition of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"!!!
Some More News about this Harp Uke: |
On February 16th, I (impulsively) sold my harp uke to a fellow teacher, who runs the school's ukulele club (pretty popular here at Independence High --- we've got a lot of Filipino, Samoan, and Asian students who tend to be the ones interested in the uke). He had heard about it, asked me if he could see it, so I brought it to school that day. He really liked it, so I ended up selling it to him!!! In fact, he took my harp uke to a Santa Cruz Ukulele jam that night, and apparently it was kind of a hit there!!
Now I miss it, and intend to make another one as soon as I can (hopefully, I won't sell it!), but this time I'm thinking of rosewood and maybe that "cloud" peghead for the bass box.
Right after I sold it, I spent a good part of my winter break figuring out just what I needed to purchase for this second harp uke build. I ordered pretty much everything I'd need for the new harp uke. I found out I already have some nice East Indian rosewood and an Engelmann top I can use. I also have a second 17" scale tenor uke fretboard I had had LMI slot when I ordered the supplies for the first harp uke, so I don't need to order/make that. I ordered tuners from Hanalima (I've always been partial to their Gotoh amber tuning pegs.), supplies from LMI and Stew-Mac, after comparing prices. I'm going to be doing bloodwood bindings on this one --- I really like how pretty they are with rosewood backs and sides!
This one should probably turn out better, too, as now I kind of know the process of building this weird instrument. Who knows....I might even start before I retire! (Oh, yeah....I don't think I've mentioned yet that I am retiring at the end of this school year, which is in about six weeks!!! I've been teaching here at this school for 32 years. Now I don't have to limit my building to summer vacations, as I'll then be on a perpetual summer....) |
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Saturday, July 16th, 2011:
IT'S FINALLY FINISHED!!!
Instead of photos, here's a video:
OOPS — When I first mentioned the harpbox tuner nuts (made of the bone bridge pins), I mistakenly called them "tuner buttons"
— DUH!!! I'm still not sure what you call them — tuner pins, tuner nuts, or whatever. I've seen them called all sorts of things on various websites. Anyway, they're NOT "tuner buttons"!!!
THE GAL CONVENTION:
Next week, I will be attending the GAL (Guild of American Luthiers) Convention in Tacoma, Washington, July 20-24th. I haven't been there since 2004, so I'm really looking forward to it! I'll be taking my little harp ukulele, of course!!
Here's a very nice photo of Kimo Hussey with my harp uke at the GAL convention; an Internet friend, Carl, kindly sent it along to me:
Have a good remainder of summer — see you next summer!!!
A SONG!!!
(By the way, that "thump" you hear about halfway through the song was my email program telling me it didn't receive any email. I forgot to turn off its automatic email-checking feature.)
Friday, August 5th, 2011:
Just thought I'd post another video. While I was in Tacoma for the convention, my Orcas black fluorocarbon strings arrived. I strung them up yesterday and thought you might like to hear what they sound like, compared to the Aquila Nylgut strings:
Sorry about the squeaky toy background music — I decided not to re-do this video, just because I thought it was cute that Hannah apparently wanted to be in on the action and accompany me in the song!
I think I really like these Orcas strings! To me, they sound a lot crisper and cleaner than the Nylgut strings, and they're easier on the fingers.
And Finally . . . |
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April 14th, 2012:
TO THE RIGHT, you can see I made a little modification to the harp uke peghead. The new owner of the harp uke found the bottom section of the peghead a bit too low for his hand to fit comfortably (remember, I actually had built this for myself, and I have pretty small, narrow fingers), so he asked me if I could modify the peghead a little.
So, that's what I did this week (I'm just finishing my Easter break). I moved the bottom corners of the peghead further up and narrowed the bottom section of the peghead to meet the new corners. I just used a coping saw, files, and sandpaper to reshape the peghead, and then refinished it. I think it came out nicely, and I think he'll feel more comfortable playing it now. |
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FROM THE GAL CONVENTION:
Just a really quick post of a little video I took with my iPhone, of Kimo Hussey playing my harp ukulele at an informal uke listening session at the GAL Convention.
FOR MUCH MORE DETAIL ABOUT THE GAL CONVENTION AND MY LITTLE VACATION TRIP, GO HERE !!!
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