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 Priming the pump, just for ukes...
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Kapila Kane
Ha`aha`a

USA
1051 Posts

Posted - 04/27/2017 :  1:08:52 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
just cruising old posts...and there are NONE here. I know we'll always have you tube, and Paris...but geez, somebody post and counter-post! It's like a desert island out here in 'uke talk'! Guess it'll never be a PBS fund-raiser special.
Oh well.
I remember that Geoge's camp started out as Slack Key Only camp...
but then they said,
let's give them something to talk about.
and Soon, there were more Ukes than Guitars.
But, as Yogi Berra used to quip, "they don't hang out here anymore, it's too crowed."

So with saddest Aloha,
Eyeyore the fiddler.

Pops
Lokahi

USA
387 Posts

Posted - 04/30/2017 :  12:53:24 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I still visit regularly because of the emphasis on Hawaiian music. I was so sad to hear that Eddie Kamae and Sheldon Brown have both passed away. What a loss to our 'ukulele community.
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Earl
`Olu`olu

USA
502 Posts

Posted - 05/02/2017 :  1:08:38 PM  Show Profile  Visit Earl's Homepage  Reply with Quote
I browse though here too. The last post I made in this room was over a year ago, asking if anyone from Taropatch was going to be at the 2016 Reno Uke Fest. No response, and the Uke Room has been remarkably quiet ever since. I wasn't able to make the 2017 festival in early April, so did not post.
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Eynowd
Lokahi

Australia
181 Posts

Posted - 05/02/2017 :  5:37:29 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I ordered a new uke the other day (this one, specifically). I ordered with LowG strings too.

It hasn't arrived yet, sadly.

Does that count?

(I would have ordered it from The Ukulele Site in Hawaii, like I did my Guitalele earlier this year, but there's been a change in the status of rosewood, so they can't ship anything with rosewood internationally at the moment, to prevent it being seized by Customs )

Geoff - g'day from Canberra, Australia.
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Earl
`Olu`olu

USA
502 Posts

Posted - 05/03/2017 :  04:32:02 AM  Show Profile  Visit Earl's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Nice looking ukulele, Eynowd. Kala instruments are usually quite nice -- well built and nicely set up. (We own two). I've sorta been lusting after a thin-line tenor Travel Uke for a long time. They sound much louder than such a thin body really should. But we have enough ukulele sitting around da hale that adding another does not make much sense right now.

Adding rosewood to CITES at the beginning of 2017 has messed up many movements of instruments across borders and caused much trepidation. Without getting into all the gory details, it is not supposed to apply to small items like instruments. But one never knows what Customs will do at any given border. So everyone is being very cautious. This topic has been discussed on hundreds of pages in guitar forums lately.
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sirduke58
`Olu`olu

USA
993 Posts

Posted - 05/03/2017 :  06:01:05 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I wouldn't really label myself an ukulele player but I do own 4 of them. 3 of them are Kalas. A 4 string concert, 6 string & 8 string tenors. I was also gifted a beautiful curly koa 6 string tenor Koaloha by one of my overly appreciative kiho'alu haumana. He works at Koaloha & got it at a discount but I know it still set him back a pretty penny. He strung it with both a Low G & Low A and dropped the action to .2. The lowest possible to not have fret buzz. Plays like butter & sounds amazing. Everyone loves it & it's complimented at every kanikapila.

I'm basically a strummer on the uke so a 6 or 8 works better for me. You can't beat the fullness & warmth of a 6. That Low A gives the ukulele a totally different sound. You can play solo & still sound full with a 6. I think that's why 6's are preferred by kumu hula playing for their halau.

Hey Geoff,
I thought $595 was pretty expensive for a Kala 4 string tenor. I never buy new. My Kala 6 string spruce top/mahogany back & sides was found at a pawn shop & cost me only $300. Lucky for me there's always decent ukuleles to be found in Hawaii pawn shops.
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Eynowd
Lokahi

Australia
181 Posts

Posted - 05/03/2017 :  3:26:20 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sirduke58

I thought $595 was pretty expensive for a Kala 4 string tenor. I never buy new. My Kala 6 string spruce top/mahogany back & sides was found at a pawn shop & cost me only $300. Lucky for me there's always decent ukuleles to be found in Hawaii pawn shops.



Welcome to life in Australia, bruddah :) Everything is more expensive over here, because of the Pacific Peso (er, I mean the Australian Dollar) exchange rate, and the cost of shipping stuff here, especially from North America.

The same use is under US$400 on theukulelesite.com, but once you factor in a hard case, Worth Low G strings and international shipping, and then run that through the exchange rate, it'd run to about A$750.

There aren't many pawn shops around in Australia any more, at least not in my part of the country. There's only one in town that I know of, and it's crap for musical instruments. I've never seen any ukes in there at all.

Because I wanted a hard case and Worth Low G strings, the guy did a deal for me, and the whole shebang only came to A$650, which I thought was pretty good.

I don't consider myself primarily a uke player, but I've been doing some recently and enjoying it, so this is going to be quite an upgrade over my A$110 Hulala laminate uke that I've had for a couple of years now.

Geoff - g'day from Canberra, Australia.
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