Uke Guy – Page 35 – Ukulele Guy

Goodbye pitchpipe! Hello $13 Digital Tuner!

Ladies and Gentlemen! In this corner, weighing in at a meager $8.72, we have the Kratt SN5 Ukulele Pitchpipe:

And in this corner, weighing in at $12.99, the Intelli IMT500 Clip-on Chromatic Digital Tuner for Strings:

Wait? Seriously?! The digital tuner is less than $5 more than the pitch pipe? Is this some sort of crazy town? If so, please tell me how I can move in. Honestly, just reading reviews of the IMT 500 makes me want to buy it right now. People love this thing! The poor pitch pipe only has like 3 reviews and one of them was pretty bad. I was actually going to Amazon just now to buy a USB/DVI KVM switch (*cough* NERD *cough*) and it recommended the pitch pipe to me. So, I think to myself, "Hay! Self! You should buy that pitch pipe and then write about it on ukukleleguy, right?" And then I found the IMT 500. Now I want to punch the pitch pipe in the face for almost tricking me into purchasing it.

Although, I shouldn't be so mean. The pitch pipe doesn't take any batteries and so when Armageddon strikes are we are all living like cavemen, at least your ukulele will be in tune.

Or, maybe you already have perfect pitch and you don't need either of these things? If that's the case, I hate you.

Jokes!

Will Smith raps with Ukulele

Hmm... I'm tempted to just let this speak for itself.

Nope. I can't do it. Honestly, Will Smith is someone that I love to hate, but I might secretly like. Just don't tell anyone. Growing up, I think I was just a few years too old for the Fresh Prince (and the Carlton dance and whatnot), but my younger brothers ate that shit up!

Everytime there was a new Will Smith song I would moan and wail and gnash my teeth. But, alone in my car, you can definitely catch me bobbing my head to Summertime. There.. it's off my chest, I can rest easier now that my secret is out. You know, now that it's out, what's say someone works on a ukulele dance routine for the Fresh Prince dance? You know the one, it starts with "Don't stop, get it, get it.." Heh.

$30k Tiple Ukulele?! I’ll take two!

So, I was wading through ebay once again and then I got a goofy idea to sort the auctions based on price with the highest price at the top of the list. Before I clicked to sort, I was trying to play a little guessing game with myself as to how high the price of the most expensive item would be. I guessed $4,800. As it turns out, I suck at that particular game because what was at the top was JOHN D'ANGELICO Guitar maker 1930-40's Tiple Ukulele.

Holy crud! $29,999?! Ahh.. wait, though. Free Shipping! So, it balances out, right? Heh. Reading the description of the tiple ukulele, you see that it sounds like the guy doesn't really want to sell it as much as he wants to talk about it. But, that's fine by me because Tiple Ukuleles is something I know very little about. I really do want to get my hands on one, though. A 10-string ukulele?! Why wouldn't you want that.

I've always had questions about how the strings are arranged and the auction answered that question for me:

"This tiple by D'Angelico has the first string doubled in unison, the second and third having three strings with the middle tuned a octive down from the others. and the forth in octave low then high."

Anyway, even if you don't have $30k burning a hole in your pocket, the auction is a good read. Also, if you do have $30k burning a hole in your pocket, did I mention that today is my birthday! 😉 Ok, it isn't really my birthday, but with Thanksgiving coming up, I'm sure you were wondering what you could get for me, right?

JOHN D'ANGELICO Guitar maker 1930-40's Tiple Ukulele

Free Ukulele Songbook

So, I stumbled across a blog post entitled, "Ukulele Songbook MP3s are available in Files section" and instantly I was excited. After reading the article, it looks like folks from Ukulele Hall of Fame created the Fleabag Music songbook so that uke players, when we meet each other, can have a starting off point for playing together. Basically it's sheet music and mp3s for a bunch of public domain songs that are popular on the Ukulele. What's better, it's free!

The sheet music is really complete, but don't worry it also shows the fingerings for all the chords and you could just strum the chords. Anyway, for a free resource, it's incredible! Here are the direct links to the material (but I encourage you to check out the ukuleletonya.com blog as well):

New Flight of the Conchords – Oct 20th

Once again, I'm posting a news item that isn't 100% ukulele-related, but I can almost guarantee that there will be a ukulele track on this record. I can say this with confidence because Brett McKenzie, from Flight of the Conchords, is co-founder of the Wellington Ukulele Orchestra in New Zealand. The new record is called "I Told You I was Freaky" and it's coming out on October 20th. However you can already pre-order it on Amazon. Woo hoo! Now I can get my dance moves ready for "Sugar Lumps".

Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky