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| New to Uke - Beginner Questions - Ukulele - Ukulele - ezFolk Forums | |||||||||||||||
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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Ok, I'm new to the UKE thing, and thus far totally enjoying it, I am the father of four that range from 16 to 23, almost anything dad gets in to my kids follow, so I'll need some cheep cheep Ukes to let'em play along, I do plan on buying my oldest a duplicate to my UK 70 which as I mentioned elsewhere is holding tune rather well, it looks nice and sounds great, I am thinking of buying two duplicate cheap Silvertones SU 5's I know these are basically toys, or at least the price would suggest they're toys, but is there anything that can be done to dress'em up a little, they'll be more for my daughter, with the duplicate going to me so she feel cool having the same uke as her ole man, can better tuners be added, will better strings work etc. I know if I plan on putting money into them I mite-as well just buy two good ones, but my thought was to buy cheap then gradually make them a little better, I'm not looking to turn it into a Martin, just something that if she sticks with it she can keep awhile, then around Christmas, I'll get her something a little nicer, maybe makala or kala, I already know I'm getting my oldest boy either UK 70 or an oscar Schmidt OU-5 not knowing much about UKEs these seem to sound good for just sitting around the living room strumming. I think I'll hint around for a bettter UKE for myself for Christmas what would be the best choice in the 500.00 to 600.00 price range. I like Concert size, I don't like Fleas, Flukes or Pineapples too much, so I guess I'm asking for a better brand name Ken
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ezmember Approved
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If I was a girl, which I am, I'd want that Kiwi Kala musicguymic has on ebay. 
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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Thanks I'll take a look into the Kiwi Kala for my little girl, I just bought an Oscar Schmidt OU-5 KOA with gig bag for 82.00 - 102.00 delivered, if the Washburn name holds up, it should be a pretty good instrument. My daughter is a daddy's girl she'll want a duplicate of whatever I am playing with, this is why I was going to buy to matching cheap ukes, so we could learn together, and if she sticks with it, I'll get her something really good, as for my son he's 23 I'll get him whichever he likes best in a duplicate to my UK 70 or now the OU-5, unless we find something else by Christmas, as I wrote earlier he plays guitar so he picked it up and just started playing it, of course he had to look at the cords, but he said a g7 looked like a d7 if I'm not mistaken on the guitar, in fact he said it felt as if the strings were a little further apart on the uke than on guitar so again for him it was an easy transition, for me it is not so hard either, it's just a matter of learning the names of the chords. So far, holding chords, and chord changes aren't all that bad, of course I'm more a strummer than a picker, but it's only been since Sunday or Monday. So far its been a blast, odd thing, years ago I tried different things, and wasn't too good at it, I was distracted easily, but after breaking my back, and losing the ability to walk it seems whatever I try comes real easy, so far I've learned to paint, learned the harmonica and become a Chess Master, so it's either a cool way our body/minds compensate for loss, or the drugs they have me on for pain lol... moral of the story, if you are having a hard time with this instrument go out and break your back, just kidding... The thing is now adays I stick with things longer, Chess has been 5 years now, painting 3, harmonica 1 year and the uke an entire 4 or 5 maybe 6 days... wow. anyway, thanks for the advice/suggestions on Ukes, and I am still looking for advice on the best 400 to 600 uke, new or vintage. Like most people I like the Martin name, but I know in the price range I'm thinking of or hoping for, it won't be vintage, are the new ones good, or should I be thinking along the lines of a new Bushman, what to do? what to do? Thanks again Ken PS please excuse my odd sence of humor, it is probably the pain killers...
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ezmember Approved
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Your sense of humor is refreshing, and your story of just getting better as you grow older is encouraging. There are more knowledgable folks here than myself but whatever ukes you get are only going to provide a wholesome and happy habit for your family. As far as I can see from what others have written here, the least expensive 'good' ukes include the Kala, Kamaka, Jenny, fleas/flukes, Applause (round back), etc. There are some you may want to stay away from...read other posts here and do a search of the Forums both here and at other Uke forums on the Net. Yea....Martins are expensive, and sure can be looked forward to as a goal down the line. You can't go wrong calling musicguymic on Ebay (his number is on his pages there) and telling him exactly what you're thinking. He'll give you good advice. He also ships very quickly and often doesn't charge for shipping from Hawaii. If you buy more than one uke he may swing a deal with you. He strings and sets up all the ukes he sells so they're ready to go when you receive them. He includes extras like cases, instructional books, tuners, etc. It's fun to just look at all the nice ukes he's got for sale, which range in price from very do-able to very expensive. He stands behind his ukes and has 100% positive feedback from his buyers of more than 3,500 products. His store on Ebay is at the link below, go thru all the pages, which start with his most expensive ukes. http://stores.ebay.com/Musicguymics-Room_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ0QQftidZ2QQtZkm Good luck and keep us informed.
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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Thanks, yea before I shell out the bigbucks I'll want to be dealing with reputation so this will be my dealer, I might get a new Martin around $299 to 550/600 for Christmas. Not being rich, just a retired cop living on a pension, wishing everyday I wouldn't have chased that bad guy, I digress, I think the dealer on eBay you mention would be the guy to deal with for sure. thanks for the lead. Ken
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ezmember Approved
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Michael may be in New York or somewhere right now besides Hawaii. I don't know if the number he gives on his pages is a cell phone. Anyhow, I'm sure he'll be home soon if not already. Check out what others think of the new Martins before buying one. I don't think they're quite the hi-quality of the vintage ones. Speaking of chasing the bad guy....I spend a lot of time reading True Crime and watching Cold Case Files and Forensic Files. I love the ends of those stories, where the bad guys get what's coming. I'm intrigued by Forensics today. I think if I had it all to do over, I'd go into detective work instead of nursing. I don't know, maybe I think I'd make a good detective because I think like a criminal.  Anyhow, thanks for your good public service, we know it isn't easy or the most financially rewarding career but what in the world would the rest of us do without you.
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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Thanks, in a lot of ways nursing and doctoring is investigating, a sick guy comes in crying and giving clues as to what's wrong, i.e the crime/illness making him or her whine the way we do when we come see you, so yes in many ways doctors nurses could do it, speaking of nurses and doctors and law enforcement, when I was a rookie I pulled a nurse over and wrote her a ticket for speeding, my partner an old timer came up to see what I was doing he found out she was a nurse, and asked for the ticket back, he ripped in half, and told me to never write doctors or nurses, pointing out one day we might be laying on a table and they are the one that has to pull a bullet out of our belly, I never wrote another nurse or doctor since, to be honest I never wrote another ticket since, I wasn't big on tickets, i used to pull over violators and issue warnings, that was 1989, I made detective in 1993, broke my back in August of 2001, after two surgeries they said I'll never walk again, they fused me from L3 to S1 and scared a nerve some place in between, not only can't they fix a scared nerve, but they can't get to it to kill/deaden it, so they pump me full of pain killers. The good thing is they are very strict, so I will not become an addicted or abusive, the doses are very high, funny story about that, I went in to get a procedure that called for twilight, when they found out what I was taking for pain they said it is stronger than what they use to twilight, so they would have had to put me all the way to sleep to do the procedure, the funny thing is the stuff that twilights most people doesn't effect me in any other way, other than to relieve the pain. I should be sleeping, as the nurse put it, I should at least be loopy, and no one can even tell I'm taking anything. As for law enforcement I got married in 1984, I was making $4.00 an hour, to this day we still don't know how we did it, from 84 to 87 we lived on 12,000 dollars a year and a lot of love. In 1987 I joined the force, so the $24,000 I made that year seemed like we were rich, when I left in 2003 I was making 52K now I make 62K. I think police work actually pay great for the lack of formal education required to join a department, all you need is a high school education, and to pass an IQ test along with a mental aptitude test test. While on I won officer of the year 6 times, I was awarded 3 bronze Stars, a bunch of other awards including a purple heart, I I was involved in two shootouts and won th times, I have four kids and I would love to see them all join, it is the best family for anyone to join, my son asked about fear, I let him know getting scared is normal, but during an event you don't have time to think about being scared, first you have to watch your partners back, second you have to handle the situation, there have been plenty of occasions where after a shootout or fight, you get a little nervous, but during the event you have everything else going on in your mind. and unlike most think, there is no thin blue line, cops will dime other cops out in a heart beat, as it should be, no one wants to work beside a dirty a cop, cops work hard to protect perfect strangers risking their lives everyday, and hardly ever is anything said, but when one of us screws up, it ruins everything the good cops do to make things right, so we hate bad cops as much as anyone. So I appreciate your kind words about police, and police work, all too often all anyone wants to do is mention or focus on the bad cops. I personally loved being a good cop, helping people, helping other cops, basically I took a ton of pride in working cases others didn't want any part of, or cases others didn't know how to handle, the odd ball stuff, when I broke my back it was chasing a car jack suspect that had done dozens of car jackings, I needed to gain information from him, I was able to find out the names of all his partners in crime, and get everyone, while taking him to jail he escaped the detective that was holding him and I gave chase, I fell 40 ft. head first and when I landed I could still see him, so I got up and ran another 1/4 mile, every one said I should have stayed laying down, but this guy needed to be caught, and as long as I could I had to keep up the chase, I didn't get him, i fell a couple of more times and got pretty busted up broke both wrists, was stabbed in the stomach by a tree branch, I had to swim it was quite an adventure, and if I had to do over even knowing what happened I would still have joined the department, I might have called in sick that day, but the rest of the time was the most fun anyone could have. now painting, playing chess, the harmonica, and still having fun with that girlfriend I met when she was 15 and I was 16, heck our youngest kid is older than she was when we met. we're only 43 and 44 now but it seems like we should be 100 Back to Uke stuff, I heard/read the new Martins might be made in Mexico so it might be best to see what everyone else is looking at for top end I see a lot of people writing/talking about Bushman, Makala, Kala, and I'll be sure to get with the eBay dude mentioned he seems to have a nice selection, my daughter has 40.00 she wants to buy her own, so I'm going to let he get whatever she wants and just pay the difference without her knowing, her only wish is for it to be dark wood, satin finish, I also think she wants a soprano something traditional looking, we rode past a pawn shop and saw one hanging in the window so we went in it was a Johnson UK 100, the pawn shop wanted $35.00, it's good we were looking for them because we knew right away the model they had sells for $25.00 new, I guess we have to ask a lot of questions read as many of these sites, eBay musiciansfriend, and whatever other sites we can go to to check prices, there are tons of things to consider, groups like this are best because we have so many knowledgeable people all looking for the same answers, so sharing what we find is great. Thanks again Ken PS again sorry for such a long note sometimes it hard to write a short and sweet message, that is especially true when I am talking about my high school sweetheart/ wife, and best-friend, she has put up with so much when i decoded to become a cop, it changed our lives for the better, but now she has a new baby to change, feed and do all things a great mom did for her kid s now for her husband, dealing with a monopelegic (sp?) it can't be easy, I'm a lucky dude to have her
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ezmember Approved
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It's been said that the best way a Dad can show love to his children is to love their mother. You have a lot to be thankful for, and kuddos for loving Mom. Your cop stories are interesting. I can think of a whole lot of people whose jobs are frankly boring compared to what you did. Is that car jacker, the one you didn't catch, still car jacking! haha Be sure to let us know what all Ukes you come up with. With your family, you can create your own ukulele orchestra.
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scrooner Approved
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Best concert in the $500-$600 range? I was gonna say a KoAloha concert from MGM, but it looks like those have gone up since I bought mine. $639 with case, shipping, humidifier, pitch pipe, string upgrade included. Made in Hawaii. Long-neck sopranos from KoAloha are very nice as well, and cost a bit less than the concert. http://tinyurl.com/5k3ppz He also has the Honu deluxe concert, which has gotten good reviews here. $468 shipped. http://tinyurl.com/5vges2
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Tonya Approved 
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FWIW, Mike of (MGM) is in New York at least through this Sunday--the New York Uke Fest is all weekend. He may still be answering his phone, but my guess is you'll have a better response from him middle of next week. Also, while Martin does have a good reputation and sound in their older ukuleles, the "new" Martin ukuleles aren't typically well thought of; a few folks report they like them, with some changes made in set-up, but the general opinion is you can get a lot better sound and instrument from a similarly priced instrument that's NOT a new Martin. Of course, YMMV. As far as the "cheap" instruments, the low-end Mahalos (geared tuners, available in colors) are actually playable--especially if you replace out the strings with Aquilas. No matter what low-end ukulele you get, I'd budget in the Aquila string purchase into the cost--it will really make a difference in sound and how it plays (and that means they'll likely enjoy playing it more). Also, Mike has "other" instruments not listed on his website--including, I believe, a very inexpensive ukulele that might fit your bill for "cheap." Ask him about them before you buy somewhere else... Last edited on Fri Apr 4th, 2008 08:20 pm by Tonya ____________________ http://ukuleletonya.com |
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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The car jacker got away that night, but due to my getting the names of his partners, this happened on a Friday, Saturday we got one of his partners, Sunday the other, by Monday he had nowhere to go so he was found sitting on a set a steps two blocks over from his house, he was only 15 but with a gun in his hand age didn't matter, he'll be in reform school until he hits 21, his partners both adults, oddly enough he was the leader and they were both 19, he got 6 years due to his age, they got 15 years each, so all three will be out around the same time thanks to the justice system we have. If a dad loving a mom is all it takes, I got it made their mother is an easy one to love, getting together so young we practically grew up together, we're are best friends, about six years ago we had an argument the first we had since we were kids, it went on for almost a whole day until i finally said, "The problem we have here is we don't argue enough, so we don't know ow to end this thing", to this we both started laughing, and the argument or being mad was over. I once told a guy at work my wife and don't argue, he said everyone argues I dialed the phone and said, "tell this guy when the last time we argued was" then handed him the phone, she said, "I don't remember, it's been a long time". We don't argue, she's always right, no basically we are like hippies, we just love life, and each other, there is nothing worth arguing over, if we are upset due to money arguing isn't go to get us more money, I really can't think of anything to argue over, the last argument was due to her being to careful with me, I had just had my back fused, they told me not to so much as carry a gallon of milk, so she wouldn't let me do anything, on top of that I was edgy due to pain, and knowing my years on the force was going to end soon. But all and all, if we stop to think of it, there is nothing worth arguing over. As for Ukes I like the Concert, but I might also go with a tenor, I'm not sure but it seems like the major difference is the longer neck, hopefully someone here will know a little better. o0ther wise the long neck soprano sounds good too Thank again, it gives me a lot to think about. Ken PS if I get all my kids, my wife and me all begin playing we could have a big band, we love John Prine, always have and his music sounds real good on the Uke thanks again and take care
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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Thanks Tonya, Yea I think she saw some of the bright color ukes and as any little girl would she was drawn to them, I'll let her get which ever she wants, and then buy her the strings mentioned, I've even go so far as to add a set of Grover tuners, speaking of tuners, when I bought my Greg Bennett UK 70 it came with a tuner, but due to my injuries I have to sit reclined, the weight of my body on my spine caused severe pain, so the type tuner that would sit on a table while you tune it was not working out, I've know the guy at the music store since he opened 30 years ago, so when I went back to see what he could do as for a swap out and some change he gave me an even up trade for one of those new clip on electric tuners, and man oh man all I can say, YES!!! these things are great, basically the have an LCD screen that displays the key its in red, when you get it tuned it goes to green, there is a meter on to so you know how close you are to getting in tune, you probably all already know what I'm talking about, these are all over eBay for anywhere from 6 to 26 dollars, these are what i plan on getting for both of my little uke players, so aside from whatever my daughter gets, I'm adding the string strings, possible new tuners, and the electric tuner, so she should have a nice time playing it. again thanks for the advice, she has been excited looking at these on eBay, and going to Mike for a cheap one might be a good idea then when I get my high end one we'll already have a report Take care Ken
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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These look cool and definitely worth looking into, and I see the seller is the same guy that has been mentioned by everyone so at the very least I think I found my seller. Its also nice to hear from someone that has a brand that I've never heard of, for me it is easy to buy one that is Washburn or Samack just because of my sons playing guitar so those names are known, although that might not always be a good thing some say a Uke built too much like guitar isn't a good thing. Thanks Ken
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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You mentioned a "Long-neck Soprano" do they have a special name for them or is there a code in the model number like the UK70 is a Concert, and the UK70B is a Baritone. I saw Samick has the UK50 but on some pages they have it listed as a Tenor others have it as just a Soprano, I don't know so I am asking, and this might sound dumb, but is the tenor a long neck soprano, or is there much more to it... If I going to sing along I might as well go with the tenor, cause I'm always ten-or eleven keys off...
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ezmember Approved
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I think it's awful hard to tell the size of any of the Ukes online. The tiny Soprano looks just as big as a baritone in a picture, unless they're shown side-by-side, which they very rarely are. Go to the very bottom of the page at the Link below to see a photo of various Martin Uke sizes side-by-side. I think it's the only one I've found on the Net that lets you see how they compare in size. Don't bother too much with how they designate them in the paragraph below the picture. Just eyeball them, and know that the picture gives a pretty good visual perception of small to largest...left to right....Soprano / Concert / Tenor / Baritone. http://www.geocities.com/~ukulele/martin.html I'd also like to know if there's a special number/letter designation for long-neck Sopranos and Concerts.... Anybody know?
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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I read somewhere they put a Concert neck on a Soprano body to get a long neck Soprano, basically we need to read the fret count 15, 19, 21 etc. again I'm not sure what it all means yet, but I am slowly figuring it out, and least I know now they make a long neck Soprano now, thanks to this board, so now around Christmas I might be getting a low end expensive long neck something Soprano with a Baritone, or bass guitar neck or something, I'm sure someone will see me coming. Ken
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ezmember Approved
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Ken, I've got a KoAloha long-neck Soprano but I've since found just as nice looking ones that are a little less expensive. Do a google search on long neck sopranos or long neck ukuleles. I LOVE mine. I like having the Concert neck and the frets all the way to the soundhole. (17 frets) You can see mine here: http://www.koaloha.com/KoAloha_Products/SopranoLongneck.html From that page, go to the Concert ukes and look at the Super-Concert....I want it! It's got a Tenor neck. Looks like 20 frets.
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Rooke4Chess Approved
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EZ very cool, great looking uke, I think that might be the route I go. As for my daughter, we just got her a Makala MKS for 25.00 from Bounty. I may also be getting Oscar schmidt ou2 I think it is for guest to play but only if it goes off cheap, I made an offer on the MK-S and didn't hear anything for a day and a half so i bid on the ou2 and then my offer was excepted, so now I have possibly two low end sopranos. I'm pretty sure Makala is an ok start up brand, we can add better strings if need be , it has geared tuners, but I'm not aposed to getting some better grovers for her, anything to make it sound a little better and make her learning enjoyable and fun Thanks again Ken
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