The i-tab is a portable 4GB guitar tablature player with a 5 inch touch screen and built in speakers. Clip it on to the end of your guitar’s headstock and it will scroll lyrics and chords while you play. It can also be used to display guitar lessons and play backing tracks. It ships with 30 free songs, but you can purchase more content through their tab store. The i-tab is available now for $199. I wish they had a ukulele version too! Press release after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Mike over at Mainland Ukes has giving away a Mainland Cedar/Rosewood Soprano ukulele. To win this instrument, you have to go to Kiva.org, and join his team http://www.kiva.org/team/ukulele_players_united_to_decrease_world_suck. Make a $25 loan to anyone you like, tell Mike and your name will be entered to win the uke. Each $25 loan will be considered a separate entry and the drawing will be January 1st 2010. If you need some ideas of who to make the lone to, check out a thread on Ukulele Underground.

Tim of Ukeeku.com has just posted about a sweet deal on a Oscar Schmidt ukulele for less than $50 at JR.com. The deal only runs through today, so you better act fast. It has a satin finished Mahogany body and according to the ad, it’s a soprano concert size. Hmmmm, not sure which one it really is, but this would make a nice travel or starter uke.

When I got the invite to test drive Pick Smith’s Jam Kat I agreed, not knowing what exactly a Jam Kat did or who Pick Smith was. Twenty minutes of poking around their website got me only marginally closer to answering those questions, but I did eventually determine that the Jam Kat is a rather clever device for quickly switching between playing fingerstyle and using a pick. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you terrified after listening to all of the doom and gloom news reports about the Swine Flu (H1N1) pandemic? Never fear, Amelia Robinson has the perfect solution to this global problem. Check out her YouTube video for a fun Sunday morning pick me up

I’ve never been a particularly handy person. My friends know better than to ask for my help with home improvement projects, and my instrument repair skills are mostly confined to string changes. But after building Stewart-MacDonald’s soprano uke kit, I have a new found confidence in my abilities. Read the rest of this entry »

Check out the gorgeous hand braided leather straps at The Bailey Strap Shop. The site shows mandolin straps, but Bill has branched out into making ukulele straps too. Definitely worth checking out.

Judy Robinson sent this in:

I am hoping that if you love the ukulele you are willing to share your thoughts on the following survey. It would take about 7 minutes if you want to go quickly through it. It could take longer if you have more you want to share.
At the end, if you would like, put your name in for a teeny tiny ipod shuffle raffle, then please do so.
Please share the link with others. Thank-you in advance for your time in answering this.
http://tinyurl.com/ukulele-quest

Thanks for any help you can give,
Judy

I’m a fan of guitar (and ukulele) tuners that use vibration help you to zero in on the right note for each string. Here’s a new one from Planet Waves that looks like it might be pretty nice. It has a narrow LCD display that shows the currently tuned note for the string that you’re trying to tune. As you tighten or loosen the string, the display will turn from Red to Green when you have successfully tuned the string to the correct note. My current fave tuner is the Intelli IMT-500, but I’d like to try this one. You can find it on Amazon for about $25.

Check out these made to order resin and steel reinforced wall mounted guitar hangers from Grip Studios. They are available in different colors and shapes, including human hands, skeleton hands and monster hands. They are priced from $39.99 up to $119.99. Although they are made for guitars, I’m sure they will work fine for ukuleles too