If you have toyed with the idea of building a ukulele with your own two hands, you should check out the Ukulele Building Course coming this winter from Vermont Instruments School of Lutherie. It will run December 5 – December 18, 2010. The tuition of $2000 includes all materials, and living and cooking accommodations.
I saw these cool looking guitar Picks when I was flipping through an Acoustic Guitar magazine yesterday and thought all my gadget loving guitar playing friends would love to hear about them. V-Picks are picks made of a special acrylic material that when warmed by your fingers, will stick to them. The pick isn’t sticky, but it sticks to your fingers so that you can relax your hand and play better. V-Picks are available in different styles (for guitar, bass, mandolin and dulcimer) and colors (even glow in the dark) and are priced between $4 – $20.
Tim from Ukeeku wants everyone to know about a contest he’s having on his site to give away a sweet looking little Blue eleuke. The contest is dirt simple. Just comment to one of his posts between now and 4/30/10 and you’re entered! Check his site for more info.
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.