We’re in the home stretch now. Here’s another update from Jerry Hoffmann as he continues work on my custom Boat Paddle ukulele …

Jerry: Hi Julie, Your ukulele is really taking shape now. The “box” is closed up and only needs binding for completion. The neck still needs the head stock finished, the frets installed, then final shaping. I do have one last choice for you on the headstock overlay. The materials I generally use for this are ebony, rosewood, and mahogany. None of these seem to work too well, but I have some redwood burl that might work (shown in the photo temporarily mounted to the head stock). If this choice is okay with you, I’ll finish up the neck. After final sanding, the finish goes on. It takes about two weeks for the finish to fully dry before buffing.

Here are the two plates that make up the top being joined.

This is just before gluing on the back.

The color of the wood will be darker and richer in appearance than shown here, and there will be more
contrast between the top and sides.

Close up of the redwood burl with maple boat paddle logo inlay.

–

I think the burl wood peghead overlay will look terrific, so I told Jerry to go with it. So far all the changes to my original order that he has proposed, have been great upgrades. We’re really getting close to the finished instrument now.

Read Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5, Part6

1. From David Betz

2. From Markus Fryzel

3. From Roger Laferriere

4. From Jimmy D.

5. David Mac

6. Isaac Pitt

7. Nicolas Bouny

8. Roger Laferriere

9. Justin M. Coleman

10. Linda Wilson

11. Kimberly Ruohio

12. Roger Laferriere

13. David Mac

14. Joshua Petinglay

15. Craig Stenstrom

16. Isaac Pitt

17. Jonas Lønborg

18. Lisa Gaines

19. Isaac Pitt

20. Donicia Atadero

21. Johnny Elsewhere

I think that it is high time that ukulelereview.com had a proper logo, don’t you? Since the graphic arts is not my area of expertise, I thought I would solicit ideas from all of you out there in ukulele land. What’s in it for you? How about a brand new Koa Pili Koko Deluxe Soprano ukulele with a zippered case?

FYI: This is not the same ukulele that I recently reviewed. It’s a brand new, un-played instrument that was sent to me as a replacement for my original one after it developed a crack.

Rules of the contest:

1. Send in your entries before 12pm midnight EST 5/31/08.

2. Send the logo in both .jpg and the original format (Photoshop, etc.).

3. As far as the logo size, I’m not going to impose any restrictions, but keep in mind that it will be going at the top of every page of this site.

4. Once submitted, all entries become my property regardless if I decide to use them as my logo.

5. I will pick the winning logo based on the one that I like the best for the site.

6. I’ll post the winner at some point on Monday 6/2/08.

Now go put down your ukulele for a little while, get out your crayons and start drawing! I can’t wait to see what you all come up with. I’ll post all the entries as they come in.

Tracks:

1. Sand Castles
2. It Might Be You
3. Kaleohano
4. Together
5. Tsunami
6. Waiting in Vain
7. Hawaiian Sky
8. Holo Wa’apa
9. Thousand Springs
10. Sunny Day
11. Nada Sou Sou
12. Ka Na’i Aupuni [bonus track]

Ukulele Journey is my first Herb Ohta, Jr. CD. It has 12 songs counting the bonus track, with a total play time of 49.3 minutes. This CD comes in a cardboard and plastic case.

I was a little confused as to how old this CD is as the date on the actual CD is 2007, but when I researched through iTunes, the released date was listed as 2003. Also, this CD doesn’t even show up in the discography on Herb’s site. But from what I can tell, it’s his latest solo recording. Let’s go through each song.

Sandcastles is an original song written by Herb. It has a smooth jazz kind of vibe, that is upbeat but relaxing. 

It Might Be You is the Stephen Bishop theme song from the 1982 Dustin Hoffman movie Tootsie. Herb’s instrumental cover of this song doesn’t stray from the original arrangement. It is actually one of my favorite songs on this CD.

Kaleohano is a mellow Hawaiian flavored song that includes just a sprinkling of vocals here and there. The song makes me very sleepy

Together is another Herb original. This one has a slight Latin feel in my opinion, and continues the mellow trend of the previous tunes.

Tsunami is a tune with a title that for me, doesn’t quite seem to fit it. A Tsunami is a violent storm. This song has a slow sad feel. Maybe it brings about a tsunami of tears…

Waiting in Vain is a cover of the Bob Marley and the Wailers tune that trades in the original heavy Reggae rhythm for one that is more diluted.    

Hawaiian Sky is a Herb original that has a very sweet Hawaiian melody that would be perfect for lying on the beach on a sunny day.

Holo Wa’apa is a fun fast paced tune that is a welcome change from the slower paced songs up until this point on the CD. It almost has a slight Country feel to it with what I think is a steel guitar.

Thousand Springs is another Herb original that takes us back to the soft mellow path. It makes you want to curl up and enjoy a nice afternoon snooze. 

Sunny Day is an upbeat happy tune written by Herb, that I really enjoy listening to. It has good energy that helps balance out the rest of the slower tunes. This one seems to have a slight Latin feel too.

Nada Sou Sou has a nice slow melody that almost feels like a lullaby. 

Ka Na’i Aupuni [bonus track] Traditional style Hawaiian song with vocals. 

I have enjoyed listening to this Ukulele Journey, but it is more in the easy listening vein than I typically like. There’s nothing wrong with easy listening of course, but I just wish that it had a few more upbeat tunes like Sunny Day and Holo Wa’apa. As is, it makes for great background music while working or napping I’ll have to seek out some of Herb’s older work to see if this is his overall style or a departure for him. If you’re looking for some mellow sweet ukulele music, this fits that criteria perfectly.

Another update from Jerry Hoffmann as he continues work on my custom Boat Paddle ukulele …

Jerry: Hi Julie, You can start getting an idea of what your ukulele will look like now. The rib, or sides, have been bent and reinforcing blocks are glued in place. The following series of photos shows the heel block as it is fit to the neck, then glued in place.

The heel block is built around the neck— the natural taper of the neck locks it securely in place centered on the 14th fret.

Next, the block is glued and clamped to the rib. This is where the initial alignment of the neck and body is determined. The centerline of the fingerboard needs to be parallel with the top and centered on the body.

Once the glue dries, the rib is notched to accept the neck. Alignment was right on the money with this one, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes the block needs to be removed, then reset before it’s right.

It’s exciting to be able to watch as the instrument is coming together.

Read Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5, Part6

Earlier this month, I had the tough choice of picking 4 winners for my Play It Forward Video contest. Now that they’ve all received their prizes, I asked them to send me a picture and some info about themselves. I thought it would be fun to share with everyone else, so here goes…

Dominic (Dominator) Pieranunzio
Winning entry - George Harrison’s Something (part1, part2,part 3, part 4)

Dominator began playing the ukulele after visiting the island of Kaua’i in 1999, where he discovered the “joy of such an unassuming instrument.” Returning home to Northern California, he put his musical background to work, puzzling out how to capture the joy and nuances of the songs he’d heard on his trip. The results of his efforts are posted on his website, which features a myriad of Dominator-created tabs and transcriptions from a treasury of ukulele artists. Dominator’s enthusiasm for the ukulele—as well as his generosity in sharing his wealth of knowledge—has touched the hearts of hundreds of ukulele players around the world. His detailed tabs, transcriptions and now, YouTube video lessons, guide “new” and “old” ukulele musicians to become better players, one song at a time.

Philip Fernandez
Winning entry - Triplet Rasgueado, Scratch, and Fandango

“As for my day job, I’m a Senior Energy Transactions Analyst for the City of Riverside, CA. It’s a long title for someone that analyzes wholesale energy purchases and sales for the municipal utility. In other words, I look at numbers all day! Playing ukulele is a wonderful reprieve from the daily grind and easily puts my mind at ease on any occasion. I love that unless you live in Hawaii, the ukulele is somewhat of an abnormal instrument to play. I know that I’m just one of millions of people to have played ukulele, but I still feel unique when I perform with it and it still garners a great amount of interest from fellow musicians.”

Charles Winkelmann
Winning Entry - LocoRoco Clawhammer Ukulele Tutorial (part1, part2)

“I’m a post-grad researcher in a composites lab at UC Davis.  I first played the ukulele about a year and a half ago.  My girlfriend had one laying around and I thought it was a neat ‘toy’ to play around with in my spare time so I borrowed it for a while.  Little did I know that this would lead to an obsession that not only led me to discover that the ukulele is much more than a toy, but that it’s also a great break from lab-oriented technical work.  I played her uke so much and so poorly that my house-mates probably got sick of it for a while.  Youtube was instrumental in getting me inspired to play, as well as teaching me how to play.  Somehow, I gained enough confidence through books and internet tutorials to start posting my
own ukulele videos on Youtube.  After browsing through probably hundreds of youtube ukulele videos, I noticed a link to your site and your ukulele contest.  The rest is history, and I hope I can provide more videos and tutorials to add to the ukulele community.”

Alonna Randall
Winning Entry - Ukulele Hawaiian Style

“When I was in high school I started playing the guitar. As a college student I went to school in Hawaii, and took a ukulele class. I was hooked. I love the ukulele! It is just the right size to hold and carry around. I am an elementary school music teacher and I use the ukulele a lot. I can keep better eye contact with the students than sitting at the piano. I also use it with our family when we go Christmas Caroling or sing around the campfire… it’s alot easier to carry than the guitar.”

“I have taught several ukulele classes to teachers in my school district, and I teach the ukulele to all my students in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6. Right now I’m doing a ukulele accompaniment on two songs in my 4th grade “Salute to Arizona” music program, and I have 9 students in my school choir playing the ukulele to accompany the choir on one song….”Humuhumunukunukuapuaa” from “High School Musical 2″. Sometimes my husband and I play in a Hawaiian band for luaus along with a couple of ukulele friends. One who is a native Hawaiian, and one who plays with a six string tenor Kamaka ukulele. It is really fun.

I’m definately not an expert like some of the other ukulele players that were in the contest! I feel honored to be even remotely counted among them. I am excited about my new ukulele and want to thank you for the ‘forward thinking’!”

Again, I want thank everyone that entered the contest along with my the great sponsors of Rob Deel at Ukulele4U and Al Wood at UkuleleHunt.com and HowToPlayUkulele.com.

I’ve had the opportunity to play with quite a few wacky USB devices in the past few years via my other website The Gadgeteer. Everything from a USB refrigerator and a USB drum kit, to a USB letter opener. The latest interesting USB gadget to show up on my door step is the USB Hygro-Thermometer fromBrando. This flash drive sized device can measure both temperature and humidity.

I actually asked Brando to send me this device for review because I am concerned about my small but growing collection of ukuleles. As we know, these small wooden instruments are sensitive to humidity levels. Several weeks ago I noticed that one of my ukuleles had developed a nasty split on the back. This is something that I’ve never had happen in all the years that I’ve had guitars, banjos and dulcimers in my house. I already keep a small inexpensive hygrometer in each of my uke’s cases. Typically, for wooden instruments, you do not want the humidity levels to drop below 45%. Whenever I check the hygrometers in the cases, they usually read in the 50-55% range, so I thought I was fine. Then the crack appeared on the back of my Koa Pili Koko uke, even with the hygrometer showing that the humidity level in the case was 60%. Grrrrrrr. It was time for a digital hygrometer…

The TEMPer Hum from Brando is a regular USB flash drive sized device that has several small holes drilled in the sides and top to allow it to measure temperature and humidity.

Here is the TEMPer Hum next to one of the inexpensive non-digital hygrometers that I keep in each instrument case. As you can see by the reading on the non-digital hygrometer, the humidity is approximately 56%. To see what Brando’s digital version measures, you first have to install a small Windows application that is included on a mini CD. Unfortunately for me, there isn’t a Mac version of the app. You also have to download and install .Net framework from Microsoft’s site before you can start viewing measurements.

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

Once the application is installed, just plug in the USB TEMPer Hum and click the Start button to start recording data. You can view it in Celsius or Fahrenheit.

Right away I was totally confused by the temperature and humidity readings that this device was displaying. It showed that the temperature down in my basement office (where I keep my ukuleles) was 86 degrees. Ummm, there was no way it was that warm in the basement. It also said that the humidity was only 33.55%. That was wildly different than the 58% reading from the other hygrometer. At first I thought maybe the problem was the fact that I plugged the TEMPer Hum into a USB slot on the back of the notebook computer. Maybe it was reading heat from inside the computer… So I used the included USB extension cable. Unfortunately, that had no noticeable effect. So which device was correct? The TEMPer Hum or the analog meter?

To find out, I decided to go to Radio Shack and buy yet another digital Thermometer/Hygrometer device, so I could have a third ‘opinion’. I plunked down $20 for a model #63-1032 that you see in the image above. I also brought down another thermometer to add to the mix of measurements. Here’s what they measured:

TEMPer Hum: 33.86% / 86.01F
Analog hygrometer: 48% / (doesn’t measure temperature)
Radio Shack thermometer/hygrometer: 43% / 73.6F
Oregon Scientific Thermometer: (doesn’t measure humidity) / 72.3F

As you will notice, the humidity readings are considerably varied… so much so, that I have absolutely no idea which one (if any) is measuring correctly. I’m not sure I really trust the Radio Shack device since it has both indoor and outdoor temperature sensors and both are in the exact same room and both are showing different results. Go figure.

So the conclusion to this review is that I really can’t recommend the TEMPer Hum USB Hygrometer / Temperature sensor. I know for a fact that it doesn’t measure temperature correctly, and that leads me to guess that it doesn’t measure humidity correctly either. In the mean time, I will hope that Radio Shack and analog hygrometers are accurate enough to trust. As long as one or the other doesn’t drop below 45% for any length of time, I’ll hope that humidity levels are safe enough to protect my wooden instruments from cracking.

What do all of you use to measure humidity for your instruments?

Here’s the latest news about my custom Boat Paddle ukulele being built by Jerry Hoffmann…

Jerry: Hi Julie, I’m back to work on your ukulele and it’s starting take shape. All the wave inlays and fret slots are done on the fingerboard. The neck is roughed out; next the fingerboard will be glued on and final rough shaping done. Here are some photos showing work on the neck:

The neck stock is cut in two at the same angle the head stock will be.

The short end is flipped and glued to the other piece to form the head stock
angle. This is stronger than if the neck was cut from one piece of stock
because the wood grain runs parallel to the string tension.

Here’s the fingerboard and the neck after it has been roughed out.

In this photo you can see the outline of the head stock. The fingerboard
will be glued in place next. - Jerry

—

I think those new fretboard markers are going to look great! No one else will have a ukulele just like mine, that’s for certain

Read Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5, Part6

Ralph (King of the Ukulele!) Shaw has two popular DVDs on the market. The newer Essential Strums for the Ukulele and his first instructional DVD that I’m reviewing here.

Chapters:
Introduction (1:50) - Ralph introduces himself and talks about why he enjoys playing the ukulele.

Tuning & Getting Started (9:10) - Talks about tuning your uke in GCEA tuning, keeping the tuning pegs tightened, how to hold the instrument, and how to hold our strumming hand.

Strumming in 4/4 Time (6:11) - Explains what 4/4 time is and demonstrates strums with four beats per measure and accenting different beats.

Tremolo, Chords in F & Ornaments (6:38) - Demonstrates how to play tremolo strumming, how to play the B flat chord and ornament notes while strumming various chords.

Learn Froggie… (3:24) - Teaches Froggie Went a Courting, a two chord song. He throws in different strumming techniques and ornament chords.

3/4 & 6/8 Time Plus Chords Up The Neck (6:00) - Talks about 3/4 time being ‘waltz time’ and 6/8 time being ‘jig time’ and shows different ways to strum in these timings. Also shows how you can move chords up the neck by using a bar.

Right Hand Rhythms (7:05) - Demonstrates string damping, George Formby split stoke strum, thumb rolls and triplets.

Learn “Hello Ma Baby” (5:07) - Teaches the song “Hello Ma Baby” and how to do a turnaround in a song.

Melody Playing (10:50) - Strumming methods for pulling out the melody in a song.

Total running time is approximately 60 minutes.

Click thumbnails to see full-size images

The video and sound quality in this video are very good. Ralph is pleasant to listen to and teaches the various techniques in an understandable and easy to learn way. I do think it would be better if there were chord diagrams for the chords being played instead of having to explain where each finger goes on which string. I always find that a little bit tedious to listen to.

This DVD is good for players just starting out. It shows a few different strumming methods and teaches three simple songs. A booklet is also included that shows the words and music for the three songs. Ralph packs a lot of information into a short time. It leaves you wanting more, but I guess that’s a good thing I recommend this video for anyone just starting out, but not for someone that has been playing for more than a couple of months as the information will probably not be new to you at that point.

I’m sitting in my Lazy Boy right now working on my laptop and watching one of my fave shows, American Idol. I wasn’t paying complete attention to the show, but my ears immediately perked up when I heard the words Brudda Iz. Top 8 contestant and dreadlock dude Jason Castro talked about how he was going to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Iz. I thought cool, but no way will he actually play the uke. Wow, I was wrong, he did play one and did very well I must say! Even Simon loved it My only question now is what brand of ukulele was he playing?