Different Strummer uke sale

A little bird (aka my music teacher) told me that the Different Strummer music store in Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music is having a month-long sale on ukuleles in February. Small instruments, small month for a sale, I guess. If you find yourself in Chicago this month, stop by the store at 4544 N. Lincoln Avenue and check out their stock. Their stock is by no means as comprehensive as, say, Elderly, but they have at least a dozen different models (Fleas and Flukes are of course well-represented), so I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Own the Jake

If you want a Jake Shimabukuro limited edition Kamaka tenor ukulele, you can sign up now to be in a lottery to be allowed to purchase one. This would probably make you the coolest uke player in your practice group, but... I dunno, itd feel a bit self-conscious getting one of these and rocking out to, say, "Five Foot Two" or something basic like that. I'd feel like I should be always doing some fantastic picking exercises or something. Think I'll stick with the old Martin soprano for now.

Jake's doing some performances around the US right now; he'll be in Chicago on Sunday, August 6. Check out his tour schedule to see if he'll be in your neck of the woods sometime soon.

DQ uke

Later on in the month you can have a chance to bid on a ukulele that only you and Warren Buffett will own. Start saving your pennies, though, because bidding will start at $1,000.

Chicago uke sale

Heads-up for Chicago readers: the Different Strummer, the store at the Old Town School of Folk Music, is having a month-long sale on ukuleles. Time to get yourself a spare uke, or possibly upgrade to a nicer instrument. At least one person in our class has already bought a new uke with a pickup, and I'll probably head on over there sometime in the next couple of weeks to check it out.

Dear Santa:

All I want for Christmas is a Ukiyo Roy Smeck 'Vita Uke'.

Go electric

In last night's ukulele class, we did a discussion of our recent performance and what we should be doing for future performances. One suggestion that our teacher had for us was to get an instrument with a pickup. We consistently have a great struggle to be heard in live performances, since we're all using acoustic ukes and it's rather tricky to set up a bunch of mikes to capture the sound. If we were all playing ukes with pickups, problem solved.

So now I'm thinking about what kind of ukulele I might get. My first thought was one of the Flea ukes made by the company that makes the Fluke. Some of the people in class have Fleas, so I might try playing their ukes and see if it feels good enough for me to play in a performance. Some of the pickup options for the Flea, however, are more expensive than the instrument itself, which seems a bit extravagant. Perhaps something on the less expensive end of the pickup options list is the thing to try.