Christmas Was Good!

So we had a good Christmas, spent time at the 'rents place in the morning with my brothers and nieces and nephew. My dad who is 73, is becoming a causality of the economy, has been working for the last 8 years since he retired as contractor is being laid off on December 31st. So he is going to have some free time on his hand, so I got him the boxed set of Band Of Brothers, the excellent HBO mini-series about the 101st airborne during WWII. My brother is also a victim of the economy being laid off from EDS as a result of working as a Computer Operator at a GM plant which is cutting back. I worry from time to time about my job as well, since a lot of Navteq's business comes from the Auto Industry, so I keep my fingers crossed.



I got my daughter the Boxed Set of the Twilight Vampire Series of Books, She is finishing up the 2nd book in paperback and now has numbers 3 and 4 to read.

I also got my wife a Mountain Dulcimer, I had never really seen a Mountain Dulcimer before, I had seen hammer dulcimers but never the mountain dulcimer.



It is an interesting and somewhat primitive instrument.

Basically there is a pair of Melody Strings which fret with a wooden stick called a noter. Also you tune your Dulcimer in different modes. The basic one is DAA, so the First two strings are tuned to A, then the third string is tuned to A and finally the fourth string is tuned to D.

You can learn more about the Dulcimer here

You can here a Dulcimer here

So last night my wife was working on playing a song on the Dulcimer and I had finally set up the amp to check out the pickup on my Pono Tenor, and I was playing the traditional mandolin back beat and it sounded pretty good. So I think we will have to put together some songs in the future. It should be fun.

It definitely has been a musical Christmas, now by next decision is to use the money my folks gave me toward a new Ukulele or a new amp for the Pono. Not sure what I want to do, I would like a Fluke Concert, and would like to get one with a rosewood fingerboard, but not sure what is next on the Ukulele front.

I also had to by this:

I should get it next week or so. I don't expect it to sound good, just to be a conversation piece in my collection. Besides I needed a soprano to play as well.

So all in all a good Christmas, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well and have a Happy New Year too.

More On the Banjo Uke Front

After working on the Banjo Uke for a while today and yesterday, I think I may need to replace the tuners, they just aren't really holding. Should have the bridge cut down to the right size today. Next is to rebuild the Baritone that I bought. After that I should have a nice variety. Although I think I might be getting one of these maybe two, from ebay, I think I need to wait until pay day though. I spent enough on Ukulele's this pay :-)

Maxitone Bruno Banjo Ukulele

This is the instrument that I am looking forward to playing, it is just about there, has a resonator, tail piece, all it needs is strings and a bridge. I am ordering them tonight, when I get them in I will post some audio. I can't wait, I have been eye Banjo Ukes on ebay, since I found out they existed. Can't wait to play this one. I hope it ends up sounding decent.

No Name Banjo Uke

Here are some pictures of the no-name Banjo Uke that my wife found in our attic, she is pretty sure that they belonged to her Grandfather. It looks like someone wrote on the Vellum. But the vellum is in good shape and very tight. If anyone out there has advice on care of these older instruments, please leave a comment. This instrument does not have a resonator, and from what I have read that is not unusual, as a lot of these Banjo Ukes were not built with resonators. It is also missing a tail piece which may be the biggest obstacle in getting this one in playable condition again.

Buried Treasure! Or Found, 2 Banjo Ukes and a Banjo Mandolin!

Well not exactly buried, my wife casually mentioned that her grandfather had told her that he had built a Banjo Ukulele! 

So Saturday night she went up in to the attic, and the next thing I know there are boxes flying down the steps. Turns out they were empty boxes that I had been stored in the attic, but a little later she came down with a box of 3 Banjo like instruments, one is a Bruno Banjo Ukulele, with a resonator, the only thing missing is a bridge and strings. 

I am ordering them online today. 

I will post pictures this evening. 

She also has another no name Banjo Ukuele, and a Banjo Manolin, so I am ordering bridges and strings for them all. 

As I said, I will post both pictures and audio, perhaps video as well. This should be cool, I had been looking for a banjo uke to play in church as a change of pace. 

I can't wait to see what they are like to play.