Glorious drunks, part 3 2013

About a week later he came in again. He brought his wife's uke in to get restrung as well. "The wife and I are having the best time playing these darn things. We've been watching james hill, and, I know these are cheapies, but I wanna try and get that sound. Amazing!" Then came the next part, but it was so conversational, it took a moment to sink in. " I spent yesterday with my kids up in Oakland, it was good to see them, I gotta go back up tomorrow and take care of some stuff. Doc says my days are numbered, so my wife is taking some time off to...you know, take care of me, until... But we get to play the ukes together more, so..." He managed a very matter of fact smile. It was like he was saying his car had broken down, or telling me it sure is humid today. But no. He was telling me that he was on his way out. I searched for the right thing to say, but there was nothing there. "Well, " he said, "I'll, uh, see you later..." he started to walk out, but I stopped him. "Hey, uh, are you going to be in town next week?" He thought for a moment. "yeah, I think so." "Come by the shop if you can on monday or tuesday, I want to show you something" "Will do" he said.

Many years ago, I built a little soprano out of Koa and mahogany. It started as all Koa, but as it was being built, the top was destroyed while I was routing the binding channel, so I made a new top out of Mahogany. It was sweet. really pretty wood, and a great sound. Loud but mellow at the same time. I really liked this one, but one, I am not a soprano player, and two, I was trying to establish myself in the uke world, so I put it up for sale on my website. The next day it fell of the wall and cracked the headstock, so I hung it up in my shop where it stayed for a long time. One day I decided to fix it. I was able to repair the crack, and reinforce it so that it was actually stronger than before, and the repair was undetectable. I hung it on the wall, where it stayed for a year or so. I would play it now and then, but like I said, I am not a soprano guy, so again I decided again to sell it. I thought I should take some new pictures of it, and as I reached for it, I knocked it off the wall. It fell, this time damaging the sound board. I was able to repair the crack, but I decided not to put it on my website because of the repairs, and potentially have to deal with shipping it back and forth for approval, so it went back on the wall. then five years go by, and I open my ukulele shop. I needed some inventory, so I was going through the ukes I had. I took down the little soprano and as I was tuning it up, the ebony saddle broke in half. So, I replaced the saddle, but decided it did not want to be sold, and again, I hung it up on the wall.

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