My Ukulele Progress - Instrumental Solo of "Just A Closer Walk With Thee"

[Oldscruggsfan]

Imperfect but posting for future reference.

 

[Bill Sheehan]

Imperfect but posting for future reference.

Nice job on that! (Cool uke too!)

 

[mountain goat]

very well played, brother.
can you tell us more about the uke you're using?
it's gorgeous!

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

very well played, brother.
can you tell us more about the uke you're using?
it's gorgeous!

Jon- You must have intended this post for someone else, LOL. If not, my rubbish uke started from a US $39 Amazon DIY kit. It was a Hail Mary Christmas gift from my adult daughter. Only after assembling and painting did my wife inform me it was intended as a gag gift.
This was one of kits in which the sound body is already assembled but bridge placement isn’t marked. I’ll spare you the tale of woe regarding bridge placement without proper tools and just admit that the “E and A” edge of the winged plastic bridge ended up about 1 mm out of lateral line with the fingerboard but precisely at scale length + 1 mm.

The painted cat pays homage to Robert Armstrong’s Yowl-A-Lele which was copyrighted by luthier Kenny Hill in 1971, along with several other Armstrong designs including the hilarious Keyhole which was featured in a fairly recent issue of Ukulele magazine. I exchanged emails with Robert when working on the kit uke. A major difference between my cat and Robert’s is that mine sits atop a discarded 5-string resonator banjo, which was intended as a private joke for my family.

The gaudy headstock was my hurried effort to replicate a Gibson Mastertone banjo peg head. On it in green metallic craft paint is my nickname “Nugget”. All parts are as included in the kit except the shoestring strap, saddle, nut, heel plate strap button and strings.

Back of the body is an armadillo cartoon. Back of the neck is a green variable banded tri county uke snake. His head is at the neck joint and his tail meanders between the open backs of the timing machines. Side position markers are bright yellow, for my own visibility.

 

[mountain goat]

Jon- You must have intended this post for someone else, LOL. If not, my rubbish uke started from a US $39 Amazon DIY kit. It was a Hail Mary Christmas gift from my adult daughter. Only after assembling and painting did my wife inform me it was intended as a gag gift.
This was one of kits in which the sound body is already assembled but bridge placement isn’t marked. I’ll spare you the tale of woe regarding bridge placement without proper tools and just admit that the “E and A” edge of the winged plastic bridge ended up about 1 mm out of lateral line with the fingerboard but precisely at scale length + 1 mm.

The painted cat pays homage to Robert Armstrong’s Yowl-A-Lele which was copyrighted by luthier Kenny Hill in 1971, along with several other Armstrong designs including the hilarious Keyhole which was featured in a fairly recent issue of Ukulele magazine. I exchanged emails with Robert when working on the kit uke. A major difference between my cat and Robert’s is that mine sits atop a discarded 5-string resonator banjo, which was intended as a private joke for my family.

The gaudy headstock was my hurried effort to replicate a Gibson Mastertone banjo peg head. On it in green metallic craft paint is my nickname “Nugget”. All parts are as included in the kit except the shoestring strap, saddle, nut, heel plate strap button and strings.

Back of the body is an armadillo cartoon. Back of the neck is a green variable banded tri county uke snake. His head is at the neck joint and his tail meanders between the open backs of the timing machines. Side position markers are bright yellow, for my own visibility.

this is why i asked the question mate!
felt like there may have been some history behind it.
thank you C for spilling it out! awesome brother!
i know the Yowl uke. chatting w/ Robert A!!!??? (just a side note in history...)
when you're in my predicament brus, a mm or 2 aint gonna matter much lol
guessing you're not likely to be selling it to me then...

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

Jon- You must have intended this post for someone else, LOL. If not, my rubbish uke started from a US $39 Amazon DIY kit. It was a Hail Mary Christmas gift from my adult daughter. Only after assembling and painting did my wife inform me it was intended as a gag gift.
This was one of kits in which the sound body is already assembled but bridge placement isn’t marked. I’ll spare you the tale of woe regarding bridge placement without proper tools and just admit that the “E and A” edge of the winged plastic bridge ended up about 1 mm out of lateral line with the fingerboard but precisely at scale length + 1 mm.

The painted cat pays homage to Robert Armstrong’s Yowl-A-Lele which was copyrighted by luthier Kenny Hill in 1971, along with several other Armstrong designs including the hilarious Keyhole which was featured in a fairly recent issue of Ukulele magazine. I exchanged emails with Robert when working on the kit uke. A major difference between my cat and Robert’s is that mine sits atop a discarded 5-string resonator banjo, which was intended as a private joke for my family.

The gaudy headstock was my hurried effort to replicate a Gibson Mastertone banjo peg head. On it in green metallic craft paint is my nickname “Nugget”. All parts are as included in the kit except the shoestring strap, saddle, nut, heel plate strap button and strings.

Back of the body is an armadillo cartoon. Back of the neck is a green variable banded tri county uke snake. His head is at the neck joint and his tail meanders between the open backs of the timing machines. Side position markers are bright yellow, for my own visibility.

 

[mountain goat]

beautiful mate. totally gone on it.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

beautiful mate. totally gone on it.

Thank you. Since you asked….
Unlike Mr. Armstrong’s design which has a series of nice chevron vignettes featuring his yowling tomcat in various poses, the body sides on my uke are painted as a yellow “caution” tape which reads in bold black all caps, “DO NOT CROSS GINGER TOM”. It’s a warning to anole lizards such as the one he’s trapped under his left paw.

I’ve created a 2” x 7” sticker of 3 colorful adjoining nautical semaphore flags that spell U-K-E which I’m probably going to put along the sides over the gaudy caution tape design AFTER I cut a slot-style sound port. I’m in no hurry.

 

[mountain goat]

Thank you. Since you asked….
Unlike Mr. Armstrong’s design which has a series of nice chevron vignettes featuring his yowling tomcat in various poses, the body sides on my uke are painted as a yellow “caution” tape which reads in bold black all caps, “DO NOT CROSS GINGER TOM”. It’s a warning to anole lizards such as the one he’s trapped under his left paw.

I’ve created a 2” x 7” sticker of 3 colorful adjoining nautical semaphore flags that spell U-K-E which I’m probably going to put along the sides over the gaudy caution tape design AFTER I cut a slot-style sound port. I’m in no hurry.

ha. fantastic.
yeah, seeing your avatar i was wondering what it wrote.
guess i thought of the obvious:
'Police Line Do Not Cross" especially it being in black and yellow.
you've sure made this uke into some kinda sweetheart brother.

 

[badhabits]

I like that hollerin' cat uke. Is that a bobber on the strap?

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

I like that hollerin' cat uke. Is that a bobber on the strap?

Yes.