Sunday, March 27, 2005

New Soprano Uke

After a few delays, I now have a new Bushman Jenny Soprano Ukulele. A lot of the Ukulele internet forums had people raving about them, I had some Christmas money, so I bit the bullet and got one. Yeah, I visit Ukulele internet forums sometimes. But only occasionally. Let's not dwell on that.

The uke is very very nice, lots of attention to detail in the instrument (except maybe the plastic bridge and saddle). It has lots of volume, and has that sound that most mainland Uke makers strive for, so it sounds really great for playing 20s-30s stuff. It is pretty fancy, it has abalone binding and so on, more of that fanciness than I usually like, but it sounds and plays so well that I am fully happy with it. Also it came with Aquila NylGut strings on it, so I didn't have to buy a set and restring it when I got it. I showed it to Pops who also thought it was a nice piece of work, and sounded really good.

I also got a Gig bag with it. The gig bag is my favorite part since it says in white letters, 'Bushman SOPARNO.'

I took it to the park yesterday with Max and Sophie and had a lot of fun playing it on the swing.

Once I got it, I turned back into amater Luthier guy and swapped out the saddle with a bone one and dropped the action on the saddle and the nut. I got a bone nut for my guitar last week that I swapped out, and I had a Micarata saddle blank for the guitar I was working on the week before that, and a micarta saddle blank for my Lehua Uke that I was working on the week before that. I have been amateur luthier guy a lot lately.

This is what the uke looks like:

Friday, March 11, 2005

New Ptolemy Coin

I got a new coin (probably) from the reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (204-180 BC). It was minted in Tyre. It's hard to attribute these things really precisely, but it is cool whichever Ptolemy issued it.