Hipstamatic Photos From the Recording Studio!

So my band Boulder Acoustic Society just spent a week in the studio. Here are some fun pictures taken with my iphone Hipstamatic of the process. We flew in Jefferson Hamer to produce and we tracked at Macy Sound Studios in Denver. All the basic tracks were done on two inch analog tape before they were dumped into protools for overdubs and edits. Super fun. The record is called Coal, Cotton, and Dust and should be released by September 1st.

Here is a concert ukulele in a curvy vintage Hawaiian shape. Except for the rosewood fingerboard, it is made entirely of wood that is salvaged or recycled. The neck is 3 pieces of 100 year old Douglas fir from porch boards from a Denver home. The top and headplate are straight, close grained pine from a mantle piece from another Denver home. The back, sides, bridge, nut and saddle are maple from an antique table top. It has Aquila strings and gold and black Gotoh tuners. The shape is based on a vintage Kumalae ukulele but with a modern neck size and perfect playability. It is stained with a rich amber color and finished in wipe on poly. Because these pieces of wood are very old and are salvaged from old buildings and furniture, there are small cosmetic flaws that in my opinion are un-avoidable yet welcome! The sound is bright and zingy but with good sustain and tone for such a small instrument. It is loud!!! 15 inch scale length and is 23.5 inches long. The neck is 1 7/8 inches wide at the nut, which makes it very playable. Its on ebay

Soprano Uke Build Process!

I just completed a ukulele for Adam from Nova Scotia. He wanted my Kumalae soprano shape with a 14inch scale and a wide beefy neck. I made it of all mahogany that I salvage from a furniture shop. The only other wood is a bubinga fretboard.

Here are a couple of pics of the wood for the sides and neck and the top and back braced:



Here are the sides clamped into the mold. I broke four sides making this uke, this old mahogany was pretty brittle.


And here is the neck rough shaped:


And the body glued up and the neck fretted. The fingerboard is pretty wide: 38mm at nut.




Here is the neck going on. Surprisingly, the rubber tubing makes a great clamp:



First coat of wipe on poly finish:


Laying out the bridge position:




And the finished product!



I like the longer scale and beefier neck. It makes the soprano feel bigger than it is while keeping that vintage sound. It has the best sustain of any soprano I have built. I feel like I got a good balance between a light top with a stiff back, sides and neck.

I hope adam likes it!

Another Baritone Scale Banjo Uke

Or is it a tenor banjo???

It is made out of a vintage banjo pot, a new neck and a mix of old and new hardware. All the wood is recycled or salvaged. It features:
-20 Inch scale, which is the same as a baritone ukulele. It has steel strings tuned dgbe. It can be strung with steel or nylon strings and tuned many ways. Tell me what you want and I will try to make it happen!
-2 piece flamed maple neck from an old table top
-Walnut fingerboard with brass dots, walnut headstock overlay. (from old walnut paneling)
-New Gotoh friction tuners. I will upgrade to guitar tuners ($35) or planetary banjo tuners ($50) on request.
-New hooks, nuts, end bolt, head and shoes. Original tailpiece, dowel stick hardware and tension hoop.
-All the wood is finished in a translucent black stain and hand rubbed finish that is a little bit "antiqued" to give it a vintage character.
-Bone nut and maple bridge.






On Ebay at: 220611514716

Boulder Acoustic Society's New Cd- Crowd Funding!

BAS is making a new Cd called Coal, Cotton, and Dust. We are taking pre-orders and offering some cool stuff on our crowd funding page, check it out!

http://boulderacousticsociety.net/coalcottonanddust/



Wanna learn more about the Coal, Cotton, and Dust tour?
http://boulderacousticsociety.net/coal-cotton-dust-tour/

Musical Instrument Museum!

A couple of weeks ago Boulder Acoustic Society played at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ. It is a huge museum that includes a beautiful concert hall. Here is a video of song we sang there:

If you want to see the whole concert, you can link to it here:

We had about an hour to walk around the museum, and as a luthier and musician, I thought it was great. Someone sunk some serious money into this place and it is trully a gem. They have the instruments organized by continent and country. As you walk near a section of the museum, your headphones play audio that goes along with the appropriate video. Cool.

I took lots of photos of the many small guitar shaped instruments somewhat related to ukuleles, which was fun.


Check out this sweet Gibson Harp Guitar

And a Macaferri plastic guitar. Yes, its the same guy who made Django's guitar when he built for the Selmer company in Paris. Later, he moved to the US and made all kinds of cool plastic stuff.

And The Rickenbacker lap steel guitar, nicknamed The Fry Pan!

Here is a room of American guitars. Notice the cool Les Paul front and center. It is one of the first few ever made.


AS promised, here is a whole bunch of ukuleleish instruments from all over the world. Charango, Timple, Quatro, Tres, Cavaquino, Bandolim, etc...







Here is the ukulele section of the Hawaiian exhibit. Three Kamakas, a Kumalae and Nunes.



They also had a great section on all different styles of American music, including a mock up of a Martin guitar workshop.




MMM, Nudie suit and string band shwag:




I could have spent a whole weekend there. It was awesome. Really.

Slide ukulele