Things are awfully hectic here, but I’ve reserved space on my calendar. I’m missing the Open Mics and it’s been too long. See y’all then!

I’m in. See you then.

Once again, it was a great time. Thanks for hosting this Ryan – it’s great to have a goal to shoot toward every month.

Classical guitar players have the long fingernails as well. When I took classical guitar lessons (a loooooooong time ago), half a class was spent on fingernails, shaping, length and care. I hadn’t expected that.

@deavise I’m a Bruce Wei fan too. I’ve bought five of them so far, and given away two to family members. I think the Mermaid Girl inlay is gorgeous. I do have some issues with them, however. I have a Bruce Wei concert with heart shaped soundhole and dove inlay. It is beautiful, but the body is small and sounds more like a soprano. It feels like a super-soprano with the concert length neck. It also sounded kind of muddy until I put very bright Southcoast strings on it. I have the Bruce Wei Hawaiian Islands tenor with Palm Inlay which sounds great. In my experience, The sound of the Bruce Wei instruments is very hit and miss. Many of the Acacia instruments are over built with thick wood and very thick necks. The Mahogany Bruce Wei & the Koa are much better sounding. One person’s opinion.

Great job Farshad! Adding that metronome to the practice makes quite a difference, doesn’t it? I can’t believe how much making the homework videos helped me. Such a simple thing, really, but it kept me going and made me take each step seriously. Good luck on the journey!

Count me in, Ryan. Not sure what I’m playing again, but I know it’ll be fun!

I have several tenor ukuleles that are tuned low G. On my Kanilea and Mya-Moe, the 4th string is carved a different size at the nut than the 1st string. It’s closer to the 3rd string in size. At Mya-Moe, in their discussions, they confirm that the instrument can be strung with a High G or Low G.

If you’re a stickler for precision and used a compensated saddle, you might have to change it, but most ukuleles don’t have compensated saddles. If you did need to adjust the nut for a Low G string, and when you went back to high G you had some issues, there are a variety of quick fixes. Heck, you could buy a new nut for $4 and refit it. So the idea that you can’t ‘ever’ go back’ is wrong.

You have to consider that many string sets are very different sizes. If you use Fluorocarbons strings (eg. Worth Brown), they are narrower than the Nylgut (Aquila) which are narrower than Nylon (D’Addario Pro-Arte). The Southcoast strings are narrower on the 2nd and 3rd strings than normal fluorocarbon. The nut is typically not carved to a particular string set. They are not that precise. I have a Cordoba 35 and at Kanilea that have been strung both ways with no issues.

A Nylon Low G string will be fat and may require adjusting the nut. Fluorocarbon and Wound not so much in my experience.

I’m not a fan of the Aquila red low G. The one ukulele that I had with the red never seemed to stay in tune and broke abruptly after a couple of weeks. The problem with the guitar D string is you get that ‘squeak’ when you slide across it. Polished wound 4th string like the Fremont Soloist, or Oasis low G are much less squeaky.

@CoolHandBoo I just got my Mya-Moe – Chocolate Heart Tenor in the mail and can’t keep my hands off of it. My Kanilea was my favorite (along with my Pono Concert and Black Bear Soprano). Still love the Kanilea but the Mya-Moe is just easier to play. Radius neck, easy action, my fingers take less of a beating and I love the sound.

I think you’re going to love the Mya-Moe. Yeah, it’s a long wait, but I feel like it was definitely worth it. Plus following the progress is a lot of fun.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by prattism.

Great time again. Thanks for setting this up for us.

I’d like to be on the list again. I’m not sure what I’ll play this time, but I’m sure that by then I’ll have something new to work with.

Steve

Thanks Aldrine – I’m still working on the song – I’d like it to be a part of my regular repertoire. I’ll work on the transitions and have started playing the individual chords with my finger for more volume and clearer sound. This one has a ways to go before I’m happy with it, but I’m getting there. Thanks again!

Honestly, I think the new layout is going to help a lot. It keeps the new activity front and center, and makes the UU+ forums a lot easier to access. I’ll admit I had the same question about how to find the old forums (I bought three of my Ukes on the Marketplace there) but I’ve bookmarked them now so no issue for me.

For some reason the last version of the site’s ‘completed’ lessons weren’t tracking for me. Now hitting the Completed button works fine. That’s a big help.

Great job and keep it going.

Thanks Kahai – I make take you up on that. I have a lot of family on Uncle Merlin’s side up in your area. My Auntie Barbara keeps on me that I have to get to know them better. The few times I got out to Hawaii, I was usually on the Big Island because my (ex-)sister-in-law was there (free place to stay!) Now I have even more incentive to get up to Kauai!

You guys are great. I’m having a blast slowly taking my playing to the next level – I’ve been a Fake Book strummer for far too long.

Great job everyone! It was cool meeting other UU+ers and putting faces to the names. See you at the next Open Mic!