FriendBurst Blog

I am mirroring something here, that I just posted over at UkuleleUnderground.com.  It’s kind of an interesting story, and I’m certainly curious as what it was that ended up in my hands tonight!  I’ll update this blog if any of the ukulele experts at that site (where I happen to be a “Senior Member) come back with an appraisal of this instrument I picked up (for free) tonight.

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Something interesting happened to me at the Open Mic/Jam Night at the Lynnwood Alano Club.  I was sitting there, enjoying the music, awating my turn on stage when one of the organizers came up to me and said…

What is this?  A ukulele?  For free?  Just giving it to me?  Well, the guy had had it in his car for ages, intending on giving it to the Goodwill. He was cleaning up his Grandma’s place and she told him to get rid of it.  He explained I was the only uke player he knows, and so, why not?

Oh.  Cool.  I surmised pretty quickly that this was a “tourist special”… mass produced for the millions of tourists who come to the Islands.  I mean, look at what it says right on the body.

I wasn’t going to look a gift uke in the mouth! It was cute, but then I found something else in the box with it.  This book:

The book has a copyright of 1927!  It feels really old, has tuning instructions for the older “D” tuning instead of the modern “C” tuning and includes no songs newer the 1920’s.  Could this ukulele be from 1927?!? I doubt it.  The book might be, but it may just be a re-print of an old publication included with the tourist uke as a means to fool them.  I don’t know.  Hopefully, in the video below, I provide enough views and information about the instrument for the experts here at Ukulele Underground to help me figure out exactly what was given to me tonight, but if you have any questions about it or need better pictures, please ask.

So, uke historians, please helper a fellow ukester out.  How old do you guess this uke to be?  What’s up with the book?

Thank you much in advance!  – Joko

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And now back to our regularly shceduled programming:

“POEMS, PUPPIES AND POLITICS! – The FriendBurst Saga”