For 30 plus years I had been a frustrated guitarist, never happy with my abilities. A few years ago I picked up a copy of Frets magazine at a Borders Bookstore and it literally opened itself to an interview with a ukulele player named Jake. For no apparent reason, (not being a uke player), I was intrigued, so I ambled back to the CD section, magazine in hand, and found a Jake CD. I put on the always-broken sampler headphones and... they worked! I was mesmerized. I remember thinking, "you can do THAT with 4 strings?"

Within days I had booked Jake to play in a little concert series I was running (see multimedia). The week after the show I went to Hawaii and met Jake's brother Bruce. Then I went to a Paul McCartney concert and HE was playing a uke. He said it was given to him by the late George Harrison, who was a big uke fan. Until this series of events, I had never considered an instrument other than guitar. So I picked one up...

Out of the blue, the reason for my frustration had been revealed... 1/3 too many strings... 1/3 too many frets... the uke called out to me to pick it up and play. It made me feel happy. My frustration lifted. There is something mysterious and spiritual about the ukulele that I cannot explain. I met two others who felt the same way, and together we decided to launch this online magazine to honor the mystery. ~ DR, editor.

It took me almost four decades of guitar frustration to discover the ukulele. It took a couple more years of playing many, many instruments to realize that my holy grail of ukes didn't exist. I would have to invent it. Once I designed it though, I still didn't know if it would actually work. Thanks to the craftsmanship and cooperation of Larry Nair at Tahoe Guitar, it became a reality and is everything I had hoped for.

My problems:I absolutely love the tenor ukulele, but my particular playing style caused me wrist problems. The angle of my wrist while bent over the smaller-than-guitar body while fingerpicking caused pain. Secondly, even though I had two favorite tenors, one strung traditionally and one with a low G string, I would find myself playing one and wishing I could change mid-song to the other to access the alternate G string. Finally, I have large palms, and I have a few problems with some of the smaller frets on the 17 inch tenor scale.

Solutions:First I addressed the size of the instrument body itself. When I was switching to the uke from guitar I first experimented with baritones. Some were quite nice, but none of them sounded like a uke, being tuned like a normal guitar. Even when I attempted to duplicate the uke's reentrant tuning by using a high 4th string on the bari, it still sounded like a small guitar. The JT5's body is wider and longer than a standard tenor, but it has a 19 inch scale rather than the baritone's 20+. (the standard tenor has a 17-17.25" scale). This in-between scale length allowed me to keep the tenor uke's GCEA scale and sound, while the wider body straightened out my wrist's playing position. The longer scale also gave me slightly larger frets to squeeze into.

The second big difference came from one of those "DUH" moments. I had seen 5 string tenors before, but they all had a paired, high-low 3rd string. The JT5 has five evenly spaced separate strings that can be strung either gGCEA or GgCEA. Most of the time, I play normal uke on the top 4 strings, and the spacing feels as if the 5th string doesn't exist. However, when I want a few low G bass notes, they are there for the taking. I have done a lot of Google searches and have not been able to find another using this approach. Perhaps they exist, but I can't find any, although in a world of 6 and 8 string ukes, I can't understand why. I absolutely love this feature.

Since I was creating my own beast, I decided to give it a few custom touches. First, an old friend of mine, world-music wizard David Lindley, gave me some amazing flamed tasmanian blackwood. Unfortunately, it was only enough for the back. Luckily, James at KoaTonewoods on Kauii found some complimentary koa for the top and sides. Cosmetically, I drew up a wave soundhole design and a humpback whale for the headstock, both which were cut from maple and outlined with ebony. Then I had MOP "bubbles" coming off the whale's tail that run the length of the neck. Just for fun, I had Larry shape the headstock the same as the whale's head.

The Tahoe Guitar custom shop has added a standard, (whale-less) JT5 to its line, with a solid Sitka spruce top and solid mahogany or Peruvian Walnut sides and back. It incorporates a fanned, Ramirez-like bracing that expands the volume and tone nicely, and an oval sound-port in the side brings up the brightness a bit. Tahoe Guitar offers all kinds of options in wood and features. The JT5 is definitely the most expensive uke I've ever purchased, (the standard starts in the mid $2K's) but in my subjective opinion, for my style of play, it is worth every penny. Click on the photo above for more pics.

IN THE NEWS

Gone ten years:
IZ Kamakawiwo'ole John Denver
Michael Hedges

Rest in Peace:
Dan Fogelberg

November 18: Bill Tapia's 100th Birthday Celebration and Show, Warner Grand Theatre, San Pedro, CA: Did anyone attend this? Care to submit a review? email us!

November 23: We missed Jake Shimabukuro's appearance on ABC's Good Morning America. Care to submit a review? email us!

Articles:
Nov. 25 SF Gate: The Return of the Jumping Fleas!

This may be an impossible task, but who knows, someone with a history in the islands may have one like it and know who made it. You can click on the image to enlarge it. Here's what I know...

This tenor uke was brought to the mainland a few years ago by an elderly lady named Lillian Lagerfeld who lived in Pahoa. The Lagerfelds are a well established Hawaiian family.

Lillian claimed to have been friends with Gabby Pahinui in the 1940's and says that in 1950 she traded Gabby $40 and some whisky for this tenor uke. $40 in 1950 was a lot of money so we assume either Gabby took her to the cleaners or it was an expensive uke. Since she wasn't asking a fortune for it, just someone to care for it, we have no reason to doubt her story, but we also can't verify it. Anyway, we assume it was made in the 1940's or earlier.

The sound hole shape is similar to a Ko'Aloha but they don't recognize it. The head stock has one of those Aloha Hawaii decals that you see on many old ukes. I had new frets installed because the old ones were worn away, but they were a dark reddish metal. The original tuners were long gone when I got it. Other than the shape, don't pay too much attention to the bridge as it has been reversed to accommodate RMC pickup saddles. Other than that, who knows?

If you have any ideas, email ukenews@ukenews.com and we'll start posting ideas here.

©2006 Talmidim Productions

Paiva is a remarkable young lady in many ways, both musically and personally. That said, thanks to seeing Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant on YouTube, I couldn't listen to track 3, "Canon in D". Nevertheless, there are ten other songs on Miss Paiva's latest offering and many are quite pleasant, although none are spectacular. My favorites are "Gazing" a nice little self-penned ditty that is the only pure uke song on the disc, Mauna Loa, a slack-key-ukulele duet, (with both parts played by Brittni), which immediately went into my "Island-mix" background music playlist, Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine", which has that strummy-uke vibe that makes it the happy little instrument it is, and the haunting, spiritual, "Kadosh", which seems out of place on a ukulele album but not on a Brittni album. I give Brittni Paiva's latest effort 3 1/2 honus.

KC Moore lives on Oahu and makes some of the best values in mid to high end quality ukes. This deluxe tenor retails for around $1400 and, in both sound and beauty, is easily the equal of more famous brands costing over twice as much. The Keli'i is made from the highest quality solid flame koa, and features a shallow body and ultra-thin top supported with a delicate fan bracing that really allows the top to vibrate and crank up the volume.

I purchased this one at Bob's in Honolulu after playing dozens of tenors on four islands. After picking it up, I played a couple more tenors off the "expensive wall' at Pua Pua down the street. In sound and looks, I was still pleased to own the Keli'i (while spending $2,000 less those reeeeally high-enders). In feel, the Keli'i did have a little higher action and not quite the silky-smooth feel of the $3-$4K models' necks. The most expensive of the Ko'Aloha and Kamaka tenors that I played also had a smidgen better feeling necks but they also weren't as loud or as bright.

All in all, if you want an exceptionally nice ukulele that can hold its own in sound quality with any other wood, (non-reso), ukes you might end up playing with, regardless of the price, track down a Keli'i Deluxe and give it a whirl. You will also turn some heads with the exceptional beauty of KC's Deluxe models.

Moore makes standard models as well, plus a line of mahogany ukes under the Kelani name. In addition to tenors, Moore builds sopranos, concerts, and super concerts that are basically concert bodies with tenor scale necks.My Keli'i Deluxe Tenor rates a solid 4 honus.