Field Trip

Last night I walked all the way across Waikiki to Bob's Ukulele shop at the Marriott Hotel. It was the first time I've ever been to a store that sold nothing but ukuleles. Bob had a nice selection of instruments from the major Hawaiian manufacturers, namely Kamaka, GString, and KoAloha (remember this one--I'll mention it again later), which was my personal favorite--might have to buy one.

Despite the fact that I had two alarms set, I almost overslept today. By the time I got moving, I considered skipping breakfast, but since Mike has forgotten to give us a break for lunch the last two days, I figured I better not. Of course there was a long line at my breakfast place, and of course my bus was late, and of course traffic was heavy, so of course I was late to class today. I was worried about falling behind--even 15 minutes behind--but, as Mike promised, things are slowing down. Whereas the last two days consisted of working on a million things at once, now most of those pieces have been assembled into the front, back and neck of the uke, so there are really only three pieces to work on. The upshot is that Mike gave us a lunch break today.

I had eel.

After class, Kazuo and I caught a ride home with Phil (more on these guys in a future post). Kazuo asked to be dropped off at the KoAloha shop where the Okami family has been making ukes for the last decade. He had made a reservation for a factory tour. Naturally, Phil and I decided to tag along. When we got there Paul Okami met us and gave us a really intimate tour of the "factory." I won't go into detail, because you probably don't care about the specifics, but for us three apprentice ukulele builders it was incredible. I was so excited to see everything. I'm obviously a serious ukulele nerd. The highlight of the tour was when one of the shop's craftsmen, Ben, demonstrated some of their processes for us and even stood on one foot on top of a KoAloha ukulele body to demonstrate how strong they are. I'm not sure I have the guts to stand on the one I'm building. Just the thought of it makes me cry.

After the tour, I played a special uke called the Pineapple Sunday, made by Alvin "Papa KoAloha", the Okami patriarch and company founder. The picture above is of me holding it. I saw one last night at Bob's shop, but dismissed it as a novelty instrument because of all the bells and whistles, but I was mistaken. The Pineapple Sunday was one of the best sounding ukes I've ever touched. Again, I won't bore you with specifics, but some of the construction of this particular uke is really unusual, and when I played it the sound was so rich and complicated I had to stop and check to make sure the thing had only four strings. By sound alone, I would have sworn there were at least six. Too bad it's way out of my price range.

I may have to change my price range.

[view today's photos]