weeks ago which is nice getting in the water though not the ocean which I prefer. Was tying flies but even that gets boring. Went to my first gun show in 2 years on Saturday in Honolulu, nothing worth buying, allot of overpriced model 94s. Stopped by the Trouts Unlimited booth and wound up signing up especially since
they were offering a free new 10 weight Scientific Anglers fly rod to the first 6 people who join. I came home from the gun show with a fly rod, go figure. Since I've had time to kill a few months back I dusted off some of my old ukuleles and started playing them again, something I haven't done for several years since living on Maui. I grew up with ukulele music in the house my Dad being quite the accomplished ukulele player with his Koa wood Kamaka Pineapple ukulele. I remember as a child my Dad regularly bringing out his ukulele at our weekly Friday night parties to strum several tunes to entertain the friends & guests. His Koa Kamaka was stolen several years ago and I always wanted to get him a replacement, and finally did a few days before my mom passed away. When I handed it to him his face lit up and right away he strummed a tune even though it had been over 25 years since he last played a ukulele. That was the only time he ever picked up that ukulele. After my mom passed away he had no desire for life. Just 2 months later Dad was also gone. I gave that ukulele to my kid sis in Florida in memory of Dad with whom she was especially close to. Recently I had the urge to get a new Koa Pineapple ukulele to start making music again on the old homestead just like in the good old days reviving some of the lost magic of days gone by. Well between eBay, the local swap meet, and visiting a local luthier in the past month or so I wound up purchasing at what most would consider unheard of savings not one but three very beautiful native Koa wood pineapple style ukuleles in 3 sizes a soprano (the smallest and most traditional), a concert, and a tenor. They are all three as beautiful sounding as they are beautiful to look at, and here they are.
L to R - NICE tenor size, MELE concert size, R&L soprano size
1. NICE of Kapolei (Edward Bacani) Koa tenor pineapple
2. Mele of Maui Koa concert
3. R & L of Honolulu (Randy & Lenda Wong) Koa super soprano (concert neck)
My apologies for yet another off topic post, I sure miss my old life on Maui where a week rarely went by that I did not hunt, shoot, or fish, and I could email my dad about my weekly adventures. With post again when I have something worth posting. Thank you brothers for all your support over the years.
Those are some beautiful ukuleles. I've always been jealous of those that can make their own music. A long time ago I started playing the banjo. Just as I was getting to where I could put some notes together I had an accident and hacked off my right index finger. It got put back together, but was never the same and I couldn't play worth a hoot anymore.
