The Uke is EduPunk

I have a personal interest in the theory of education, and one aspect of recent education theory that I have become interested in is Edupunk. Although its an idea that principally developed through the use of Web 2.0 within education, I think it can be more broadly associated with DiY ethos of education. It is this wider view that I think the Uke potentially steals the show in.

Coming from Taunton, I love this video, especially the description as being ‘just outside London’… haha.. only in the way Chicago is just outside New York! I however think this is a wonderful example of how the Ukulele can become an important educational tool, and not purely for teaching music.

It’s worth noting that although this video shows a reasonably recent development in Taunton, the ukulele has a much longer history in teaching in Canada, it was J. Chalmers Doane who pioneered the use of ukuleles in Canadian schools.

Interestingly for those who have come to the Ukulele in the current wave, one of the key early figures of this new ukulele revolution, a certain James Hill, actually learnt his ukulele skills in the Canadian school system. Ukulele instruction has been mandatory in many schools in his home of Langley since the late 1970s and this is where Hill was introduced to the ukulele at the age of nine. During his teenage years he honed his skills as a key member of the renowned Langley Ukulele Ensemble under the direction of Peter Luongo.

James Hill has continued this teaching tradition and regular gives lessons at Ukulele festivals and events, and recently co-authored the Ukulele in the Classroom method book series with that first pioneer J. Chalmers Doane.

It seems to me that the Ukulele really is a potentially very inexpensive method for teaching music and the arts in the school system, as well as bringing a little fun and joy into the world in the process.

Restoration Project Step 6: Applying Paint, Lacquer and Oils

The next steps in this process were to apply new surfaces to the ukulele. It is this resurfacing that brings the ukulele back to life, it feels much newer than the beaten and worn surface that was there prior to sanding it down.

First of all I wanted to paint the headstock black again. I only wanted to paint the front of the headstock and I was going to use a spray paint (aerosols allow an even surface to be achieved easily and speedily), I therefore needed to cover those areas I did not want to paint. I did this using plastic sheet and masking tape, carefully edging the front of the headstock with masking tape.

covering the bits you don't want to paint

I created a make shift spray booth outside using boxes, doing this outside provided the necessary ventilation, however, I also wore a mask to reduce the fumes I inhaled during these stages of the project.

make shift paint booth

After several coats of paint had been applied, roughed up, and reapplied, I removed the tape and plastic, and cleaned up the adhesive residue using a little solvent, to reveal the newly painted surface… I was very happy with the result.

Removing the tape after painting

The next step was to apply lacquer to the surfaces both the painted surface and the wooden surface. I did not want to lacquer the fretboard so I careful covered that using masking tape to create the edges and plastic to cover the fretboard.

Both neck and body had lacquer applied to the sanded surface

The same spray booth was used, and with lacquer it is very important to wear a mask. The only problem with working outside is that when you live in a desert you have to wait until very late at night to undertake the process in order for the outside temperature to cool enough to be suitable for the application to work! Several layers of lacquer were applied every day for three days.

The same spray booth was used to apply a spray lacquer

After this process, I was able to remove and clean up the masking tape and plastic from the fretboard, and then to oil the fretboard. Oil was applied every ten minutes for several hours, after which the fretboard really began to come back to life and the cracks and dryness began to disappear. Eventually the fretboard on this ukulele will need to be replaced if the instrument is to remain playable, but, for now it was nice to be able to improve its condition and retain the old fretboard.

oil was applied to the fingerboard

Phew… almost finished!

The Plastic Ukulele Revolution

Gus of gugug fame gives a rundown of his extensive collection of plastic ukuleles… both ‘proper’ ukuleles and toys. I really like plastic ukuleles, and I am sure a few of these will be on my ‘one more uke’ list soon enough! (Yes, it’s highly likely I have contracted Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome). This is a fun little video, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone hold quite so many ukuleles all at once!

The Mighty Uke: A People’s Instrument.

“on the Ukulele you can’t hide, it’s just you and the song, and like emo kids, punks they all get it, coz its real.” (quote from trailer for ‘the Mighty Uke’)

I recently blogged about Bosko and Honey and their Ukulele Safari video’s, and it was interestingly through one of their videos (see below) that I found out about a documentary film entitled: “The Mighty Uke”. Interestingly this film is also being made by a couple, Tony Coleman and Margaret Meagher, who also both play the ukulele!

The Trailer can be seen here:

For More info on the film their website is: http://mightyukemovie.com/

And here is the Ukulele Safari video in which I first came across their film:

I’m really looking forward to seeing this when it comes out on DVD. I hope it’s a multi-regional DVD release, so it can go global.

Restoration Project Step 5: Sanding and Painting Prep

The next step of the project was to get all the wood parts ready for painting, and/or, lacquer. The key to this is to sand the surface down to the wood, or in the case of the headstock down to the undercoat – although some surface inconsistencies remain in the headstock so that the original design could be retained, they are however much less than previously there.

sanding the headstock

some progress on the reverse

working on the neck

Restoration Project Step 4: Hide Glue Fun

So the next step of this project is to repair the fretboard which is coming away from the neck. For this I will use hide glue which is a traditional material for instrument building, and importantly is easy to take apart again just requiring a little warm water and heat, something that is not the case with modern wood glues.

Preparing hide glue

First you need to make up the hide glue, hide glue needs to be heated but not cooked, therefore it needs to be warmed in a double boiler of glue pot. It is possible to buy proper hide glue pots however these cost a large chunk of change, and a cheap alternative can be to use a baby bottle/food warmer that are available at many retail stores, and just think with the money you save you could buy yourself another ukulele project, or, a cheap ukulele!

Glued and clamped

The fretboard was still attached in some points, so rather than taking the whole fretboard off and risking damaging it, I injected hide glue into the gap in a reasonable large quantity. The hot hide glue reactivated the old glue and when squeezed together the whole surface seemed to be covered with glue seeping out of the edges as hoped. This excess glue can be cleaned up with a little warm water which is another great advantage of using this material.

Electric Uke Making Video

I came across this lovely video on youtube of someone making an electric ukulele… enjoy.

New arrivals

It’s great to get Ukulele themed postage… and this the second time in a week… I think it might be the last for a while, or at least until my other ukulele’s arrive from their current home on the other side of the world! So without further ado…. I received:

A new gig bag…. not usually a fan of soft gig bags, but this one caught my eye as a cheap secure way of carrying my ukulele around and its in tweed, just like the old school cases! It was good to find that the Slingerland banjo ukulele was small enough to fit in a soprano case.

Gig Bag

A Grover bridge…. this needs some mild alterations, sanding the height down, as they are built for modern banjo ukuleles which have a different design. Once sanded to give the right action this will hopefully be a lovely little bridge – as long as I don’t mess it up, which is always a possibility. I prefer it to my older one as it is smaller and more in keeping with the small size banjo ukulele it’ll be going on.

Grover Bridge

Aquila Nylgut strings… the best strings in the ukulele pickin’ universe!

Aquila strings

Thanks to www.ukuleleworld.com/ from whom I ordered these items. Great shop, well packed, and extremely quick delivery.

Restoration Project Step 3: Cleaning

Various parts of the Uke required cleaning:

1. The nut which had been painted black, I decided I wanted to clean back to it’s white colour, I used a solvent to remove the paint.

Cleaning nut - in progress

2. The chrome was corroded in some spots and a good clean was needed, I used a mixture of solvents and a fine wire wool. I may decide later to use a chrome polish to get these really shiny, although I think I prefer the somewhat aged look – but not quite the corroded uncared for look! Who really wants an instrument that is almost 100 years old to look like it was made yesterday… defeats the point of it being an antique surely?!

Before - note the heavy/dark corrosion is what I want to remove

After - the heavy stuff has gone (and I forgot to put the bar and screw in the photo.. oops.)

3. The wood lacquer was lost in some spots and cleaning it allowed a good surface for sanding too. This required several cleans over. Sanding will actually clean the surface down to the wood which will give the best surface for applying new lacquer. [sorry no decent pictures of this - not really much to see on a camera!]

Restoration Project Step 2: Disassembly

First thing is to take the ukulele apart and to investigate the condition.

Get those old strings off..

Disassembly in Process

It’s at this point you realise you’ve taken it apart and you can’t strum on it anymore until you finish fixing it up…. so better get to it.

Important note: When taking something apart it’s a good idea to know how to put it back together again! One way of remembering how to do this is to make notes about which parts go where and how they fit together, remember it could be some time between disassembling the uke and putting it all together again.