Oh, I found a picture that I forgot to post on Sunday. It's of me and my other friend that went to Universal, on the Hogwarts Express. It will give you a quick look at what the train car looks like. Trust me, we enjoyed it far more than it appears that we did. I'm kind of awkward in front of the camera, so I never really know what to do. This is why I don't have many pictures of myself. Really it's better that way, there is no need for pictures of me.I finished up Pure Imagination in my ukulele class tonight. It's going to take a lot of work, to get it sounding the way I want it to, but I'm up for the challenge. There are a lot of weird figure positioning to get some off the wall chords. They aren't your everyday cowboy chords here. These are coning from the jazz world, and you know those crazy jazz cats. They like to throw the rules out the window.
After class, I headed to the tattoo shop. I promised may artist that I would help him out with something. A little while ago, a client of his, gave him a banjolele. If you can't guess what that is, it's a tiny four string banjo. They are cool little instruments. This one happens to be pretty old. We know that it is at the very least 60 years old. The woman that gave it to him, said that her dad had it since the 50's. There are some little pen doodles on the body of it that look like 40's era art. I was helping him out, by stringing its for him, so that we could see what it sounded like. I think I was a little more excited than he was. He doesn't know how to play, so it's just a object to him, but I told him I would get it stringed, tuned, and teach him a few chords, so that he could play around with it.
It wasn't easy stringing it. The part where you set the strings was a bit odd. The only thing I could see to do, was tie a knot in the end of the string and slide it behind a little v'd opening. It worked out pretty well. I had to place the bridge, and fortunately my ukulele teacher told me what to do for that, so that wasn't all that difficult. I got all the strings on, and then I had to play with the tuners. Since they were old, they were very loose. I didn't want to scratch or break anything, so I had to be very gentle with it. I only had a knife on me, that I could use to tighten the small set screws in the peg head tuners. When I finally got those tightened down, tuning was the next obstacle. It took me quite a while to get it tuned in. I found out, that I was making too big of a turn on the pegs, and it was throwing everything sharp. I dialed it back and started making very small adjustments, and it all started coming together.
I got it all tuned in, and started playing around with it. It was really fun. It had that twangy banjo sound, but on smaller higher pitched scale. It was great. I played an old Eddie Vedder song, that I know. He plays a mandolin for it, but it sounded really nice on that little banjolele. Don't ask me the name of the song, because it escapes me right now.
My artist finished up with a client that he was tattooing, and I sat him down, and showed him how to strum it, and play a few simple chords. He is having the same problem I had when I started, which is, fat fingers. They get in the way, and don't move the way you want them to. The good news is, I got past it, and so will he. He took to it pretty quick though. He liked the way it sounded too. He isn't sure what he will do with it, but he is going to get it appraised to see if it's worth anything. It does have some good tones for an old instrument, and it's very playable, but we have no idea what make it is. There is nothing on it that says it anywhere. There it is on the right, in all it's glory. You can see the pen doodles on it, and the strings in place. It's soprano size, so it's a tiny little thing, but it really puts out some sound. I strung it low G, so it has a little bottom end to it. I'm going to draw up a chord chart for him, and a chart for a song for him to play around with. I'll take that up to him tomorrow, so that he can spend the weekend on it. Pretty good shape for a 60+ year old instrument. I have it in my head, that it si from the 40's. When he gets it appraised, we might just find out if I'm right.I plan on spending the weekend riding with Saki. I will have to see if the weather clears. Tomorrow doesn't look too good, as I said earlier, but the rest of the weekend holds promise. I know, that no one else is going to ride with me, so I will be hitting the highways alone. I have no plans on where to go, so I'll just have to see where the road takes me.
Let's call it a night, and part on good terms. Have a safe and wonderful weekend people. Peace in and goodnight.
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