It is like selling off your children one by one. You work diligently for months to create this thing of delicacy and beauty, fussing over every detail, agonizing over every minor setback, and then finally the day when you attach strings to this shining wooden wonder, and hear it's voice- and you ask yourself, Is this the best one yet? What did I do differently to get those brilliant highs, what is that special quality that I am hearing, is it the wood I chose? is it something in the construction? Do I really want to sell this one?
These were the thoughts I had today as I sat playing the three tenors of this latest build. I hate to part with these instruments and their lovely voices- but then how many ukuleles can you have, and I dearly love my current keeper #79 with its rich mellow sound, but the Honduran seems brighter, the Brazilian seems bolder, the differences haunt and tempt me.
But then the reality; you have committed them to others, You can perhaps take what you have learned from this build and make an even better sounding uke in the next build. You simply cannot keep every uke you build, and so, off they go to their new owners, you hope they will be appreciated, enjoyed, liked and played heavily.
And so on to the next build. and already two of the three are committed. One to a player in the Seattle area, another to a friend in Bellingham who dropped by yesterday and played a couple of the last redwood build.
Only the Cocobolo/Redwood remains available, and it won't last long. What if one of these is the best uke I have ever built. Can I keep it or must I sell my child again?
These were the thoughts I had today as I sat playing the three tenors of this latest build. I hate to part with these instruments and their lovely voices- but then how many ukuleles can you have, and I dearly love my current keeper #79 with its rich mellow sound, but the Honduran seems brighter, the Brazilian seems bolder, the differences haunt and tempt me.
But then the reality; you have committed them to others, You can perhaps take what you have learned from this build and make an even better sounding uke in the next build. You simply cannot keep every uke you build, and so, off they go to their new owners, you hope they will be appreciated, enjoyed, liked and played heavily.
And so on to the next build. and already two of the three are committed. One to a player in the Seattle area, another to a friend in Bellingham who dropped by yesterday and played a couple of the last redwood build.
Only the Cocobolo/Redwood remains available, and it won't last long. What if one of these is the best uke I have ever built. Can I keep it or must I sell my child again?
