Here’s the pilot episode of “Kitchen Appliances of Yesteryear”.

   Dedicated to Janice.

   Like a bird soaring;
   Fields of bright color flash by.
   You are this and more.
   -Jimy

What a long strange trip it’s been… we started this way back in July 2006, and because of general laziness and being busy with other things it’s taken us eight months to do something that could have been done in a week or two.

As you know from our last ukulele post, we finished and strung our uke, but then realized that the nut grooves needed to be filed so that the strings would be 1/64 of an inch from the first fret. We ordered a nut file and spacers from Stewart-McDonald to get this done.

We filed down the grooves in the nut this weekend, and restrung the uke with new strings. This time we used concert strings rather then soprano strings because the soprano strings weren’t long enough. Then, we let the strings stretch for a few days, tuning them a couple of times a day.

Then, we were finished! We posed for a picture with Jimy’s evil twin brother Timy who just recently resurfaced (more about him in future posts).

Finally, to end this thread, Jimy has recorded a song with our new ukulele; “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees. He wants to dedicate this song to Grandma, who’s always believed in us, and Janice, who never lost faith that we would finish this project. Because of all the extra money we had to invest beyond the kit, I think this summer we’re going to make a dulcimer! Stay tuned!

Listen to: I’m a Believer

Just to get things going again, here’s a video we made of last week’s March on Washington protest. It was fun watching some of the people there perform. This weekend we’re going to file down the nut and bridge of our ukulele, and record a song to post if we have time.

The music in the video is from Jesse Malin. Check him out.
Jesse Malin
Jesse Malin Myspace

Following the instructions, we hung the ukulele from a peg in the workbench and let it dry overnight.

After the ukulele was dry, we lightly sanded the finish with #000 steel wool and wiped it off with a soft cloth. We repeated this six times, although three or four iterations probably would have been good enough.

Next we attached the pegs, making sure we didn’t tighten them to much.

Finally, it was time to string the ukulele and give it a test play! We didn’t like the cheap strings that came with the kit, so we invested another $2.67 and bought some Martin strings. We printed instructions we found on the internet, and attached string 1.

We measured the string heights from the 1st and 12th frets, and discovered we had a problem; the string was too high over both frets. Oh well…we weren’t able to string and play the uke after all. Now we have to file down the nut grooves and maybe sand the bridge riser for each string. We don’t have a fret file, so we are going to gently try folded sand paper first.

To be continued…

Here’s some spooky videos our friend took from the haunted Moundsville State Penitentiary in West Virginia to get you in the spirit (pun intended).

Jacky – First off, I don’t like peanut butter and jelly sandwichs, so I have no interest in the topic. Secondly, I can’t get that stupid song on the soundtrack out of my head, which feels like it may explode at any minute. Other then that I thought it was pretty good.

Jimy – Bravo! The soundtrack complemented the stop motion in the video to a T.  I haven’t stop dancing since listening to it. The acting was superb; look out Oscar show. It left me wanting for more. Is there a sequel in the works, maybe to include an  ice cold glass of milk?  4 stars!

(click the image to play the game)

The next step is to glue on the nut and bridge, then apply the finish to the wood. We still haven’t decided if we’re going to use a lacquer or something like Tru-Oil yet. We’re leaning towards the Tru-Oil, but that would mean we have to put about 10 to 15 coats on. We also have to check to make sure it won’t mess up Grandma’s paint job.

We’ll post again when we start applying the finish.