Who here remembers Ukulele Mike?

[cletus]

I bought my first ukulele from him. Watched hours of his YT demos of various models. I ended up getting a Kala tenor with spruce top. Probably should have kept it, but UAS got me early...

 

[Kimosabe]

I remember him and miss him. He is still beloved at the Ukulele Site on Oahu. I bought my first baritone from him and several ukes after. Really a nice, sincere and helpful guy. R.I.P.

 

[eyedoc]

me!
I Play a ton of his music!

 

[kkimura]

I believe that he did free setups on every ukulele he sold regardless of selling price.

 

[cletus]

Sorry, actually "Music Guy Mike" Arantari. Yes, nicely set up with the Uke Crazy case shipped for $300.
Indeed, very helpful for a new player.

 

[Joe T]

I've watched many of his videos and always enjoyed his easy going demeanor.

 

[man0a]

I remember the late Ukulele Mike Lynch from Seattle who passed away in 2018. He was one of the popular YouTube ukulele teachers back in the day. I still play some of his chord melody tabs. Last time I checked, his wife is still selling his songbooks.

I guess this is a different Mike from Mike Aratani from Kaneohe who passed away in 2013. Here is an obituary to Music Guy Mic from The Ukulele Review.
https://www.theukulelereview.com/2013/10/23/in-loving-memory/

 

[ghostrdr]

I remember both musicguymic and ukulele Mike Lynch. Both were amazing. I still have two ukes set up by musicguymic! Got my KoAloha tenor from him

 

[Steedy]

I very much remember Music Guy Mic. He was legendary for his setups and service and aloha. After he passed away, I ordered a Kala Michael Aratani Commemorative Edition Tenor uke which I still fondly play. Photos by The Ukulele Site.

 

[Jerryc41]

I bought my first ukulele from him. Watched hours of his YT demos of various models. I ended up getting a Kala tenor with spruce top. Probably should have kept it, but UAS got me early...

Yes. Sad that he left us, but his videos will last forever.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ukulele+mike

 

[badhabits]

Did they really misspell "commemorative" that badly on the label???

 

[perep]

I had bought a few ukes from him, loved going into the store and talking withhim, still treasure photos of him and I in store

 

[Steedy]

Did they really misspell "commemorative" that badly on the label???

Ha ha, well spotted! I wondered why I had two photos of the label and thought they were identical, but didn't catch the misspelling in the one I posted above.

Here's a little blurb from the TUS listing in 2014:


As I recall, the original custom uke that Kala made for MGM had a label with "commemarotive" intentionally misspelled, as Mike was known for his own style of creative spelling, shall we say! However, Kala corrected the spelling for their limited edition production run. I just now checked my KA-SRT/MA uke and verified that "Commemorative Edition" is spelled correctly.

Here's the production label and a couple pics with a little more detail:

 

[bbkobabe]

Let's all commimisserate his passing!

 

[ksiegel]

I bought a Kala Cedar top tenor from Mike.. I remember he emailed me his phone number, and said to call, but it was like 4 AM in the 808...

I replied to the email, and he responded immediately, saying to call, he was up anyway.

We talked about anything and everything for about 20 minutes, then talked ukuleles, then talked budget... I trusted him without ever meeting him, and gave him my credit card number.

Within a week, the uke had arrived, and it was wonderful.

I finally got to meet him at the Napa Ukulele Festival (I think it was Napa...) It was over 100 degrees F, but I took a workshop from Sarah Maisel, another from Ken Middleton, and had Rick Turner add strap buttons to my Donaldson Concert uke.

But Music Guy Mike remembered our phone conversation (3 years later!), and we had a great talk, although we were both dripping from the heat.

 

[Larry U]

I very much remember Music Guy Mic. He was legendary for his setups and service and aloha. After he passed away, I ordered a Kala Michael Aratani Commemorative Edition Tenor uke which I still fondly play. Photos by The Ukulele Site.
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That Kala tenor was my first "good" ukulele. I sometimes wish I still had it. I sold it to my teacher and she still performs with it. It was a good-looking and nice-sounding instrument.

 

[BBegall]

I bought my first ukulele from him. Watched hours of his YT demos of various models. I ended up getting a Kala tenor with spruce top. Probably should have kept it, but UAS got me early...

I'm a big fan of ukulele Mike Lynch and having acquired all of his chord melody books, still play some of his arrangements regularly.

 

[Canada Jim]

Ukulele Mike Obit

 

[Canada Jim]

It looks like some are confusing Music Man Mike with Ukulele Mike. Two different people. (or, in the case of Music Man Mike, several different people. Google tells us that many folks have used this name.)

 

[badhabits]

It looks like some are confusing Music Man Mike with Ukulele Mike. Two different people. (or, in the case of Music Man Mike, several different people. Google tells us that many folks have used this name.)

Music GUY Mike (MGM)?