Tuition

Pete Howlett

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There was a time when I had 134 videos on YouTube and 2000 subscribers (when 2000 meant you were really building traffic - it's small beer now most instruction channels are either professionakl or semi professional and brand name sponsored) and you could build a ukulele start to finish by watchingn them. Many did and I have emails offering thanks but more angry and disappointed that I took them down. They had become an albatross and a focus for some savage trolling and flaming. I got criticised for everything from my strongly held views (expected that) to petty things like, 'Why don't you put your videos in order?" I had to stop; it was doing things to my attitude towards people and what I was trying to do - share my craft.

Well I have never stopped sharing my stuff. I now do it through a group page on FaceBook called Pete Howlett Ukulele Club. ANyonecan join but I operate it like a blog and direct peoople to my eprsonal page if they want to talkk about their stuff or what they are doing. It is my wondow into my workshop and is not a forum so I control the content very strictly.

Rather than producing those sharply edited early vidoes I used to put up on YouTube, that took the best part of 4 hours to set up, shoot and produce I now braodcast live. You get a live showreel, very amateur by the now very slick standards being set by others who have a production team but one which is honest, contains all of my miss steps and every single one of my gems. I try to broadcast regularly and have to do it in the early mornings when I am alone in ther building where my workshoop is - during the day, the constant tapping of the silversmith below really bleeds into the filming. Usually I am broadcasting between 8.00am BST and noon. This is too early for US citizens but it is always psoted so you can watch it recorded in full.

Today I am broadcasting at 11.00am before I go to hospital to visit my wife who has just had major cancer surgery... It will be on hand sanding. There is more to this process than meets the eye and it will be a hard shoot because it is the one process most people think they can do without training.

Please join me if you can - it goes out live. If I have a camera operator I can usually answer questions live but since I will be shooting and directing at the same time using Mevo technology I usually have to leave answering live questions till it is posted.

I will continue to broadcast, repeat stuff, make blooper laden vids and generally share my knowledge over FaceBook. YouTube is now such a slick channel that I simply cannot compete with what is now a 'professionals' platform.
 
I will continue to broadcast, repeat stuff, make blooper laden vids and generally share my knowledge over FaceBook. YouTube is now such a slick channel that I simply cannot compete with what is now a 'professionals' platform.

I have always found Facebook somewhat unappealing: cluttered, invasive, poor signal/noise ratio, and YouTube useful and informative, accessible, more navigable (that is, I can find stuff and don't need to "befriend" people who aren't friends). Most of what I watch on YouTube isn't of professional quality as far as cutting and presentation go. I just look for information and demonstrations. A personable presenter is a plus, but it's more about the meat for me than the entertainment.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery of your wife!
 
I tend to stay clear a facebook for reasons I can't logically argue. However I regularly check into your club page as it does not require me to have a Facebook account to view... Which is great.
There are definitely a good few gems of info in your video posts so thanks for that!
Not to be ungrateful or anything but recently the ability to read the comments sections on the club page has been disabled... Guessing I'd need to sign in but is a shame not to be able to read them anymore.
 
Sorry folks. No return to YouTube because it drives me towards production values I don't want to get involved in. I just no longer have the time or patience to record, re-record, cut and edit 20 minutes rambling into 3 minutes.

I also struggle with technical set-ups so am looking for simple solutions which FaceBook provides me. And lets face i, my work is not compulsory viewing. It is just a question of settling on what I feel comfortable with. I like the Mevo streaming technology that interfaces with FaceBook. I simply point and broadcast.

Thanks for feedback.
 
It's all good Pete :). I enjoyed your videos when they were up and am very appreciative. Can't imagine why people would criticize the videos!! Too much time on their hands
So sorry to hear about your wife. You've gotten a double whammy and don't deserve it. Hang in there man.

terry
 
Sorry folks. No return to YouTube because it drives me towards production values I don't want to get involved in. I just no longer have the time or patience to record, re-record, cut and edit 20 minutes rambling into 3 minutes.

I also struggle with technical set-ups so am looking for simple solutions which FaceBook provides me. And lets face i, my work is not compulsory viewing. It is just a question of settling on what I feel comfortable with. I like the Mevo streaming technology that interfaces with FaceBook. I simply point and broadcast.

Thanks for feedback.


I always wondered where you found the time to do that. I do most of my sharing on Facebook as well. In my case it's because not only would I rather spend my time at the work bench but I don't have the skills necessary for video production.
Please give our Alohas to Helen.
 
I use to keep up a blog page on my website, but that was way too much work to keep current. Now while the website is still there and I keep it updated with all my instruments, pricing etc. The day to day blog type info is on Facebook as well.

I'm still amazed at the amount of time you are able to devote to video's. And good to sit down and watch a bit while I'm having a cup of tea.

I wish Helen a speedy recovery.
 
Thanks folks. I like doing the vids live but hospital visiting and stuff is taking the edge off it a bit.

One of the reasons I do it is it is part of my remit for my Winston Churchill Fellowship award last year. I am forever committed by the generous grant I received and prestigeousness of this award (I really didn't read the small print) to share in perpetuity the findings of my research and how they inform current and future practice.

The valuable lessons I learned at Kala for instance helped me plan an effective program for my technician who I employed for 6 months... so it is part of my life. I only hope it serves to help this great community of full and part time builders to get an intimate knowledge of how one humble exponent of this craft has worked through the nuts and bolts of it. And I fully acknowledge that I am sharing my way to 'skin a cat' and that there are, and you all let us know it thank goodness, other ways of doing it.
 
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working too hard at sanding

I watched the "sanding" video. You are working too hard with sandpaper bent around a sanding block. As long as you are buying sandpaper in rolls, get sticky-back paper, also called "pressure sensitive adhesive" (PSA) paper. Make your blocks the same size as the roll dimension, add a handle to the back of the block, and stick on the paper. You know exactly where the edge is and it is much easier on the hand (rather than having to hold onto the sandpaper). I made up a bunch of blocks, some with flat Masonite, some with padding, either an old mouse pad cut up, or some neoprene wet-suit material I got. On the padded ones I have some with padding just to the edge, and some with padding beyond the edge for sanding into curves, like doing a neck heel.
 

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Thanks for the advice... working with a block is perfectly natural to me. We are in an abrasive desert here. Self adhesive? Forget it man.
 
The problem here is that this stuff is not always available locally and when it is it is horrendously expensive. It never used to be available in NZ, but just found a supplier here. $50.00 a roll!!. So at a minimum of four grits that's a $200 outlay for sandpaper. Anyway at 71 years of age you get pretty proficient with a cork sanding block. :D
 
I use a spray can of carpet adhesive to stick abrasive paper to sanding blocks/sticks or radius dishes.
 
Me too but like Dennis, I kinda like the feel of the cork block in my hands. When I go to Canada each year, I stock up on the 3M products I cannot get here.
 
That's the thing... there are some of us who are not American or who live there even ��������
 
I love it. We are actually talking about sandpaper which some people would consider strange and boring, but we know how it is so important. I sometimes wonder if Tony Stradivarius used sandpaper and what sandpaper was like in 1690 AD. I'll bet they didn't have it like we do now. I'll bet sandpaper hadn't even been invented in 1690. How could a person not have sandpaper? Perhaps a person on here knows about the History of Sandpaper. Oddly, I would actually find that interesting ... My sandpaper comes from Canada of all places and it is cheap.... Ken's advice is "spot on" as you Brits would say. Spray adhesive works great and is cheap. I use the stuff they sell in art supply shops to glue photographs to paper.
 
According to Wikipedia:

The first recorded use of sandpaper was in 1st-century China when crushed shells, seeds, and sand were bonded to parchment using natural gum. Shark skin (placoid scales) has also been used as an abrasive and the rough scales of the living fossil, Coelacanth are used for the same purpose by the natives of Comoros. Boiled and dried, the rough horsetail plant is used in Japan as a traditional polishing material, finer than sandpaper. Glass paper was manufactured in London in 1833 by John Oakey, whose company had developed new adhesive techniques and processes, enabling mass production. Glass frit has sharp-edged particles and cuts well whereas sand grains are smoothed down and do not work well as an abrasive. Cheap sandpaper was often passed off as glass paper; Stalker and Parker cautioned against it in A Treatise of Japaning and Varnishing published in 1688. In 1921, 3M invented a sandpaper with silicon carbide grit and a waterproof adhesive and backing, known as Wet and dry. This allowed use with water, which would serve as a lubricant to carry away particles that would otherwise clog the grit. Its first application was in automotive paint refinishing.
 
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