Hey gang my sister bought a used Pono and she lives in Santa Barbara. She is brand new to the uke, got her hooked when she was up here for a visit about a month ago. She wants to have her new baby checked out and properly setup. Who would you recommend in the Santa Barbara area and anything else uke related in the area, ie : clubs, jams, music shops etc.
yes, there's a music shop on the street parallel to State, mountainside. They sell nice ukes, unless they no longer exist. A couple big streets over from State. they seem to be a center for the local acoustic instrument set.
Folk Mote. Google Santa Barbara Ukulele. there's a club that meets down by the harbor.
Thanks Kimosabe. I did google search and "Sanata Barbara Ukulele Club" came up with some youtube vids of them playing down by the harbour, very cool.
Anyone else with direct experience dealing with, shopping at or playing ukulele in the Santa Barbara area. I remember seeing a memeber here whose location said Santa Barbara.
Anacapa Ukulele is in Ventura, just 30 miles from SB.
Anacapaukulele.com
Learn, visit and play uke.
They host classes too with Jason Arimoto.
Hawaiian music jams on Tuesday nights.
Santa Barbara City College's Center for Lifelong Learning has some good classes taught by Carl Villaverde.
Right now he is teaching a beginner class, an Intermediate Hawaiian Ukulele and Intermediate American Gold (songs of 60s & 70s). I taking both intermediates right now and learning a lot.
Bula! I second Folk Mote. My husband just bought a second hand lovely custom uke and wanted a strap button installed. We checked out Folk Mote and had a great time in there while the button was installed. Lots of folk instruments and many ukes to try. Very nice and competent people.
We later checked out a well established music store further out in the Ralph's shopping center near 5 points. They were very guitar oriented--so we were glad we had found Folk Mote.
I just wanted to say thank you to those that replied to this thread, it was all very helpful. My sister has gone ahead and signed up for the beginner lessons at Anacapa in Ventura, she starts tonight and is both excited and a little nervous. I know she will have a great time as she is bitten hard by the ukulele bug just as all the rest of us here are :nana::nana::nana:
The last time I was in SB there was a street fair or block party going on. My cousin suggested they were frequent affairs. THese events are perfect place to play. Where I live Craft Shows are good venues as well. The crafters and shoppers are generally not so musically inclined, so you get a lot of compliments as well.