CONTEST: win a free Makala Tenor Ukulele

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NukeDOC

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one of our members, DEACH, has offered to give away his Makala Tenor Ukulele(click to see pics) for free to someone that really NEEDS it. he has even offered to pay shipping. but he's offering it to someone who either doesnt have an ukulele yet, or to someone whose ukulele is so ghetto that an upgrade is absolutely required to get any better at playing.

all you have to do is write an essay answering this question:

why should deach send you this ukulele, or if it's for someone else, why do they deserve it?

reply in this post with your entry by april 18, 2008 and deach will choose a winner. there is no limit to how long this essay must be so make sure you say enough to convince him why he should send you this ukulele.

side note by nukedoc: this is an awesome thing for deach to do out of the goodness of his heart. and it is one nice looking ukulele that he has put up for this contest. please, if you dont NEED this ukulele, dont be a jerk by entering just because you are good at essay writing, but already own a good enough ukulele. we know there are people out there that could really use a decent instrument like this. cant wait to start reading the entries. and who knows? even if you dont win, someone else out there with a spare ukulele lying around might read what you wrote and feel that you deserve a new ukulele too!

disclaimer: this contest is NOT endorsed by Ukulele Undergroud or by its staff, and Ukulele Underground assumes no responsibility for any incidents associated with this contest.
 
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NukeDoc, could you post the link to his pics in your first post. make it so no one has to go on an adventure to find the old thread.
Also my Entry:

Ukulele

Right now I play three instruments, cello, drums and the ukulele. I love all three, they really are the three best instruments, but the one that I love the most is the ukulele. It looks good, it is very portable, and best of all it sounds amazing. There is just something wonderful about hearing that four stringed instrument which sends shivers down my spine.

I bought my Kay ukulele from one of the larger music stores around, it was either a 20 dollar no name brand, as in there was no name on the ukulele; or it was the 50 dollar, named ukulele. I ended up getting the latter. The purchase was not an impulse, I knew I wanted to play some basic chords on the ukulele, after hearing songs by The King Blues and Iz, but never did I realize I would want to make it my main instrument of choice. Once I got the basic chords down, and learned all my favorite songs I became bored and began to learn how to solo. That’s when a horrible realization occurred. After the 7th fret the sound died. It was like playing drums with stock heads, or a guitar with year old strings. The sound comes out like a whimper and dies within seconds. Not only that but some of the frets are dead, so for right now I have been getting by, by learning which frets are dead and just passing over them. For this I am severely restricted in which notes I can play, and how far I need to stretch to hit that one note to link a phase together.

Now lets get to the construction…what can I say, I brought a 50 dollar ukulele. The tuning pegs are absolutely horrid, they slip unless they are not ultra tight, making it very annoying to tune. The Fingerboard is made out of plastic and is pretty inconsistent; they drilled screws though the fingerboard in to the neck, which might be one of the reasons for the tone of the ukulele. The wood, I am guessing, is made out of Philippine mahogany, which is the fairly nice name for generic wood that comes for Asia. This again is another source for the poor sound.

I love the ukulele, I love my tiny no name Kay, but to be honest it’s really hard to practice regularly when the sound is so poor. I will continue to play, for who knows how long. I know when I go to college both drums and cello will be on the back burner for space issues. I hope to not only keep on playing but be proficient enough to either do solo performances or even start a small band.

pics
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j73/h-drix/?action=view&current=DSC_0252.jpg
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j73/h-drix/?action=view&current=DSC_0246.jpg
 
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NukeDoc, could you post the link to his pics in your first post. make it so no one has to go on an adventure to find the old thread.
Also my Entry:
there is a link. it says "makala tenor ukulele" in red and underlined. but ill edit it to make it clearer.
 
Deach, It is very commendable of you to have this contest! Heres my 'essay'

I actually want to vouch for someone else to get an ukulele. I think EleoCasil's nephew Andrew should get this ukulele. Andrew is actually a member of this forum under the name 'skaterboy'.

This kid has a real talent for music. He loves to play the guitar AND the ukulele but he just doesn't have a uke. I was hanging out over at their house yesterday preparing for eleo's birthday party and I was able to teach Andrew some stuff on the ukulele. What's crazy is that yesterday I taught him While my guitar gently weeps AND Dragon. He picks up on stuff so fast. To learn the songs it probably only took him 30 minutes EACH. I was like WOW this kid learns fast. :eek: The entire time I was there he was playing ukulele from 12pm until 10pm. He played and played until his fingers hurt.

For now I let him borrow my terrible soprano Hilo ukulele which sounds like a toy. I can just imagine if he had a decent uke to learn on. If you saw him play you would see that he has so much potential and just needs to be given the opportunity with a decent ukulele. I do hope you consider Andrew. He's a good kid who loves to learn and aspires to become a great uke player one day. Personally, I don't know anybody who is more deserving of an ukulele than Andrew.
 
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Ok this is my essay:

I have been playing the guitar on and off since 2nd grade I'm getting pretty old now(plz dont ask). About 2 months ago I found IZ's what a wonderful world, and bamm I went to the music store to get a uke. When I got there they had 2 ukes a really nice martin "chaa ching" and a concert sized Hilo. Can you guess which one I went home with? I couldnt fork out the cash for the Martin and didn't even know if I could figure out how to play it or if I would like to, for that matter! After 3 hours of reading a useless book on how to play the ukulele, I went to the enternet and found UU.

Now this essay isnt just for this contest; its to tell everyone how much I appriciate the people in this forum. Aldrine, 4strings707, and many others have helped me more than that stupid book ever could, and I have learned more in 2 months on the uke than years fiddling by myself on the guitar and I thank you guys for that.

I am a Firemedic and its a stressful job, and I am aloud to bring my uke with me to work. I have found that nothing (besides maybe a xanax :D) releaves my stress more than that 4 string instrument. Now I have other coworkers bringing in their guitars and in between calls when we have some down time we will get our instruments and play music together, it has helped me with my stress level and has brought us closer together as a crew.

Now for my uke; its a cheap 40 dollar Hilo that i have found to have been over priced! The frets are not flat on the fretboard from fret six to nine so I get a trerible rattle noise when playing in that area. The fret ends were not even filed on the outsides, so I get skin from my struming fingers all over the sound board and lower frets, and the tuners stay in tune for 3-5 min. Well that about sums it up for me. Thanks for the chance!
 
Here's an essay sent directly to me:


degracia said:
Hey deach, my name is Ibarr deGracia from Hayward, CA. First, I want to let you know that it is a wonderful thing you are doing this to help out the ones in need of a good ukulele. I just want to thank you for this opportunity as well.

Well, I have been playing the ukulele for a good 4-5 years. I never owned a uke, but I always visited my cousin’s house on a daily basis after school just to play it. I fell in love with it. I decided to get one for myself since the uke wasn’t mine. My first uke was, believe it or not, from Wal-Mart. The brand was “FirstAct discovery” and on the inside, it was named a Quality Crafted Guitar. I figured it was good to start with, but within a couple of weeks, I played it so much that the strings got loose, screws got lost, but I was stuck with it. And yes, I stuck with this same ol’ $15 dollar ‘uke’ for almost 3 years.

I’ve dropped it plenty of times, I colored, painted, and stickered it, and indeed I failed. So, in the past month, I decided to carve it down to make some designs... Yes, I ruined it but it was better than how it looked before with the paintings and what not. I also have been looking for screws to fill in the ‘holes’ on the back. This is what I went through, for the past years… Most ukuleles I’ve been interested in go for a range of $75-$150. But I just never got the chance to buy one because of my budget problems.

So just last week, my sister came back with her very own uke from Hawaii. It’s hers and its brand new, so it’s what I have been using for some of my videos on youtube. But I just can’t stick to using her’s or my beat-up ukulele for the future. I’d say that I can learn much more with a good uke. That is why I’ve been so eager in joining these UU contests, and even writing this essay for yours.

If, or if not I do get this chance, it is still a great thing you are doing this for the community. Once again, thank you, and god bless.

- Ibarr deGracia
 
Hey, Deach. This is a really nice thing of you to do. I'm entering your competition to get my best friend Carl a ukulele.

Jimmy's Entry said:
My friend Carl has a cheap 15 GBP ukulele which I gave to him for his birthday. It's basically a toy. It's a Mahalo Flying V shaped ukulele. It has awful clear nylon strings. Plus, the value's probably decreased even more from the many chips and dents he's accidently put on it from dropping and knocking it against things. But he loves it. Every time I go around to his place I bring my uke over and we play together.

Him and I both know, though, that it's a terrible ukulele. It makes a really quiet and horrible quality sound. (To be fair, a V-shaped acoustic instrument is flawed from the start) He plays it a lot, and he's quite good at it.

I don't need this ukulele, as I've recently just got a lot of money from an old forgotten post office account (75 GBP, which is about 150 dollars (Cha-ching). But he's been saving up a lot of money to buy a Martin guitar, which he's been saving up for for about 8 months. So a decent ukulele would set him back quite a bit.

Even a fairly cheap good ukulele would set him back. And why? Both of us live here in Northern Ireland. And as you can guess, there's very little shops that stock good ukuleles. Even with the money I've received, I'm buying a Kala tenor from Musicguymic on eBay, and the postage is 50 dollars. However, if you decided to choose Carl over the other entrants to your competition, we'd be willing to pay postage for the opportunity.

Why I'd like to get him a ukulele is to get him into some great ukulele activities. Him and I already play together at fund-raising concerts. But I'm trying to get together an Ulster Ukulele Youth Band, and his talent and energy would be a great start. But he's not going anywhere using that nonsense he's using already. Also, I think it would be Ireland's first ukulele group. Influencing others to play the uke here would be certainly a worthy challenge!

In closing, I'd like to thank you even if I don't win. This is a cool thing for you do, and I congradulate the lucky winner. Thanks, Deach!

After reading some of the other entrants this far, I'm sure a kid who'd rather buy a guitar than a ukulele doesn't warm the hearts of anyone around here :p.
 
The music stores where I live, Edmonton Canada, offer two choices for ukuleles if they have any at all. Either you go big and drop $350+ or you pick up a $25 Mahalo Soprano, painted in one of several awful colors…in case you were wondering, mine’s Red. I’ve had it since 2001 when I began college, and had no real income to speak of. It’s the first and only instrument I’ve tried to learn and practice with, and probably the reason why it has been so hard to keep up with over the years. I don’t know anyone else with a uke, so I haven’t been able to hangout and play on someone else’s to learn how a proper instrument should be. I always seem put in several months of practice each year and I tool around on mine because it’s great fun, but as I develop even a little bit, I get frustrated by the poor quality of my red toy ukulele. In a nut shell, the frets are sharp, as in “owe, there goes my skin”; the tuners are, umm, uncooperative; the construction is all crooked; there is a persistent buzz that almost seems normal to me at this point; nearly everything is wrong with it really, which makes me wonder why I bought this one in the first place? I guess the many imperfections give it its, umm, charm, no?

I’m once again really excited about the ukulele, in no small part due to UU, and I’m giving it a good go once again. I’m still in school, as a grad student, so I have really no disposable income, and purchasing a decent instrument (I’d really like a serviceable tenor) is not really possible for me under these circumstances. Playing music, especially on these great little instruments, is a perfect way to spend time doing something relaxing, and once you have a decent uke, you can get so much out of it. Other instruments and hobbies cost a lot more and for people in my situation are just prohibitive. I have a plan to some day upgrade my ukulele so that I can find out what kind of player I can be, and so that I can share my love for the uke with other people, but until then I’ll stick to messing about on my annoying little red toy Mahalo that I wouldn’t subject others to.

If you decide to offer me that Makala, I’d give it a good home, and it would be my main instrument for years to come, as I’ll be in school a while yet, with really nothing extra to spend on a new uke. If you find it a better home than with me, I’ll be happy for the winner, and grateful for your generosity nonetheless.

Here are some pics of the frets and the crookedness:

http://s287.photobucket.com/albums/ll125/Phil_Major/?action=view&current=Photo23.jpg
http://s287.photobucket.com/albums/ll125/Phil_Major/?action=view&current=Photo22.jpg
http://s287.photobucket.com/albums/ll125/Phil_Major/?action=view&current=Photo21.jpg
 
I recently just joined the forum a few days ago for some advice about ukulele's.

There aren't much music stores around my area. With the few that are in my area, I found that the ukulele's were very overpriced for my budget and simply did not sound good to my ear. I have never seen nor touched a ukulele in my life and actually was inspired from the many ukulele players on youtube ( Jake S. IZ etc. ). With youtube being the only way for me to get a taste of what kind of ukulele to get, I found that I fell in love with pitch of the tenor ukulele. After posting my thread a few days ago I was quickly told about a tenor ukulele that was going to be given away. I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity. I thought to myself " Why not start off with my first ukulele that has been in someone else's hands? " I thought that if I were to start off with an experienced ukulele that has been in the hands of an experienced player that it would even help spark my interest even more and bring my playing to the next level.

I know that If I were win this ukulele I would take full advantage of it. Already I have been excited to get my hands on an ukulele to just jam with my friends. I love how the ukulele is so small and portable that I could just bring it with me anywhere and start playing. The only instrument I have played in my life is a piano, and well, we all know that pianos aren't exactly the easiest things to lug around. I have even found myself looking on youtube and even here for tabs on how to play some songs on the ukulele even though I have nothing to practice on.

I wish the best for whoever wins and thank you Deach for giving everyone a chance for an awesome gift!

-Jeremy
 
Kudos to you, Deach, for this kind gesture. I’m sure there are many deserving folks out there as evidenced through the essays that have been submitted thus far. As you may or may not know I went on record yesterday regarding the Kala giveaway that if I was somehow able to win the ukulele contest I would give the uke to Edmund Whitehead. I believe Edmund is only 14 years old but he plays with passion and skills that are well beyond his age. He plays an Oscar Schmidt OU2 concert size uke. The reason is because this is all he can afford right now. The good thing about the OU2 is that they usually have decent intonation and sound Ok. I had one early on myself and I think I paid $50 for it.

I would like to see him get a decent tenor sized ukulele in his hands. He has such great talent and I think if he was playing a better ukulele it would elevate his playing to an even higher level. I totally understand how important it is to have a ukulele with good intonation, stays in tune and is easy to play in order to allow one to keep interested and motivated to practice. Most of these essays will be from those folks that need something more than a Hilo that is impossible to tune etc. But even if just one of those people receives this ukulele there are all the others out there in the same boat. But in the case of Edmund, if he receives this ukulele there is potential for it to make a huge impact on his playing right out of the gate.

So I hope you will consider Edmund when you make your decision. In case you are not familiar with Edmund here is a video of him playing Aldrine’s Bandito Tyler that he just posted recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ckWUVnRaA#qCnyo9xnI30

Thanks again for your generosity in offering your ukulele to someone here at UU.
 
Kudos to you, Deach, for this kind gesture. I’m sure there are many deserving folks out there as evidenced through the essays that have been submitted thus far. As you may or may not know I went on record yesterday regarding the Kala giveaway that if I was somehow able to win the ukulele contest I would give the uke to Edmund Whitehead. I believe Edmund is only 14 years old but he plays with passion and skills that are well beyond his age. He plays an Oscar Schmidt OU2 concert size uke. The reason is because this is all he can afford right now. The good thing about the OU2 is that they usually have decent intonation and sound Ok. I had one early on myself and I think I paid $50 for it.

I would like to see him get a decent tenor sized ukulele in his hands. He has such great talent and I think if he was playing a better ukulele it would elevate his playing to an even higher level. I totally understand how important it is to have a ukulele with good intonation, stays in tune and is easy to play in order to allow one to keep interested and motivated to practice. Most of these essays will be from those folks that need something more than a Hilo that is impossible to tune etc. But even if just one of those people receives this ukulele there are all the others out there in the same boat. But in the case of Edmund, if he receives this ukulele there is potential for it to make a huge impact on his playing right out of the gate.

So I hope you will consider Edmund when you make your decision. In case you are not familiar with Edmund here is a video of him playing Aldrine’s Bandito Tyler that he just posted recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ckWUVnRaA#qCnyo9xnI30

Thanks again for your generosity in offering your ukulele to someone here at UU.

I would like to express my thanks to you Dom, for everything that you have done to get me a tenor uke, and really appreciate it. I actually spoke to my parents after our conversation and they have agreed to get me a ukulele in combination with money from a private gig that I'm doing next week. Thanks so much for your support, and hopefully getting a better uke will make my music taste better!

Also, thanks Deach for putting on such an awesome contest. I know very few people in the world who would do something like this. I hope you find a deserving winner!

Cheers, Ed
 
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Congratulations Edmund. I'm glad your parents have seen the light ;) and have decided to contribute to your ukulele fund. I look forward to seeing some new videos once your get it in hand.
 
Yeah, I checked out some of the Youtube vids of Edmund... he is so much better than me its not even funny. Good on him though, he obviously knows what he's doing. I'm going to keep at it, and when I finally get my hands on something decent, I know it'll help me take off. So many noobs is a such a good thing for the uke community I think... I hope it hold together as it grows.
 
Congratulations Edmund. I'm glad your parents have seen the light ;) and have decided to contribute to your ukulele fund. I look forward to seeing some new videos once your get it in hand.

I agree! thats awesome Edmund! You've got real talent and I'm glad to hear that you are going to upgrade your uke!
 
alrightie, here's my essay.

Like everyone else said, kudos to you for putting a uke up for someone to give it a good home. I also think it's pretty cool that you're even willing to pay for shipping. I myself, I already have a couple ukes. So I don't wanna be selfish and rob someone from an opportunity to get to know a uke. Actually, I wanted to win this uke for my dad.

I know, I already have a couple so why not just give one to him? Well, the ukes I have aren't the size that he's comfortable with. I have two concerts, a soprano and a baritone. The concerts and soprano are too small for him and he said they're uncomfortable. And when i told him to hold the baritone, he said it's too big, and doesn't feel like a ukulele. Also, it's not as traditional as he'd like it to be.

It's funny cuz he told me a story about when he was still a young buck in the Philippines and he, along with his friends would build ukes out of coconuts and wood they found lying around. So I already know he appreciates the instrument and would love to have one. Lol and plus, he still randomly steals my uke when I'm watching tv on the couch.

I would buy him a uke but I kind of have bills and payments that I need to prioritize my money towards right now. He's the type of person who would love to buy a uke, but his priority is the house and bills right now so he can't get side-tracked by the thought of a new uke.

So, if you're looking for this uke to find a great home where it can be appreciated and loved, I know for a fact that my dad can provide that. He doesn't know about this contest, so I think it'd be a huge surprise to him. Oh and I just realized his birthday is on the 25th and I think this would be a suitable present. =)



thanks for the opportunity. lol, it's kinna short but it's straight to the point. aha.
 
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I'm ending this contest at 5 PM EST Friday. This means less than 48 hours to get your entry in. Once time is up, I'd like everyone to vote for the winner. That's right, I'm copping out, I have a difficult time making decisions. Good luck to everyone!
 
I have a pretty bad ukulele but others need this more than me. If had to vote I would go for leggomyriego,degracia's, or davoo's stories. Very inspiring to see how much passion they have for the uke though they have none to call their own realy. I say good luck to all and god bless you deach for this kind act.
 
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