Ukulele Music Store Blues

Plainsong

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Helsinki, Finland via Charleston, SC
We're out in the middle of nowhere for a two day getaway in Kasnäs, an island in the Turku Archipelago, a haven for the Swedish-speaking Finnish minority (it's official second language, and some, like my husband, come from families that speak it as their first language). The place is so remote that WiFi and broadband internet are new things. But then, that's part of the charm, to get away from everything.

So anyway, after our morning swim in the pool with water that is distilled from the open sea and recycled in and back out, all temperature controlled, I said to my husband, "Hey, let's go visit your niece's new puppy!" - His 6 year old niece just got a new standard dachshund that will be the family hunting dog. The dog, Maija, will live outside, which as doxy people, we very much object to. She's a brilliant little dog and great with his niece. She's not even 10 weeks yet and she's already showing how nice a dog she will be. I expect Russ to be reading this and steam coming out of his ears for a brilliant little dachshund not getting to live inside with the family when she becomes a dog.

And now I come the long way around, to the point. I realized that I'm getting an electric-uke on Thursday. :rock: - And I don't have a cable to plug it in. Doh! Buzz kill! So we headed into the closest city, and hour away, and went to the only guitar shop between Helsinki and Turku, in Salo. A little hole-in-the-wall place crammed to the gills with crappy stuff, and also really awesome stuff.

No ukes, but one, on display right as you come through the door. It's some import brand that I've never heard and whose name flies out the window. What I can tell you is that it was a soprano, and it was most definitely solid mahogany with white binding. It had geared tuners and someone put some Worths on at some point in its life. It was dusty as hell.

I picked it up. The neck looked in good shape. But the strings were coming unwound, and the price tag was hooked around the g string so that you couldn't even tune the frakking thing to play it. That's how much respect the uke got in that little store.

I did find this awesome and comfy-looking Levy guitar strap, and then I headed to the counter to find ask for some cable. The guy asked what I was plugging into, for the best synergy and all, and from my headphone audio hobby, I know that decent cable matters. I looked him dead in the eye and said "A custom luthier-made electric ukulele." - I know that guy wanted to laugh, but was actually curious that there was such a thing. I showed the pic on my ipod touch, and he was like - :eek:

I said "Yeah, you can do some cool things with 4 strings. You should restring that one soprano there. There's a big uke club in Finland and that uke is solid wood." - All said in that amiable uke ohana spirit. :)

He said that he didn't even know they were playable :uhoh: but that maybe he should give it a go. Anyway, he did give some cable that had some nice neutrik plugs, so there's always that. Hopefully I've done my bit to help struggling ukesters in south of Finland outside of the Helsinki and Turku metro areas.
 
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I thought you were gonna say you bought another uke!
 
Heheh, I would have too. She looked nice. Very Martinish. I guess he just has it for display purposes.

It's just a shame to see a uke getting dissed like that. That uke had the blues! :(

And we all know "the smile." ;)
 
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