New Uke Day! ... Fred Shields

70sSanO

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My wife and I went down to San Diego to celebrate our birthdays, both less than week apart. We usually wander around hit different shops, do some shopping; something for both of us.

There is a guitar store in La Mesa, in the village, called Moze Guitars. I've ben stopping in at Moze for a lot of years, they used to be in a real hole in the wall store by the college.

So I see this fluke shaped concert ukulele that is advertised as a solid wood custom and it is made by Fred Shields. I picked it up and it plays really nice and sounds suprisingly good.

I talked to the store and found out that Fred Shields is local builder, a tile setter by trade, that makes ukuleles in his spare time. They thought Fred said the wood was poplar or alder. It has a rosewood fretboard, maple neck, ebony(?) bridge, and the wormanship is very good. Nicely finished fret ends, side markers, the back is a heel cap for the neck, a side port, all in a nice satin finish.

Also, Fred cannot be making any money on these because the store was selling this one for $179.00. Where can you find a handcrafted American made ukulele for under $200? It is really nice to be able to find little gems like these tucked away here and there.

Fred also makes taditional shaped concert and tenor ukuleles out of mahogany, for a little more, as well as a pineapple, and a side port camp uke. Moze also had a pretty cool thin body electric that Fred had made.

As for this ukulele, since I couldn't put it down, I had no choice but to buy it.

Here is a pic...

IMG_3372.JPG


More pics... http://imageevent.com/70ssano/fredshieldsukulele

Enjoy!

John
 
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Aloha John,
Contrats looks Sweet, would mind giving it a try myself... it screams to be played....all kind of goodies ...side port, different shape, unusal position tuner pegs. definetly worth a try...Thanks for sharing...
Happy Strumming and Happy Holidays to you and your family!!! MM Stan..
 
I really like the tuner arrangement as well, I've always wondered why you don't see more with straight-lines to the tuners.
 
That is really cool looking! I really like the tuner arrangement also. How does it sound?
 
I'll have to get with my kids and put together a sound clip. They have Acoustica Mixcraft on a PC and a cheap mic that seems to work pretty good.

The ukulele doesn't have a pickup... yet.

John
 
I really like the tuner arrangement as well, I've always wondered why you don't see more with straight-lines to the tuners.

Yeah, that seems like a good idea...though...I wonder if there is room for my fat fingers to turn that E-string tuning knob without bumping the others...

John
 
I have no problems with the C and E tuners. Because the G tuner is set up to turn the same direction as the others it is a little closer to the A tuner than if it were set with the turning in the opposite direction. No real problems, but it would be nice to a have a bit more room. On the plus side, having the same tuning direction for all tuners is nice.

...all his ukuleles have this in line tuning setup... pretty cool.

John
 
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