Decorations on your uke?

So, one of the things that I have noticed about Aldrine's ukes is that he often has a little decoration keychain-sort-of-thing at the top hanging off the top of his uke. And I have noticed that several other people on these forums have little dangly things hanging off their ukes too. So here's what I've got:


On my applause, I put a UH sticker under the strings and right above the bridge. I think it looks pretty good. And on the case (which actually isn't for the Applause) you'll notice a few more stickers (including a UU sticker...could use another UU sticker for the Applause), and if you look closely, you can see a super-special-awesome KoAloha Ukulele Festival 2008 keychain crafted from what appears to be Koa wood. (Thanks MGM and everyone at the KoAloha booth!)


And from Chinatown, here's my dangly thing. It's a fake jade lute or something that looks sort of like a uke. Admittedly, I don't think it looks too hot on my instrument...so it'll probably come off soon.

So, what do you guys have on your ukes as far as stickers and dangly things? I need to upgrade my dangly thing....

At my age I'm starting to think I need to upgrade my "dangly thing" too....

Boozelele said:

At my age I'm starting to think I need to upgrade my "dangly thing" too....

Click to expand...

Bro, I do relate. . .


.

I was always curious -- don't stickers on the sound board affect the sound?

polynesianpop said:

I was always curious -- don't stickers on the sound board affect the sound?

Click to expand...

I think it would make a difference on a more expensive uke. But I knew that it wouldn't make any noticeable difference on my Applause. The top is a laminate and with the gloss and everything is very thick. Furthermore, inside the body has all kinds of stuff that inhibits the resonance including a whole bunch of foam (which I assume absorbs quite a bit of sound). This applause is already not known for projection, and I play it mainly through my amp. So I thought the UH sticker would look hot on the black.

Now, if I go and get a Kanilea tenor Sound Monster, then I wouldn't put a sticker on it. (The SM is amazing. I thought my Kanilea tenor with the UV finish made an amazing sound...but after playing a SM today, I can testify that that instrument is a beast. I'm not technical expert in ukes, but I know they did everything possible to maximize soundboard vibration on the Kanilea SM, and I think a sticker would probably inhibit some of that vibration.)

And I don't need that dangly thing upgraded! Still young and ready to rock and roll!

cant go wrong wif da new zealand bone necklaces, i got it hanging off mine

I'm notorious for "decorating" things, but I have been pretty good about not getting carried away with my ukuleles. All of my harmonicas are covered with stickers (it helps me find the right key quickly ). And my harp and uke gig bags are all "decorated." Here's Jenny:

I've always been curious about that, I've saw a few people with things hanging on their tuners as well. I wonder were Aldrine got his doughnut? lol. I think that's what it is!

SinisterDom said:

I've always been curious about that, I've saw a few people with things hanging on their tuners as well. I wonder were Aldrine got his doughnut? lol. I think that's what it is!

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that one came from NDTitanLady. Aldrine's a pimp.

http://youtube.com/user/ndtitanlady

case in pic

experimentjon said:

Click to expand...

hey jon, i'm really curious. Where did you get that case? I love the way it looks.

cMejilla said:

hey jon, i'm really curious. Where did you get that case? I love the way it looks.

Click to expand...

I got it from Easy Music Center locally. It came out to about $50 with 25% off (really high marked price, I suspect) but it's a good case, except for the fact that there's rather limited storage space in there for accessories. I can only fit a few picks, my small clip-on tuner, and a box of tic-tacs. I wish I could tell you the brand so you could find it online, but it seems to be unbranded except for that palm tree on the front. Maybe MGM would know.

Haha, the last time I took it out in public was to a Jake concert in Hawaii Kai, and someone commented that it was a "hardcore case"...and in tenor size, it's pretty sizable does look pretty hardcore. I just like it because I can put stickers on it.

The Hawaiian Ukulele Company at Aloha Tower has those cases available for $60...seems kinda steep, personally I'd rather just spend the extra $25 more to get a Ko'olau hard case :/

Boozelele said:

At my age I'm starting to think I need to upgrade my "dangly thing" too....

Click to expand...

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Not laughin at you, but deffinately found this humorous. Good context.

polynesianpop said:

I was always curious -- don't stickers on the sound board affect the sound?

Click to expand...

Aldrine still has the factory vinyl covering on the face of the body on his uke. I want to get some artwork done on mine and was hoping to find something similar to preserve it.

IamRobbyah said:

Aldrine still has the factory vinyl covering on the face of the body on his uke. I want to get some artwork done on mine and was hoping to find something similar to preserve it.

Click to expand...

Really? I thought that was a pickguard that he put on himself.

I have plenty stuff on my Ukulele.

Including my hawaiian hook on the headstock.
A Hibiscus sticker on the backboard.
A sticker of slippers on the sound board, and
15 signatures of famous musicians.

Aloha
Bob

experimentjon said:

I got it from Easy Music Center locally. It came out to about $50 with 25% off (really high marked price, I suspect) but it's a good case, except for the fact that there's rather limited storage space in there for accessories. I can only fit a few picks, my small clip-on tuner, and a box of tic-tacs. I wish I could tell you the brand so you could find it online, but it seems to be unbranded except for that palm tree on the front. Maybe MGM would know.

Haha, the last time I took it out in public was to a Jake concert in Hawaii Kai, and someone commented that it was a "hardcore case"...and in tenor size, it's pretty sizable does look pretty hardcore. I just like it because I can put stickers on it.

Click to expand...

sounds like somthing to splurge on for me.

my decorations include duct tape and a jack that looks like a tail.

experimentjon said:

Really? I thought that was a pickguard that he put on himself.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he said it was that way from the factory, and being the Filipino that he is, never took the plastic off. LOL

If there is something that you can get for it, can you point me in that direction?

Guting said:

my decorations include duct tape and a jack that looks like a tail.

Click to expand...

Hahaha! He's not lying. truly og

So, after seeing the G String University of Hawaii uke at the UH bookstore yesterday, I decided to take my Ovation decorations a step further...especially since I'm not quite willing to pay retail for any uke. So, instead, I decided to make a UH uke the ghetto way. I bought a pack of UH vinyls from the bookstore ($6), and a new set of Aquilas ($12) from a local music store and went to work on my Applause upgrades.

I took off the old strings (ground hilo strings with wound C string that were nice, but a bit "heavy-feeling") then with a pair of scissors, cut up one of the stickers that said "University of Hawaii" until I only had the letters for Hawaii. Then I cut those letters up to make them fit on my fretboard. Tada! Not quite a mother of pearl inlay, but I got different colors! AND it only cost me a few dollars and a bit of my time! Haha. It doesn't quite stand out, because I gave up on trying to cut around the grey border, since it was so hard to see, so I just left it with green on the outside. And nope, it doesn't affect the action or playability at all, and I don't think they will come off in normal use of the uke. They're pretty solidly stuck down.

Then, I covered the applause logo at the headstock with another UH sticker. Yeaaah!

And of course, then I had to restring the uke. It was my first time doing a tie bridge, so it was sort of tricky, but thanks to that uke minutes, I got it! And I must say that the new Aquila strings sound great...just need to wait for them to stay in tune now.

And on my case, you will notice my G String sticker that I picked up from the uke fest...and the Kamaka sticker? I'm pretty sure that's a one-of-a-kind, if you know what I mean.







Yup, just felt like I had to make my uke rep the school that I'm going to next year! Haha, as a tangent, I went to orientation today, and it appears that going in as a freshman, I already have something like 59 credits from AP exams and my Chinese placement...which essentially makes me of junior standing. SHWOOOP! So it doesn't look like I'm going to be spending that much time at UH...but at least I'll have a UH uke now!

hehe you guys should see this