Griffin Ukes starting tenor build if you want to watch

Patrick Madsen

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I love watching the progression and thoughts of luthiers as they go thru the process of building a uke. I happened on Griffin Ukuleles blog and saw he was just starting up 4 new tenors.

The time and thought put into a build is far more extensive than I thought it would be.

As Brian says, "Stay tuned." Be careful though or you'll end up with one or two like I did lol.

http://www.griffinukuleles.com/blog.html
 
Haha, I just got mine!! It is lovely.
 
Is there a way to tell the difference between a Griffin-built Pinecone and the ones built in Mexico?
 
Other than the label? I was trying to tell if the headstocks were different when I saw the Mexican ones.
 
I saw one from Mexico this weekend. They're much more shiny as they aren't French Polished and a G Pinecone sounds that much better. Perhaps if Brian sees this thread he could tell us. I know he signs his. No number on mine, but know it's #18.
 
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Do any of you folks have a sound sample of your Griffin pinecone? I'd love to hear what yours sounds like.
 
Do any of you folks have a sound sample of your Griffin pinecone? I'd love to hear what yours sounds like.

I did a very quick and rough review on youtube. My user name is queenfreeda. I will do a better one soon.
 
I had a chance to play yours F. and a few others. If I hadn't already have one, I would have picked that one coincidently. She's a beaut. I changed the tuners to Pegheads on my PC.

Kathryns P/c and tenor is another two that got away from me lol. The tenor build he's doing now I'm sure will have even more minute refinements. I know I feel blessed everytime I play it.

Have you tried playing them in Bb tuning? I just tried it and gives the uke a whole new sound. If I want to play in C tuning it's just a matter of capoing up 2 frets or playing a different chord shape for a chord. In Bb tuning an F chord is fingered like a G chord in C tuning. C chord is fingered like a D chord etc.
 
I love watching the progression and thoughts of luthiers as they go thru the process of building a uke. I happened on Griffin Ukuleles blog and saw he was just starting up 4 new tenors.

The time and thought put into a build is far more extensive than I thought it would be.

As Brian says, "Stay tuned." Be careful though or you'll end up with one or two like I did lol.

http://www.griffinukuleles.com/blog.html

Hi Pat, Thanks for watching my blog. A small correction, I am starting on three new tenors, not four. The last three were so much fun that it seems like the right number, and Pavoroti only had two companions. Just got some Koa in the mail today. I put a little naphtha on the wood to bring out the grain and photographed a set. the picture will be on tomorrows blog. Always fun to plan the next build but thanks to you all three will have radiused fret boards for sure
Brian
 
Is there a way to tell the difference between a Griffin-built Pinecone and the ones built in Mexico?

Freeda, My Grandson and I designed the little wonders. The ones that I make have a orangish label with my signature, a number and the build year. I can't make enough to meet demand so we send the wood to Jesus Jurado in Tijuana and he returns very nice instruments. Jesus is a 20 year employee of Taylor Guitar and a lifetime luthier. He commutes across the border daily to the Taylor factory but back home he has a 4 or 5 man shop that makes guitars, mandolins and now our pinecone ukes. We put a House and Mill label in them, thats the name of the little business that my grandson and I share that started out selling tone wood and now will market our Mexican pinecones in addition. They are darned good ukes. You might take a look at the houseandmill.com website, they sell the colored strings and some cute uke bags in addition to great spruce and maple for builders.
 
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