My Breedlove Ukulele/ Bend, Oregon Adventure!

Super excited! About to leave in an hour to go to the airport to fly across country to Bend, Oregon! There is a Breedlove retreat. It will be a whirlwind! Fly all day, 2 packed days, and I fly back!

I get to meet the builders, talk about some ways to improve the uke line, hand pick some tonewoods, and the ultimate goal is to have my own exclusive line of Breedlove Ukuleles, with hand-picked wood, custom inlays, truly unique pieces in look and sound.

Not going for super blinged out, but a great mix of tone and the beauty of the natural wood... with a little subtle bling on the side!

Anyway, thought I would start a thread and I will post pictures periodically in case anyone want to go on this adventure with me! I am super excited about it and plan to meet some amazing people!

Looking forward to hearing more about this, Mim. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!

This will be great fun for all of us!

Sounds great Mim. Looking forward to seeing the pics. Enjoy your breif time in Bend. I have a friend that lives there and he says that it is very close to being paradise

Mim said:

Not going for super blinged out, but a great mix of tone and the beauty of the natural wood... with a little subtle bling on the side!

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Just the take on ukes I like.

Have fun, Miss Mim! I look forward to seeing the pictures of your adventure, and, eventually, of your own exclusive line of ukes....

Traveling mercies Mim! Thanks for sharing the adventure with us.

Sounds awesome, have a great trip!

What a kick! Thanks for bringing us along, Mim. Looking forward to it.

I am used to the Charlotte airport where you can be at security for 45 minutes and they yell at your the whole time. By the time I am up to security I am shoeless, with my laptop in hand, and ready to go. Now my closest airport is Roanoke. 6 gates. I was the only on at security. They smiled and chatted with me and let me drink down my Diet Coke I forgot to finish. Then I spilled it... because, I am a knucklehead, and he nicely went and got paper towels for me. Man... what a difference. Now I am at the charging station charging everything that I could possibly charge in preparation for the long flights. Because I got here an hour and a half early only to take 10 minutes to get to my gate. I am leaving 87 degree weather for 60 degree weather and am carrying a heavy coat for the chili nights. I may have to use it for a pillow on the plane because I slept terrible last night. I was not completely packed and I was too excited to sleep! Woke up at 4:15 and could not go back to sleep for the life of me!!! For now... I have nothing but a picture of my awesome shoes... that for some reason I don't allow myself to wear unless I am going to some sort of music event where they cant get messed up, like NAMM.

Behold the awesomeness of my shoes:



Oh, and I am thinking of re-stringing my uke in the airport. I brought my Imua soprano, and I have these awesome Lucy's Ukulele Vintage strings. Multi-colored, but clear. Super awesome. I really need to stock these. (I just have not ordered them yet) I stock to Auroras, but they are solid, something about the see through aspect of this seems like they will really look awesome on my uke. I will show you the result when done.

While I am waiting... yall want to give me ideas for inlay designs? I already got one I am absolutely in love with. But it would be fun to hear what you guys might have ideas about. I don't want anything too complicated, want to keep the cost reasonable. But, if you have any ideas that you don't mind me using, throw them out at me.

- Nerd-a-lele: Each fret marker is a 20 sided dice, with the corresponding number is shown. Then a wizard on the headstock
- Zombie-a-lele: zombie silhouettes walking up the fretboard
thats all for now

Mim said:

snippity

Oh, and I am thinking of re-stringing my uke in the airport. I brought my Imua soprano, and I have these awesome Lucy's Ukulele Vintage strings. Multi-colored, but clear. Super awesome. I really need to stock these. (I just have not ordered them yet) I stock to Auroras, but they are solid, something about the see through aspect of this seems like they will really look awesome on my uke. I will show you the result when done.

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Those are awesome for teaching kids too!

Might have to break my vow of no more off the shelf ukes for "Mim's" uke.

Not sure how popular this thought is but, since you asked, I am not particularly high on ukes as playable art. I have seen M.C. Escher inlays on backs, relief maps of the Hawaiian Islands on tops and headstocks that almost qualify for an R rating. None have been particularly appealing to me as a musical instrument.

I have spent several thousand dollars on an instrument, but would never consider buying an instrument that appears to have more build time in the accoutrements than in the sound quality. Functional inlays like fret markers can be dots or something a bit more expressive; that is OK with me. Vines that run the length of the fretboard are too much, IMO.

Simple headstock logos rate high in my book. The mother of pearl "MP" on my MP tenor is elegant. Similarly, I prefer simple body and fretboard binding. The quality of the work that went into the binding is much more important to me than how much it sparkles.

I'd love me a game of thrones themed one-surprised
You are not defaulting to the Taylor Jason Mraz signature 'BeLove' theme.

Mim said:

While I am waiting... yall want to give me ideas for inlay designs? I already got one I am absolutely in love with. But it would be fun to hear what you guys might have ideas about. I don't want anything too complicated, want to keep the cost reasonable. But, if you have any ideas that you don't mind me using, throw them out at me.

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Personally, I think some flamingoes on the Breedloves would be lovely. But that's just me, and you DID ask.

Have a very successful trip, Mim.

I'd love it if you could get them to make a soprano

bborzell said:

Not sure how popular this thought is but, since you asked, I am not particularly high on ukes as playable art. I have seen M.C. Escher inlays on backs, relief maps of the Hawaiian Islands on tops and headstocks that almost qualify for an R rating. None have been particularly appealing to me as a musical instrument.

I have spent several thousand dollars on an instrument, but would never consider buying an instrument that appears to have more build time in the accoutrements than in the sound quality. Functional inlays like fret markers can be dots or something a bit more expressive; that is OK with me. Vines that run the length of the fretboard are too much, IMO.

Simple headstock logos rate high in my book. The mother of pearl "MP" on my MP tenor is elegant. Similarly, I prefer simple body and fretboard binding. The quality of the work that went into the binding is much more important to me than how much it sparkles.

Click to expand...

I am a "a little goes a long way" type gal. Plus I want to keep the price point reasonable. I like the wood and the sound to stand out. But hoping to have a few appointments on the uke that just makes it a little differant than the run of the mill. The idea I am kicking around right now would just be a simple, but meaningful fret marker change. Though I do admire the playable art, and have nothing against it. I am a lot like you in my personal preferance.

Those are some awesome shoes.

I'm pretty much with bborzell on the inlay issue but not totally opposed to a tasteful honu or something.

In Atlanta. It is gonna be a long flight from Atlanta to Portland. I hope they have a good in flight movie. Or maybe I can sneak a nap in. Bought a 20 piece chicken McNuggets because it was suprisingly not very expensive for airport food and I know I can save 10 for the middle of my flight and they will still be good. There is an upside to preservatives ;P