Season 394 - The Electric Version

It was about ten years or so ago that I found this little beauty for sale in a pawn shop for $39.99 (it still has its sticker on it).

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I've had tons of fun with it over the years. Obviously, I didn't use it every time I played the uke, but every time I plugged in, yeah, it was there ti give me 99 different voices, all adjustable themselves to an infinate variety of pedals and delays and grungelizing, and a drum machine to boot.

I tink it was while doing the Top Petty song a few weeks back that it started acting up. Turned out the batteries were running low (never had an AC apapter, although there's a blug for one). The I broke the drum machine button. Just broke through. Then, on replacing the batteries, now it won't turn on at all. Dead!

I opened it up to see what I could see, and nope. No dangling capacitors or obviously broken soldering. I cleaned the battery terminals and just now put it back together, Still won't come on...

Any suggestions?
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I've got one of these, although a slightly newer iteration... Silly question but have you put something in the input port to turn it on?

I had issues with the battery connectors on mine recently too, needed to reposition them a bit because they'd come loose. Guessing an AC adaptor is out of the question?
 
Hi all,

I highly recommend that you "electric virgins" (and the more experienced electric dabblers) explore this great introduction to ambient guitar (or uke in our case). It is from Premier Guitar this month and might just inspire you to create something new for this great season. I am working on something. But keep getting interrupted.... Hope to post tomorrow at the latest.

Cheers,

Berni
 
I have no electric ukes, so I went for Electric Light Orchestra.

After listening to a few wonderful ukulele covers of this song during the Jeff Lynne theme, I wanted to make a version of my own.



Something went horribly wrong with the audio I recorded, I think my tablet somehow used its own microphone in stead of my USB microphone, so this is the audio from the camera. A bit quiet, but still better.
 
OK so here is my contribution this week. Jim's theme has got me to finally play with the edit settings on my Zoom GX1 N (cheap pedal board) to see how far some of the pre-sets could be converted into something more way out. The inspiration for this was just how many sleepless nights I have been having of late. I can't wait for summer to be over. I always sleep better cuddled up to Carmen under the blankets :eek:

Hope you enjoy:

 
Animals song - Sky pilot. Plugged in tenor uke and plugged in acoustic guitar.
 
An electric version of a Slavic style dance tune (1969) by Kustas Kikerpuu. With Risa stick uke, Fender Mini Twin amp and some effects in Audacity:
 
Hello, Jim! This is a song by Keaton Heston, an English folk rock singer, visual artist and poet, and the scion of a British acting dynasty. I have only just discovered his music this week and he is really worth a listen ... apparently he suffers from anxiety, so rarely plays concerts. I played it on a Godin Multiuke, which has never, previously, been anywhere near electricity and used an Orange Micro Crush mini amp. The photos and the background sounds in the video are from the Gard du Nord.

 
I recently bought a Stagg Les Paul electric uke so the timing of Jim’s theme is perfect - cheers Jim!
Depeche Mode wouldn’t necessarily be an obvious choice for this season, but it’s been at least a few weeks since my last DM cover so this must be if anything a little overdue! When Vince Clarke left them in the lurch after their first album the future looked grim for the band - but up stepped Martin Gore to songwriting duties and the rest is history! Here’s one of my favourite DM album tracks from their first post-Vince LP:



Edit: meant to add that I’ve included a little bit of vid showing the song playing in GarageBand after I’d recorded it. You’ll see all the different keyboard, vocal and rhythm parts, and if you look closely the amp icon on the left shows the electric uke line. I used the GarageBand ‘dreamy texture’ amp setting to achieve the uke sound on this.
 
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I looked for and found this for Ohmless’ recent season, because I have been missing Randy around here. I practiced it but never recorded it in time before I left for somewhere. I don’t remember if it was for work or family anymore, they’ve all blended together this summer. Then I missed Linda’s season because I was on vacation and had no internet... I didn’t even realize until it was already over that this would have been appropriate for her season too. I’ve run it through garage band to make it qualify for this season.

And then I had a Pliny (the Elder. The Younger won’t be out again until this winter).

 
I had recorded another original (this time with lyrics!), but then I thought I'd just do this for fun instead. I'm not quite up to playing it with my teeth yet.

 
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This is a Fairport Convention song written by Richard Thompson.

 
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been working all week on getting a house number together. It will be pretty far out compared to what is normally played with a uke. Had to order a contact mic since the local shop didn't have one available. It is working brilliantly but now I have to learn to strum over the sound hole so you won't hear a constant thud noise from my index hitting the side of the fret board! So there are two songs in the works this week for me that are still to come.
 
a Bill Callahan song
and featuring Kevin riding, driving, amplifying the feeling
as only he can
 
Made my first/own ukulele version of The Ha Dance using the sample of Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd singing in Trading Places. Half of the music was made with a ukulele and manipulated extensively to make a full stereo beat loop.

The video is lo-fi because I didn't want to rip off the original film maker. I highly recommend everyone watch the entire dance off. Here is a link to the original competition in its entirety:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhhd_tEaJEQ&t=212s

Dancing baby added because he was cute!

 
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