5 beginner baritone ukuleles

Lately I've been thinking a lot about baritone ukuleles.  About 10 years ago, I walked into a music shop in the Kansas City area and found a lonely baritone.  It was used and slightly beat up with a price tag of only $20.  I, of course, took it home with me and it was a real joy to play.  Not knowing a whole lot about ukuleles at the time, I honestly don't remember the brand.  That ukulele ended up in the closet at some point.  It eventually ended up being sold in a garage sale.  Any time I've sold an instrument I always end up regretting it. 

Anyway, I'm starting to think about buying another baritone uke.  There's a lot of great entry level models out there that won't break the bank.  So if you're thinking about getting into the world of baritones, here's 5 starters to consider.

 Lanikai LU-21B Baritone Ukulele

 I actually have the concert ukulele from the LU-21 series and it's a fine instrument.  I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger and grab this baritone from that series.  You can get one new for around $100.  These also come up

Interview w/ Jake Wildwood of Antebellum Instruments

"They don't make 'em like they used to".  It's an old cliché that rings particularly true with Jake Wildwood of Antebellum Instruments.  Jake spends his days fixing up and reviving pre-WWII instruments out of his family's Rochester, Vermont store.  He certainly picked a good name!  The word "antebellum" is a Latin phrase that literally means "before the war".

On the Antebellum Instruments site, you can check out what Jake is currently working on via his running blog (something that I spend WAY too much time looking at).  You also have the opportunity to buy one of these pieces of musical history - ukuleles, banjos, guitars, mandolins, etc. 

There is a group of people in this world that are absolutely fascinating to me - people who have stories and anecdotes to pass along to you...people who seem like they've done it all....people who are just plain interesting.  From my brief correspondence with Jake, I would have to put him in this category.  I enjoyed every bit of his responses to my questions and I hope you will too!

Homemade Resonator Ukulele w/ instructions

Well, I got bored one day and after watching a couple Youtube videos of people playing their own homemade resonator ukuleles, I decided to take my old laminate Harmony ukulele and try this idea out.  This old Harmony uke isn't worth much, so it's become my experiment ukulele...you might have seen this same ukulele show up in some other posts like this one, or this post, or even this post!

Basically, this uke has been through a lot and I am grateful to it for putting up with me.

Anyway, here's what I did to turn it into a resonator ukulele of sorts, complete with a video below of what it sounds like.  In retrospect, I wish I would have found a larger resonator.  While the sound does have that

Vintage Harmony ukulele: replacing a broken bridge

This is sort of a good news/bad news post.  The  good news is that the original tuning machines on this Harmony uke didn't need to be replaced as I originally thought.  They just needed a little tightening up.  The bad news is that when I went to string this sucker up, I heard a brief cracking sound and then a very loud SNAP!  The front part of the bridge must have had a crack that I couldn't see and it gave way under the tension of the strings pressing down and ever so slightly forward on the saddle.  But I guess it's not all that bad...at least now I get to show you

Vintage Harmony Ukulele: replacing the nut

need to do some sanding to get this old glue off

There we go!  Sanded, cleaned up, and ready for a new nut.

The next step to getting this old Harmony uke back into playing condition was to install a new nut.  If you need to replace the nut on your uke, taking off the old one is pretty simple.  Any nuts I've taken off in the past haven't been glued on super well and easily popped off with a pair of pliers and a little bit of force.  There was no nut on this one, which allowed me to skip that step.

As you can see in the first picture, there is still a bit of dry glue where the previous nut was sitting.  This needs to be sanded off before installing the

Vintage Harmony Ukulele: replacing the saddle

with the old saddle removed

Sliding in the new saddle

Just a little bit more....

Hurray

 The first thing that I tackled on this project was replacing the saddle.  The original saddle (not pictured) was a black piece of plastic and was pretty worn.  Not the most desirable saddle choice.  


 I'm happy to have found this uke in a local antique store for $20...but I also don't want to sink a ton

Vintage Harmony ukulele repair project

 I went with my wife and daughter to the antique store yesterday and stumbled upon this vintage Harmony soprano ukulele.  A little info about the harmony company taken from easyukulele.com

The Harmony Ukulele Company went out of business in 1975. Their name, however, is a familiar site to anyone who plays the ukulele. For the greater part of the 20th Century, this name was synonymous with ukuleles for most people. They made both traditional