Tuesday 23 February 2016

A pink ukulele? You can't be serious! (1)

I'm currently the owner of a pink ukulele. It and I happened to be in the same place - it, unwanted and unloved, hanging on the wall in the reclamation depot attached to our local refuse tip, and I, on the way to the tip, (been watching "Hoarders"... nothing like it for making you want to de-clutter...) was there just for a browse. How could I possibly turn my back on it, an orphan uke - it hadn't even been taken to a charity shop... the price? Just a few pounds. I looked it over, tuned it by ear and had a strum. Nothing wrong with it, the tuners held and you could see it had not really been played - no finger marks on the fretboard at all, though the frets had the first signs of rust. Of course I didn't need it... in a shop, I would not have given it a second look, but it was an unloved orphan and I simply had to adopt it.

So the Little Pink Uke came home with me. I snipped the cheapo strings off, gave the frets a quick rub up (they shine nicely now) and restrung it with a spare set of Aquilas. And then the newly-loved little uke just had to have a name... Annie! Little Orphan Annie! No, I agree, not very original... but then, she won't mind and she won't come when I call her either!

How long she'll stay, I don't know... perhaps she'll become the summerhouse uke, ready to lend out to interested folk... but one thing I didn't really expect - this baby, this little pink Mahalo has perfect intonation - yes, you read that right, perfect intonation - every fret, all the way up the fretboard! No, you don't expect that with a Mahalo, or any cheap ukulele. It just goes to show - what people will throw away.

Round about the same time, I had cause to give some serious thought to the subject of little coloured ukes, and pink ones in particular.

Curious? I hope so! More of that next time. I do like my blog posts bite-sized - easier to write, quicker to read! I suspect that you do, too! Thanks for dropping in!

2 comments:

  1. Brava, anytime I find an orphan uke like this I snap it up for our Ukulele Youth group.

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    Replies
    1. Hey, I got the same Mahalo in blue and I also think the sound is impressive for an instrument that cheap! Pink is really cute though ;)

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