Electric Guitar Review

I’m Back From The South Pacific

Well, I got in late yesterday from a much needed two-week vacation on Hawaii’s Big Island, and not being content to stay away from a stringed instrument for all that time I ended up picking up a cheap-o ukulele in a Farmer’s Market in Kona for just $12.

Amazingly, the thing actually played quite well, and was made of mostly wood (plywood?) though it did take some minor adjustment to the tuning pegs (tightening) to coax it into staying in tune. I enjoyed playing it so much that I’m now considering picking up a nicer ukulele just to take when I go out of town – it fit right in my carry-on on the plane!

Of course, picking up the ukulele may be a bit of a pain if you’re not the type that’s inclined to enjoy the challenge of learning your way around an entirely foreign tuning set-up (I had no idea how to tune my ukulele correctly, but my friend Ray & I came up with a scheme that worked fairly well.)

Did you know that ukuleles are tuned higher in the 1 & 4 string positions, and lower in the 2 & 3? It takes some getting used to, for sure, but is well worth it if you can’t live without a bit of fretting when you’re away from your main guitar. Of course, a good travel guitar would work too, but I haven’t had much experience with any of these…

Do any of you have recommendations for a well-built travel guitar? I’d love to hear about it.