Last Sunday, I was at the Sunday flea market in Amcorp Mall, without anything in mind to purchase. I met Victor, an antique dealer from Penang who had set up base in KL Central Market. He was holding a stringless mini guitar, a cross between a guitar and ukulele, which one can play like a guitar but it sounds like an ukulele. It is getting popular after songs like 'Hey Soul Sister' by Train and many more which use the instrument. I had in mind to buy one, provided it is cheap. Victor offered it to me for Rm70, which was reduced to Rm50. Then I went to Joe's MAC shop to buy the strings (Rm12) and a missing plastic piece at the neck of the guitar which holds the strings. This piece was out of stock and I bought one for Rm5, meant for a normal guitar.
While in Amcorp Mall, I met up with Boey who had a stall there and coincidentally, he was playing his Yamaha guitalele (costed him over Rm300) to the tune of Pearly Shells being played on his record player. He learned and played by ear, and told me that he just played along, sometimes without even knowing the song title! Sometimes, he plays the erhu, guitar or violin at his stall.
Back in PJ house, I tried my hand at stringing the small guitar but found the turning knobs loose and I felt like having bought a dud instrument. The plastic piece which has to be modified was another problem bugging me.
(My mini guitar next to its big brother)
Today, while feeling pessimistic about the instrument, I called up a doctor friend who is very keen on guitars. He suggested I bring it along for him to take a look. He found the turning knobs ok after tightening the screws but they have limitation as compared with those found in guitars. Without the gear for turning as found in guitar, tuning can easily go off and has to be re-tuned. Anyway, to modify the plastic piece, we had to sand it down to the right level which is laborious and I joked about the doctor's charges for doing that! After much effort, he managed to string the guitalele and it sounded reasonable! I went there, feeling hopeless and was so pleased it worked! Of course, while there, he wanted me to listen to his Taylor guitar which he claimed had matured and sounded much better than before. Indeed, even an ordinary guitar would sound better than my guitalele, since I have downgraded to that instrument.
It brought back memories too, but unfortunately, the ukulele we had 30 years ago, was lost in transit when we shipped it, together with our stuff from UK.
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While in Amcorp Mall, I met up with Boey who had a stall there and coincidentally, he was playing his Yamaha guitalele (costed him over Rm300) to the tune of Pearly Shells being played on his record player. He learned and played by ear, and told me that he just played along, sometimes without even knowing the song title! Sometimes, he plays the erhu, guitar or violin at his stall.
Back in PJ house, I tried my hand at stringing the small guitar but found the turning knobs loose and I felt like having bought a dud instrument. The plastic piece which has to be modified was another problem bugging me.
(My mini guitar next to its big brother)
Today, while feeling pessimistic about the instrument, I called up a doctor friend who is very keen on guitars. He suggested I bring it along for him to take a look. He found the turning knobs ok after tightening the screws but they have limitation as compared with those found in guitars. Without the gear for turning as found in guitar, tuning can easily go off and has to be re-tuned. Anyway, to modify the plastic piece, we had to sand it down to the right level which is laborious and I joked about the doctor's charges for doing that! After much effort, he managed to string the guitalele and it sounded reasonable! I went there, feeling hopeless and was so pleased it worked! Of course, while there, he wanted me to listen to his Taylor guitar which he claimed had matured and sounded much better than before. Indeed, even an ordinary guitar would sound better than my guitalele, since I have downgraded to that instrument.
It brought back memories too, but unfortunately, the ukulele we had 30 years ago, was lost in transit when we shipped it, together with our stuff from UK.
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