Or, “How I found the holy grail of ukuleles and took one back home”
I’m sure I’ve lost many of you in the two years since I confessed that I was seriously searching for a second ukulele during a visit to Hawai’i.
Makes sense. I’m not sure I’d have stuck around either after reading that an ukulele player (owner of just one ukulele!) explored the finest ukulele shops Oahu had to offer—with a valid credit card clutched tightly in hand—and yet rejected all the instruments she found.
But (after lots of non-ukulele-related busy-ness and some family health issues) I’m back to tell you “the rest of the story.” And for us ukulele aficionados, it’s pretty darn exciting because it involves one of the holy grail four-stringers: a Moore Bettah ukulele.
A quick recap (or you can just read the details of my ukulele search on Oahu, including stores and models, here): After 10 years of monogamy with my little LoPrinzi soprano, I was ready to play the field a bit. My goal on a 2013 visit to Hawai’i? To find the ukulele to make my fingers dance and my heart sing. I searched from Waikiki’s crowded streets to the North Shore’s big waves. I played dozens of instruments—koa, spruce and lots of every shade of wood color in between—and I rejected them all. As I wrote, “Maybe I’d built up the idea of a ‘second’ ukulele into a dream that was impossible to fit into reality…”
And here’s where the good part really starts…
Mark and I boarded the HawaiianAir inter-island plane in Honolulu and flew on silver wings to Kona’s airport. As always, two things impressed me mightily on this flight: First, with only 40-something minutes in the air, how do those flight attendants get a drink service (POG—that’s passionfruit/orange/guava—or spring water) delivered to each passenger, collect trash and then sit back down in time for the Kona landing? Second, how many first-time visitors to Hawai’i Island cringe in disbelief at the lava moonscape as their plane lands on the Kona side (“Honey, are we really going to be spending seven full days at this place? What were you thinking when you booked this trip???”)?
We’d landed here before so the barren black landscape didn’t worry us. We knew the lava flow near the airport (a pretty recent one as the history of Hawai’i goes) is just a part of what we’d see and experience on the Big Island: there are also jungles, beaches, sparkling water to snorkel in and hillsides carpeted in green forest. We grabbed our rental car (thank goodness this year’s isn’t the eye-catching copper color as was the one Alamo tried to bless us with a few years before; yuck!) and headed to our favorite unit at the Kona Bali Kai.
Unpacking, I was already planning our activities for the next 10 days. Hmmm….surely there’ll be a visit to the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company up in Kawaihae (lots of samples and chocolate macadamia ice cream that makes me forget how many miles I’ll need to run to get rid of the caloric evidence), some snorkeling next to Pu’uhonua O Honaunau (popularly known as Two-Step) and some pre-sunset mai tai trials (choose from Kona Inn, Royal Kona Resort or Quinn’s for my favorites).
Oh, and did I mention ukulele shopping?
Well of course we’d do that. I mean, after just indulging in hours spent looking at headstocks on Oahu, I was certain Mark wouldn’t want to miss doing more of that here on Hawai’i Island. I just knew it. After all, we’ve been married more than 30 years and I know him pretty well. (Note: The being married more than 30 years part comes into play later in the story; don’t forget it.)
This island has its fair share of good ukulele luthiers, but not so many ukulele stores. There are a few music stores with ukuleles, a small shop in Kailua Village and Sam Rosen’s Ukulele Gallery in Holualoa.
Back in 2008, Sam’s place hosted a gala evening celebration staged by the Big Island Ukulele Guild and I’d had the chance to play a number of pretty fine instruments there (see my entry here for pix and an account).
One of those was a very unique two-necked ukulele created by Chuck Moore, of Moore Bettah Ukuleles. My uncoordinated fingers can barely (just barely, mind you) manage an E chord, so I couldn’t even imagine opening my brain up to taking advantage of two fretboards. But it made for a great picture—and in studying the twin-necked instrument, I realized firsthand that Chuck makes some great ukuleles.
So, on the first morning of this visit to the Big Island, I emailed Chuck and asked if he had any ukuleles for sale.
Really. It was that easy—and I was that naïve.
See, I hadn’t really been following all the online chatter about MB ukes on the various ukulele boards. I had no idea Chuck had a multi-year waiting list—and was taking no more names. Period. That he sometimes made a “spec” uke and put it up for sale on his website only to have it sell in mere seconds. That uke folks on the boards waxed eloquently about the instruments but few had the opportunity to see one in person.
Mainly I didn’t understand how impossible it was to lay claim to a Moore Bettah Ukulele, even with a solid credit line on that Visa card.
I didn’t know any of that. So I emailed him. “Do you have any NSB (Chuck’s term for ‘Not So Basic’) instruments around these parts right now for sale? The current economy doesn’t allow for an over the top purchase, but I have been a very good girl lately and have been looking for a while…”
Politely—and pretty darn quickly—Chuck responded. Nope, he had no finished instruments that were ready. He welcomed me to the Big Island and hoped my visit to his home island was a nice one.
That was it.
I sighed and thanked him (via email) for the fast response. I queried if he had any of his instruments available anywhere on the island (in October 2007 I’d seen a custom he called “Taro” at a shop in Kailua Kona).
Another answer spun quickly back. Nope, none of Chuck’s instruments were for sale anywhere. But, he continued, when were we leaving?
Just so happens we weren’t leaving for another week, I told him.
The emails flew between us. It turned out Chuck had two ukuleles which would be available in a week; one (it didn’t matter which of the two) was promised to an ukulele player in Florida. Chuck thought he might have the time during this week to finish both, if I was interested.
And here’s where I showed some ignorant chutzpah—but didn’t even realize it: Both instruments were slotted headstock versions and, in an email, I expressed that I really didn’t like slotted headstocks… “Hi, I know you just gave me a new Porsche, but I really don’t care for the color of the steering wheel, so I think I’ll take a pass…”
Chuck sent photos of both ukes in progress and suddenly I didn’t care a fig if they had slotted headstocks or each headstock with a cutout of a schoolbus on them; both instruments were insanely beautiful. If they sounded as good as their appearance promised, either one would be an ukulele jewel to last a lifetime.
We arranged to meet at an art and craft event held every month in Kailua Village; Chuck’s wife, Bonnie Sargent, is an artist in her own right, designing and creating lovely sterling and precious stone adornments with her line, Aloha Art Jewelry. She and Chuck would travel three hours from their home in the Puna District to display Bonnie’s art at the Kailua Village Stroll event on Sunday (the day before we were leaving Hawai’i). Chuck told me to look for the booth under the big banyan tree in front of Hulihe’e Palace.
“BTW, we are at the show from about noon to 5 or so. Assuming I can finish them, what might be best is that you take them both back to your room and play them for a while. You’ll get a better feel for them rather than having to evaluate them on the street!” Chuck emailed me.
Wowser…not only would I have the opportunity to choose between two great MB instruments, but I’d have no pressure of trying to figure which I preferred (notice that this ukulele purchase has already become a sure thing in my mind, no more ambivalence here!).
The days until Sunday passed in a blur of vacation activities (as in lots of mid-afternoon naps on the lanai, strumming my LoPrinzi softly as the coconut palm fronds whispered in the breeze and just staring out at the azure sea; hmmm, maybe you like a more “active” vacation? Oh, well…). I’d pull up my email to look at the photos of the two instruments, now completed, strung up and ready to play (thanks, Chuck, for the multitude of pix) and try to imagine simply holding and strumming them, let alone owning one.
While I’d met Chuck briefly in 2008, seeing him on this visit provided much more of a connection. We hugged, he and Mark shook hands (that Hawaiian manly way, you know, with the bumping of knuckles and thumb hooking action and everything; ‘glad I’m not a guy, I’d never remember all the steps) and I met Bonnie (what a peach of a lady—a sunny smile and giving heart topped with a halo of curly golden locks).
Then Chuck pulled two ukulele cases from below a table. He opened each. I stared. Then I couldn’t stop grinning.
You would do the same thing.
I’ll use Chuck’s description of each of the ukuleles to give you a “word” idea of them—but this is one of those times when the cliché is simply true: words aren’t enough. So I’ve included lots of pictures. In Chuck’s words:
#1) Milo back and sides. Bear claw spruce top. Curly koa binding everywhere including both sides of the body, headstock and fret board. “Custom” macadamia nut rosette, mac nut fret board and head cap. Plumeria inlays on head stock and fret board extension. Side sound port.
#2) 5A curly koa, ebony bindings, fret board, etc. Side sound port. Royal palm inlay on head stock, honu on fret board extension.
So which would you choose?
I played them both all afternoon. Each boasted a rich, full sound that filled the room. To my simple ear, the koa instrument sounded a bit “fuller” but both exhibited a lively vibrance. I went back and forth, comparing sound, comparing appearance and, really, just reveling in being able to cradle two such exceptional instruments in my arms as I studied them.
At the end of the afternoon, we drove downtown and carried both ukuleles to Bonnie’s booth.
“Well, did you want one of them?” Chuck asked.
“Of course,” I smiled, looking at Mark. This purchase would cost more than all of the Volkswagens we’d bought back in “our early years”—but Mark was totally on board and supportive of opening the checkbook to pay for my ukulele dream. Thirty years of marriage and he still delights in making me happy; I’m not sure there are a lot like him these days…
And that’s how I found myself hugging Mark and my new Moore Bettah ukulele under the spreading branches of the banyan tree in front of Hulihe’e Palace. What could be a happier ending to a Hawaiian ukulele quest?
Oh, and you might have guessed it: I chose the koa. It’s just so classically Hawaiian in sound and appearance. When I’d playfully written out my “want list” for an ukulele years before, I didn’t imagine I’d ever discover an instrument that checked off every point—but this one did it.
Mahalo nui loa, Chuck!
