Archives: Personal

I always say ukulele people are great folks and this story bears that out: A member of our ukulele group, Ukuleles of Paradise wanted badly to play her Dad’s 1916 koa ukulele, but her arthritis in her left (“chording”) hand didn’t permit her to shape the chords. After posting on the Flea Market Music Board for ideas, we settled on the idea of using one of the 1950s-era devices popularized by Arthur Godfrey which strap on the fretboard and allow the player to simply push one “button” to create a chord. I posted a request on the Flea Market Music Marketplace for one of the plastic devices and received an almost immediate reply from Ernie that he had one, in mint condition, that he’d give to Carol if it would help.

While I was out backpacking (see entry below), our oldest son, Matt, finished up the website for Augustino LoPrinzi and got the final okay from Augie and Donna to make the site go “live.” Augie and Donna make some very nice ukuleles (and guitars, too–but it’s the ukuleles that interest me), combining old world luthier […]

I just returned from a week-long, 45-mile backpacking trek with the coed BSA Venturing Crew we volunteer with and wanted to report on ukuleles in the “wilds” of the Trinity Alps (Northern California). Yes–we spotted ukuleles on the trail; two of them were from our group (Tate, one of the hiking Venturers is in “Ukuleles […]