21.19 Cornerstone Ukulele w Peter Marreiros

i'll tell you seriously one thing i want to get paid for my work but money is really not that important you know it really isn't i mean that's what i'm trying to get away from that i have to make this much money or i can't survive and that's pressure that i've been with raising four kids oh yeah four kids in california with a wife that doesn't work and homeschooling we pay she paid we paid for everything she homeschooled four kids god bless her because it's so hard to work oh it's so hard like me and my sister so yeah mom like gave up everything from the moment we were boring it's hard yeah it's really difficult i don't know i couldn't do it it's like i don't know it's like because you have like that's probably the hardest job in the world is to be a mom you guys just really love your kids i mean you've got it because if it was me like look hey i gotta go somewhere away from you guys for a little while every time my wife went out and i kept i stayed home with the kids i'm like how do you do this i mean i mean i love my kids and and one kid is one thing and two kids is one thing but four kids and you with them every single minute of the day no wonder she hates me [Laughter] yeah so i was like i appreciate my wife a lot oh no because how many kids you have just two just two but they're at twosies they're they're pretty crazy uh because they just they're close in age and they fight all the time and when she was she used to work at ko aloha ukulele and i would watch them for like a game okay i get it i get it right it's a real job it's a real job and they saw a side of me that they i hope they don't ever see again where else did that side no no it was like the raging [Laughter] i don't think it was that bad what we did uh yeah so are we my dad are we filming or just voice no no this film okay yeah all right so thank you so much peter for coming down peter marreros my pleasure um builds the cornerstone ukuleles that we've been featuring over the past few months here just breathtakingly amazing to the eyes and the ears i think cory and clay can agree with me here oh yeah some of the best thank you all right so you're making some of the best dukes out there okay so how'd you get here well it's um pretty interesting story actually um i actually went and visited a friend of mine that i actually started and taught how to build guitars back in december 2018 i believe it was or maybe 2019 and then he was leading a class and how to build a ukulele and i just went to visit and then i was looking at it and just curious i said you know this is kind of a cool instrument not knowing much about it and i said maybe i'll build one and that was it then about a couple months later we had a trip planned we flew down to maui we stayed here for 10 days not here but in hawaii and i decided to research ukulele while i was here let me learn a little more about it and the first thing that struck me portuguese originated him and i was like are you serious i'm portuguese i'm portuguese i mean this is some this is like a a sign yeah yeah and um i said you know what i think i'm gonna try it because i'm a good i've been building guitars for you know 17 years or something like that yeah so as you're saying you were um you actually worked for mercedes-benz and at the same time you're building right right i worked for mercedes-benz for about 13 years and and infinity for about seven oh nice right and um and then i was building maybe five six guitars a year so when i decided to build ukulele i remember i spent 10 days here did a lot of research on the ukulele and then when i got home i said you know what i'm going to try to build one so i called my friend dennis and i said um okay well tell me what's the deal with the scale length and what's the deal with the size and what's up with the concert and tenor and baritone and soprano because i didn't know anything about it right i still don't know a lot about it it's very still very new to me but i kind of knew how to put wood together you know that i had that part down yeah because i mean you're already feeling good so um so i got home and he told me well you should build tenor because that's the most popular size and the scale length is it converted from millimeters to inches approximately 17 inches and um and you should look at this and that and i said i don't want to look at anything i just want to start from scratch i don't want to take anyone else's ideas i just want to make my own cornerstone ukulele so i did so i i got my computer out and i drew out a shape that i kind of like which is based on one of my guitar models called the zion which is very round and it's got very tight waist because i like that you know the tight waist look more um and um so i so i built six of them and i built them all differently different um different bracing patterns to see what i liked and what sounded better oh so you did a lot of experiments yeah i did a lot of r d i did a lot of uh on computer r d my skill length ended up being a little bit longer because i was trying to mess around with bridge placement because i i believe that if i move the bridge a little bit more towards the center of the cone which comparing it to a speaker i thought that that would sound better and that it led me to a longer scale by 0.35 inches so a lot of mathematics were involved in that so so basically my neck width and the shape and the shape of the body and bracings and all that stuff is pretty much my own take and up until today to be honest with you i mean i i've it's impossible to avoid right when you're in the business so i've seen a lot of ukuleles online but first-hand experience with high-end ukuleles i really can't say that i have any up until today that i got to see some but try to build something that you know my son had a an expensive ukulele from china probably 75 and i kind of didn't like the sansana too bright and too tight to me and i've always liked a woody woodsy warm resonance open open i don't like tight i don't like very bright sorry that's me sound like that what's that it's really loud it's really rough yeah i like resin i like warm i like something that makes you think that's wood and nuts any other material right yeah yeah i like that so i kind of been refining my bracing patterns and um and doing a lot of trial and error and i've and i've been trying to reinvent myself right invent what i do and okay this one sounded good let's see if i can fine-tune the next one a little bit better so that's my kind of my take on on on building because i believe my objective was to build a ukulele like no other and and again i i i say this very often not in the presumptions because i don't want people think oh this guy thinks he's the best but i wanted to make something that was mine you know everything i mean a ton of high intervals that come through here and yours is still very very unique it's it's not comparable to right oh as far as like quality you know it's comparable to like a lot of the high-end stuff but as far as like your design and stuff it's very different right and that's what i was trying to do i wanted something if you hung up on the wall you could stand out good or bad but be different right something that that spoke for itself you know yeah yeah and then a way to express myself artistically it's beautiful i mean your designs are gorgeous thank you um with the bracings and stuff how how has that developed well um it's been you know my approach and again it's kind of what works for me what i was trying and there's many ways you know to uh to slice it but i'm a firm believer that stiffness and lightness is what you're looking for a perfect example is a symbol right for a drum set they're very very stiff very very thin and but they ring forever right so so i believe that we need to have a soundboard that's very reinforced very strong but weight is the enemy and how do we overcome weight so that was kind of my principle i need to reduce mass without reducing strength of the braces so and of course i couldn't have done that in one shot because maybe it wouldn't have made it right so i did it gradually so every ukulele i made i kind of took a little bit more more away or changed the shape or you know it's because now my braces are hollowed out laser cut and all that but it was a process of like 20 or 30 ukuleles that gradually got there yeah that's a lot of them yeah so every one of them i kind of tested and measured the strength how many pounds it could take and how much did they weigh and i kind of did that gradually until i got to the point now that i um that i'm happy with for now that might change tomorrow yeah it's interesting with that style of building too because it's like more from a computer design standpoint of refinement versus like you know working that individual instrument from like are you altering the braces after they're no i have a i have a system that um i know what i expect for tensile strength and how much deflection the sound board should have right so a soundboard has certain amount of deflection before it's braced and he has a certain amount of deflection after its brace because the braces are there to counteract that deflection so i know that i have an arbitrary system which is my braces they're always the same and now what i need to do to make sure that the deflection is the same is change the thickness of the soundboard so basically i know what i'm achieving what i'm looking for in terms of how much deflection the sunboar has so i was wondering because like when i built it was more like the braces were part of the equation right of change so you kind of take that out of the equation and right from there right interesting yeah i'm looking for something so i know that the braces are not going to give anymore because i think they're at the limit so now if if my sound board is not stiff enough then i'll leave it a little bit thinner a thicker and if it's too stiff then i live i make a little bit thinner so i have a range of about 20 or 30 or 40 thousands even so my sound boards are not very thin like majority of people assume i think that the braces play a much more important part in the sound so i my soundboards are actually fairly thick by comparison i'm looking at about 80 to 100 thousands even of an inch yeah a finished uh thickness we like it yeah thank you so what did you bring us over today well i brought three very special ukuleles um this is probably the only time i'm gonna do it because it was a lot of work but so these ukuleles are based on a passion of mine do we have three we have two okay that one is already sold yeah so colleen and andrew didn't get to didn't even open it and look at it yet i mean i i opened it a little bit earlier and kelly got to see it he didn't get to try it but i got a sneak peek yesterday oh i didn't i didn't know that we were waiting for the you know the big reveal boxing with a big big reveal wow which one i want to go out first so i'll give you a little bit of the story let me get this out here really quick black and white ebony or something mm-hmm so so here what we have here is um so i'll tell you a little bit of what i was looking for when i came up with this um there's a little pamphlet here that explains uh kind of like can i check out the pamphlet absolutely there's a papers inside there so basically to make a long story longer um there's this these tribes ancient tribes in um in the four corners i'm sorry i said i love it already right so there's these these tribes called pueblo people in the four corners of the u.s so colorado nevada arizona and new mexico and they were called the anasazi the anasazi is an ancient it's a navajo word for ancient people and they lived as far back as 1200 bc these people were geniuses of the day they were probably the first people that used bow and arrows and every one of those pueblos had very distinctive arts specifically what it intrigued me and i really liked was the people of the tularosa basin in new mexico they made these pottery clay designs with very nice intricate iconograph based designs with animals and sons and it almost reminds me of polynesian designs is that what is right that's what that is and um but the thing that really caught my eye is that they were called the ancient tularosa from the tularosa basin and they were famous to make those designs which are called black on white from all the tribes only the ones in tularosa had that black on white which is a an art that they did and when i was trying to when i was thinking about using this because this is my favorite soundboard material ever ancient spruce and i was thinking ancient spruce ancient people black on white black and white i thought i got to do something like that because i i just love it yeah so you went all out with the theme right right and that's exactly what i had in mind i wanted i want to do something that this tree was alive during the same time period 1200 bc yeah speaking of tree did you make this paper as well it's handmade but i did not make it i'm not going to take credit i thought i was like wait this is this is handmade paper i buy it yeah someone makes it for me but oh wow i wish i could i know how to make that's the next name i'll learn how to make but so that's what i had in mind so what i try to do is i build three of them a series of three and they're all different but they're all used primarily inlays made of materials that are native to new mexico so this one which is the fanciest of all three is in inlaid with arizona jade that that can be found in new mexico and arizona and it's got the inlays on the soundboard on the fretboard on the headstock on the sides and on the back wow and that was a lot of work and then we have that the typical sun that's also has a center made out of the same material and that design of that is that um that's all native from the from the anasazi people then you have some of that inside i don't know if you can see it or not it's very hard to see and then i also have that half sail inlay which is made of white turquoise that's also engraved with the same type of design and also i have the logo and jasper which is another native stone and then uh just to stay with the theme of black and white i have a really nice piece of uh black curly maple you guys probably seen this one in the different color because i saw it like oh my and then you have also the side dots is also jade and then i i thought that the black and white buttons would do a nice complement to the theme so so basically have a a sound board has been carbon dated to 28 150 years we have the certificate that's included with which with each one of them and then it states all the data is here right and then so i would venture to say that this is the rarest wood on earth there's only one tree found and once that's gone it's gone and then um black and white ebony and all the fancy stuff like every aspect of the ukulele is just i mean can you hold up the head for me to just get us and talk about you're etching all of that yes that's all hand done it's all hand done with the machine how does that work it's just carved it's carved and then it's filled with resin ah right with black resin and then you also have you guys probably seen this before my this is my um in-house compensated darkened and um hardened bone material for both the nut and saddle and this one looks like granite but it's actually bone is that just regular bone it's ox bone yeah but it's a song it's ox bomb it's it's a six month process to uh stain it and to harden it so it's uh it weighs um about um almost twice as the raw material so it's a lot denser and harder oh it's a lot better than yes regular bone right wow right yeah you have a better balance of sound because otherwise the difference between an open string and a fretted string there's a big difference in sound this way i get a little bit what's what is your take on on that type of like um saddle like as far as like it being heavier and denser than the normal material yeah i just think that it's um the the string contact placement is very important i think if the harder i mean if i could machine it out of titanium i probably would do it that would be pretty sick yeah it's just probably very hard to make yeah but no i like the way it sounds i think it does make a difference in the sound and it kind of lessens the difference between an open string and a freddie strength that's pretty interesting yeah wow it looks really cool too it looks nice beautiful looks like stone i love it and then you also have the the tail it's also have the same uh to one of their designs so i don't know if you can see it or not from top to bottom the whole thing is just decked out and then here you probably can't see but the bridge has got a little engraved piece here in there this one is a little fancier than the other ones um where's that it's right here on the bridge on the side of the bridge wow so that's one of them that is insane it's good things you gave us an insight on the whole thing of every part of the of the ukulele because it's not just you you built it just just because right there's a theme and a story and a reason and the way everything ties together and that's what i was looking for i was looking for a way to tie the black and white and the ancient spruce and all the shades of of black and white basically you know yeah i mean a lot of people um that i've dealt with that are just like there's snobs against you know high high-end stuff they're just like you know they just do it just because right you know it's just because it's fancy this and that it's like oh no i mean these ukuleles have a story behind it right right like a legit story and it's like right you want to check where the wood came from i mean like there's like a certificate right right no i wanted this to have a story that it's not just like i've got a few pieces of wood together you have this pamphlet that comes with everything and it's like oh no you didn't just build it just because i mean yeah holy crap a lot of thought put into these what talk about this one in your hands okay so this one basically um this one is basically similar to the other one the only difference that this one has abalone inlays all throughout instead of having a stone because i try to make make all three diff completely different so every one of them has a different um rosette and different inlays except for the for the half sail inlay there but so basically really nice set of black and white ebony you have the abalone all the way around not on the sides on this one and then you have the turquoise in the center of the sun there and from that point on it's pretty much the same uh selection of woods so this wood is uh 2 85 as of 2012 my math sucks so another nine years yeah yeah but i think it's give or take 30 years on that certificate oh yeah so i mean it has what do you think of the sound it's like ear candy but [Music] it's so loud so what do you think of the sound of this uh these this wood combo when you put it together personally yeah oh i think it's my favorite yeah yeah ancient spruce it's it's a very special material it's like spruce on steroids it really is great it's it's it's denser it it even machines differently than a regular screws it's more like a powder when you when you carve it it's it's wow it's it's incredible yeah oh it's beautiful i thought it was like [Music] at least like a it sounds like a cedar yeah it's like really warm right yeah i mean i guess it's it's that old and you know it's pre pre-aged so this is the kind of flagship of this little series or yes yeah the difference is that jade it's more expensive and also the the in place on the back and sides oh sorry oh yeah [Music] what was your thought with the sideboard just kind of the shape just kind of like breaking it up you know i do that shaping all of them the shape for the south port i mean for these ones yeah no no no just in general like what was your thought with the shade um i just didn't want a hole yeah i just wanted something more artistic yeah yeah i like it yeah i had figured that was the case yeah i used to do all kinds of different ones but then i kind of like this one and i just settle with it unless somebody else wants something different wow [Music] uh do they both just this this one this one has kind of a sun a burst right to the finish yes oh yeah i forgot to mention that very [Music] beautiful [Music] do do [Music] dang what you think it's warm exactly like how you you said you like to build your issues and that's kind of like the the sound that like like corey and i as players actually really really appreciate when you get to play an instrument because like we feel that there's more con you have more control like the type of emotion and um also the overall tone when you're playing so like a warm full sound is actually like very very important to me right you know and to me this yeah i was looking at cheese and just a projection like i didn't really have to really play hard at all it was mainly just playing gentle just real nice yeah it's like when you don't have to try and everything's coming out the way you want it to that's what you should be looking for in an instrument if you're a player collector or just someone that's getting into a music right [Music] this is amazing thank you [Music] especially this is so comfortable the armrest [Music] you know i had to run downstairs to uh i went and grabbed some ice for my laptop because it was already starting to make sound with the fan so i missed like that first part right after i asked i feel kind of bad right after i asked my first question but um so i i i just say that because i don't know if i'm um being redundant here but like are you still building guitars no i have stopped building a i'm focusing on the ukulele primarily oh amazing do you find that you enjoy building ukuleles more nowadays or is it just kind of like you know i think i think you know i think the ukulele brought something to me which was uh something new you know some excitement you know you built you make the same thing over and over and because i started from scratch and it's a hundred percent mine contrary to to to guitar when i started building guitars i didn't know anything so i had to pick something that i like and go after someone's designs and ideas and principles and i think that going starting fresh with the knowledge of how to build something with a completely new instrument allowed me to express myself in a different way and that's what i enjoy i enjoy being able to do something completely different yeah and do what i love to do and the freedom and the freedom right and and just bring something fresh into this world of the ukulele because because i wanted to make something different you know some that that stood out and i i absolutely am in love with building ukuleles that's awesome because these are very different and they they stand out too yeah it's you know i tell people that's my passion to build it actually actually it's more like a disease it just wouldn't sound very good on my website yeah you were telling me before we got rolling how it's like you don't you you know it's long hours but like you don't consider it work right it's it's different when you're doing something you really love it's it's long hours when you realize it's long hours you don't even notice the time just flies by so fast you know it's it's great you know it's it's very rewarding to have something in the end when you're finally done that you're you know that it's like exactly what you envisioned because it's it's hard you envision something and a lot of times it doesn't come out the way you want it and i feel like i i i'm for me at this particular time i think that they're coming out exactly the way i want them you know i had this thing in mind especially with these uh the tularosa series what i envisioned it's it's kind of what it turned out i'm very happy with the way they turned out beautiful thank you it's very impressive yeah i mean and your your love translates you know your passion for your work yeah thank you yeah i mean is do you have more there's no more of this wood no i have more of this wood so what do you do you have any other themes in the future yes there's a lot of themes a lot of things going on interesting i'm always a few steps ahead and sometimes it's a problem because i'm halfway done with one i'm already thinking the next three yeah yeah i have a few things where does that come from i don't know it's maybe i'm not very ocd with anything except building you know i'm always trying to reimagine or reinvent something or the way i do something or when i build design something i think oh maybe i should do this and so that that leads me to the next thing that i'm building so i already have three or four others in the bench with some inlays i'm actually following up with the bluebird so that's the first of a series of birds that are going to be coming out in the next few months so oh cool so every couple of months you're going to see a new set of radical looking wood with a different bird on the soundboard very cool yeah thank you we will be excited to share them with people as they come together absolutely all right corey sample this bad boy i don't have anything in mind so i'm just gonna kind of noodle oh the scrolling at the headstock is [Music] crazy [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] it sounds a little bit different than the blue bird though huh it's got like a little bit more bite to it maybe a lot more bite and there's a different kind of fullness i guess it's that aged super aged spruce that just changes yeah this wood combo is like primo for sustain too huh yeah that's super dense right black and white ebony i have a more betta with that wood for the side and back that's my favorite yeah it's one of my favorite woods yeah absolutely it's so beautiful so exotic looking yeah it's like art in itself right right it really is kind of wonder what happened when like the first guy cut it down they looked like what the hell is this what's wrong with this isn't the ebony that i read so yeah i mean tonally it's very powerful it's very articulate it's um it's gonna pack a lot of overtones yeah it's packing a lot yes a lot [Music] but i find that it it like has it retains more clarity than like a rosewood side and back like you still get really good articulation it's deep but yeah it's not you can play really loud and everything just comes through really nice [Music] because even up here it feels really comfortable i i can place my thumb wherever i need to yeah because the taper is there's not a lot of taper it starts it doesn't get a lot thicker at the tape was very it's only a hundred thousands but uh the net the heel is very there's a lot of access from that short hill yeah it's easier to reach back there yeah it's interesting here it doesn't like get in the way at all yeah look you i remember we had the conversation like well yeah initially i was like i don't know about but then i got it i was like oh this is cool yeah that's all you have to say it in person yeah yeah yeah well you're you're not as amazing of a photographer as you are a luthier i know i don't even want to take pictures anymore if the seniors i'm embarrassed oh man i tell you when you have instruments like this it's truly a joy because i'm just like oh gosh this is gonna be fun to picture they're so gorgeous just yeah i'm looking forward to see more fun playing them yeah well of course i mean once this thing got in my hands if you notice i haven't stopped noodling the whole entire time why don't you guys try to jam something together on these two man that scotch is good gh5 yeah [Music] i gotta say i'm super impressed with the you guys is playing it's just like [Music] and that's what makes me so happy to see the end result when someone's playing it can be beautiful music that's what it's all about you know i tell you something one of my friends i sent them a video of one a ukulele that that you and uh mika played i don't remember which one it was but he make it played for us and he played last and she's a musician and she texted me back and said that song brought tears to my eyes oh yeah that's how emotional she being a musician she doesn't play with coalition plays piano and flute but she could feel the emotion through the music and that's like priceless this this instrument translates it very well yeah it's priceless you know it's in a music it's like i mean sometimes unless the music gives me goosebumps you know you feel that emotion oh yeah the player conveying that emotion you know it's [Music] [Music] i think you have adam what's his name dell adam dell something i showed you that he's that flamenco player del monte you know peter's been up since 3am oh it's all good remember i'm in california time so that's good [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] oh yeah like that i want to kind of get the inside a little bit so you you have some laser engraving on the back here too right just in the center seam and the uh and a couple labels in there can you see inside yeah so and and so the you're like your transverse braces and your back braces and all they're all they're all cut for that mass reduction that you talked about right right very interesting yeah man it seems to be working good yeah i like it so far but you know i'm always changing stuff yeah yeah you know the ukulele world is lucky to have you now as one of the top dogs making some killer killer instruments and though us here at the ukulele site we're super blessed to have met you so uh thank you yeah yeah you yeah well i promise that i won't be stagnant there's always going to be something fresh and new and interesting very cool that's what i aim for i don't want to want to keep on getting better and better and offered new interesting things and challenge myself because that's really what it's all about yeah but yeah i mean um every time you make a new creation it's it's another data point right right so these ones are spectacular do you feel comfortable giving it away to somebody i feel like if you put so much work in i'm always very careful make sure they have no watch and no belt [Laughter] use a humidifier right right have you kept some for yourself i have the number one that i built no that's the only one that i have yeah wow i feel like after all the work i just would be like nah i think i'm just going to keep it i mean i would give it to you like a player and the builder because none of my work would like everything [Music] boss [Music] all the way up the neck too like you play up here everything is just clear and loud cornerstone has like a biblical significance right like the foundation huh that's what it is yeah the base of everything nice well it seems like you've got a solid foundation of understanding of woods in lu3 coming into the ukulele world even though you're relatively new that's why you know you've been able to have good success so far at you know very high-end custom rates thank you yeah it's like your your guitars i mean of course you have to have that kind of approach and how to make something sound good not just of good quality but right right well i think i think that guitar was for me a very good teacher right because guitar is what taught me how to do woodworking right because i mean you can be a really good woodworker and ukulele might not sound good because it's not it's not related to how good you join wood together right it's other things so i think you know the 17 years of building guitars kind of taught me how to you know do some woodwork and it's and it's obviously something i love to do and i'm passionate about and i'm very dedicated and meticulous but starting from from a clean slate that's kind of what inspired me to be able to start fresh and and kind of knowing what affects the sound what impacts the sound and kind of try to have it something a goal in mind rather than just saying well let's put it together and let's see how it sounds because it would be kind of pointless if you you have the end product and it just doesn't doesn't sound good right let's say oh cool i made a piece of art that you know supposed to just be able to play it right right so well i've seen that before we all have but it's like you understand all the the fundamentals of building it on why things are built a certain way and how to exactly sound good yeah the way i build and i think there's there's many thought processes and and of course everyone there's there's so many things that affect sound and you can change one or the other and get some maybe you can get the same end result but for me i kind of my own approach works for me and uh so that's kind of like what i was trying to do i'm trying to get some that i that was lively warm and uh i think i got close oh man lively you're doing good buddy thank you it's very exciting getting these and there's time and you're like oh we're getting new cornerstones and like yes awesome once you said they were like well stay tuned by new uh i am building uh a superintendent mine is going to be called tenor plus it's cool yeah it's a tight it's a i mean i've already have a long skill as it is that is longer than normal but it's slightly shorter than your typical 19-inch scale because i want to build 19 inches doesn't put the bridge where i want it yeah i had to come up to 18.75 inches which gives me one and a half inches longer and i think that extra one and a half inches of tension is really going to make a difference so i have this really nice is that what you built for chemo yeah that's what i'm building for chemo that's crazy um i was uh i had kala built me a custom uke and i was like i like the super tenor which is like 19 inch and then i was playing a lot of like uh you know kangalia and kamaka makes a long neck and i realized like the the fret spacings for like some of the cards i like to do two stretches it's too much i was like can you guys do an 18 inch and when i when i first played i was like this is this is what a super tender long neck tenor should be it should be 18 yeah shouldn't be that much yeah that's what your collar was right yep see the thing is to me and again when i told this to andrew i don't build anything and a lot of times it's intentional you know i try to be if something is the way it's supposed to be let's say i built three ukuleles normally the number one is the best one right if you're making one really good so the number one is the best one and all the other ones that are a little less mine is the number two because i i always try to be a little bit off just the way i think you know probably not something wrong with it but um when someone told when chemo told me i want a 19 inch scale and of course this is off the record but why 19 inches who came up with that number why 19 because it's an arbitrary number because see 19 inches might work for me because of my body design but it might not work for you right and um i mean i can tell you why it's 19 but why because it's two inches longer well that's what the kamaka baritone was originally and then i think like for a lot of them they would tune those up oh okay yeah and so that kind of became the oh okay that makes sense right but see again that was previous like their baritone is now 20 inch scale i don't i mean you know that's my yeah and it's possible but again if you think about it's an arbitrary number of people sure for some reason it's 19 oh let's make them all 19 but that's no real yeah i've always thought that too this is math i mean music is math right scales is math yeah compensation is math right all these these things and a lot of people that just what's your super tender 19 inch okay mine is 19 inches it might not work for you yeah it's like why right why what does that do to your bridge what does that do to your compensation what does that do to all these factors because even the sound hole i mean and a lot of people tell me i love you son well never seen anything like that that was an after thought because i was looking at it like man i need more real estate on the soundboard the sound that i need needs more sound i didn't want to do no sound hole because i like the look of the soundhole so how am i going to have my so i because i had my first ones at 9 20 frets so i reduced it to 19 frets and i squished the sound hole into an oval and moved it up and that gave me about one inch more real estate on the sunboard and the bigger the soundboard the more vibrating vibration you have but the size and the shape of your sound hole is gonna have a factor too right right everything effects yeah yeah so what you came to or where you're at right now is quite nice no i like the way and i'm skeptical of the longer scale that you and chemo thinks is perfect or you know like because i don't know i like the warmth of this regular tenor scale like as you go longer with the regular tenor tuning or the regular ukulele tuning like to me you lose a little bit of i mean while you gain a little bit of like volume volume and maybe sustain you like lose a little bit of warmth and rich but you know why because you're shooting that bridge towards the tail and that's what affects the brightness the more you send that bridge if you do a 12 fret ukulele if you just change it to a 12th fret the bridge gets closer to the tail you get a whole lot brighter right right if you do a 15 fret right then you get a lot warmer so well no but it also has to do with the nature of the scale length and the tuning well for chemo is different because he dropped tunes so he needs the extra tension yeah so it's kind of evening out right so he's gaining more real estate for his fingers and still keeping the same tension on the strings right so if you do drop tunings because i used to do that on the guitars just longer scales or or alternate yeah i mean going to be a cool model but i s yeah i'm not sure like it would be as popular as your tenor is now well we'll see you've been skeptical from day one yeah i mean it's not it's not that i'm skeptical it's just like i i enjoy shooting stuff back and forth with you and no i listen i'm all i'm all here yeah and i actually can i see that just for one second because that one has got your brace in there you know that right oh it's not this one oh oh you got the oh no because i put an aperture i put a transverse brace on one of them remember yeah yeah oh yeah when we were talking about uh i guess that ended up with sean but it sounded really good too anyway yeah yeah yeah well no it's fun to like have somebody like you that's like open to the dialogue and still kind of developing and creating right at such a level you you had um you had mentioned that like some of your early like learning process you did along with uh kevin ryan right yeah well i started it's it's kind of a funny story because you know you know what sometimes things just fall into place it's like you couldn't have it couldn't have been a coincidence type of a deal and it's kind of like how it happened with kevin because uh you know kevin lives about a quarter mile from me we're same city yeah same city and you know california is a big place and i remember early 2000 four maybe 2003 i was posting some pictures online and someone said oh you oh you're in westminster you probably you're neighbors with kevin ryan at the point i didn't know what ryan guitars were and you're building guitars and i'm building guitars exactly but i just started with acoustics maybe a year a year and a half ago or so back then so i said i said well close to kevin ryan i mean california is a big place and it's just cause in california i mean you're cool right right somebody there's a trillion people between us and then i'm like who uh who's kevin wright anyway so i went online and searched kevin ryan i'm like westminster california like wow that's kind of and then i looked the address and um i used to go to a church on like a couple miles from my house and sure enough his shop is behind that church and well that's a bit of coincidence but anyway so that was that so then my son at at that time my oldest son in we started with a little league baseball guess who's on this team kevin ryan and his son what oh my goodness right so kevin ryan so this is so his son yeah exactly his son was playing in the same team as my son little league and we you know we got us we started uh we got to know each other and it led to a a long-term relationship and uh it was tough because you know i've seen a lot of builders especially more with guitars than within ukuleles because obviously i have a lot more time with guitars but but as far as craftsmanship a lot of builders they they built something and they're so proud of their outcome right they just finished an instrument and and they're so excited that they were able to make it but in comparison it's it falls short right because they have nothing to compare it against they're comparing it against their own that's an accomplishment and for me the biggest help that i had from kevin ryan besides a lot of troubleshooting because you know there's a lot of problems when you learn start learning to build is that when i met him he was he probably still is the number one builder in the world he's just an amazing builder right but when i when i met him and i got to spend some time with him and his shop and um i had something that to me and it's still today it's a perfect instrument there's no flaws right as far as craftsmanship is concerned it's just a perfect instrument and and it gave me a goal okay i need to achieve this it's not like i'm not going to be happy with this because this is just the normal i need to be at this level which is that type of crap but you had to see where right i needed you right it's interesting because like yeah like once like certain world records are broken then like a bunch of other right it's like right we need that point to right you know you need a goal you need something to strive for and and um and of course when i started i mean kevin ryan had a laser cutter and cnc machine and all kinds of stuff that i didn't have right so i had to kind of try to get there by means of using my hands right and and getting there which was fine you know i mean i rather know how to do it by hand because if a machine fails i can still do my job right so so that kind of that was the first key to have an objective a goal okay i want to i'm striving to this type of perfection that he has with his instruments and he's been very generous i mean at the time early 2000s he had just had created the ryan style bevel and it was it's very hard to do very complicated and with the ports and stuff in it that was before the ports and um and no one knew how to do his bevel and i and kevin took the time to sit with me and do one and show me how you do it it's a very complex it's different right it's very different it's a lot harder to do so he spent a lot of time with me and anytime i had a problem i just run to his shop and he helped me troubleshoot and that was for me i think that kind of curbed a lot of the learning curve you know there's a big learning curve and i think being friends with him and and having a lot of his mentorship just kind of help me accelerate that learning curve and have some this quality to strive for because his instruments are you know superb so that was one thing that really really helped and uh inspiration right i mean yeah so i mean i feel like it takes like like a whole community of like minds to like come out with the best thing you know right like i don't think like the best happens in a bubble on its own on an island you know like to be able to and and i mean like what coincidence and beautiful circumstance because back then when you met kevin it wasn't as much of an online community of people sharing ideas and all this kind of stuff like people have now but um but yeah that's one of the cool things about now is that you know we can kind of collaborate ideas see what other people are doing and like just be aware of it and like experiment within you know our own push each other he pushed me a lot and i think i pushed him a little bit too i remember bringing some guitars to show him and i think i was one of the first people actually was the first person introduced uh cinco redwood to him back when synchro wasn't anything that luthiers were using you know introducing redwood to kevin right right he built he built his first guitar called the ghost at a beautiful set of brazilian rosewood cinco redwood oh my god it was a very expensive in a 30 000 guitar or so but i remember i used to bring guitars to show them and i said look at these sound ports you got to make a sound port it makes a big difference he goes i don't know if i like to drill a hole on the side of a guitar and i think at the time i was probably one of the first people i built a guitar for my wife and for a sound port i had a flower her name is jennifer i had a flower that was a sample as a flower and the stem was a j and because i didn't want to just just make a hole in the side of the guitar i wanted to put some element of art in there and i brought it to kevin and i kept bringing him guitars with some parts on him as well that's nice and then one day he calls me and he goes oh you got to come over here i got to show you something and that's when he designed those fluted bevels this the sun ports on the bevel which i think is just a great idea you know you do i've always looked at it like yeah but your arm goes over it so what's the point in the portrait it actually doesn't it actually doesn't go over it doesn't cover it is that at a point where it's just it it just it's more towards the waist it's on the waist side now it's i think it's a great idea it's very functional it looks different it looks super cool and then the element of coolness that's also something that's something yeah no i mean like you look at it and you're just like dang that's like guitar level right you know right right right and that guy's invented a lot of stuff he's a very smart man it has definitely been a big help uh for me and my career yeah i think just for the guitar community at large you know helping uh push the envelope there oh absolutely yeah he did push the envelope he's still pushing the envelope and and as you are and now focused on the ukulele community to like bring this caliber you took the time to find all the stuff for the inlays what was used for right i mean even it comes down to like the design of the this is the sun yes sonia yeah i mean it's not just that it's a beautiful and amazing sounding instrument it has like some real thought and like real it's a real unique character to the fact that this is ancient spruce you know yeah there's a finite amount of this wood that's available and it's quite amazing yeah i love it i think it's just so iridescent and i always shimmery all spruce should be ancient then it wouldn't be rare yeah i guess right i mean it took me as long almost to make this is to make a ukulele you know this has so many takes the whole everything is decked out completely decked out well what's in there so in here you have basically three of their um black on white pottery designs then you have some rocks that have been engraved with some of those designs too then inside you have um the list of materials and here you have the you know the common name and then the scientific names right below then you have a little bit of history on those people and then you have my piece of history what led me to build this and why how everything ties together this is actually a picture from their some of the walls they used to make the cliff dwellings and some other stone walls and then inside here you have your like corey showed earlier you have your certificate of authenticity for the wood that's been carbon dated and then you have the cornerstone certificate that comes with our instrument handmade paper handmade paper not handmade by me unfortunately that's my next project cornerstone paper like recently uh i've been watching videos on like how paper is made and i saw this i was like wait this is this is handmade paper if you make it i'll buy it she's signing with the quill exactly oh so that's my story i'm sticking to it oh it's awesome that's a good incredible thank you i'm excited there's a lot of nice stuff coming out yeah we're gonna we're gonna have a blast showing it as it comes out but these ones are one-of-a-kinds and to never be seen in this configuration again that's what's so special about these kind of customs this is not like factory work this is one person putting their thought and dedication and heart and years of you know their lifetime of experience into these creations and they'll never be created again in this fashion and i love them i mean from the first time i saw it like i saw i saw your engraving at the headstock and i was like holy crap that is one of the coolest things i've ever seen it's really nice yeah how many how many hours you say what went into this you know what i i tell the truth i'm not sure because i've had so much r d for the inlay work i mean i've made probably three or four rosettes before i actually made them before i said right i don't like that one or redo it um but i probably think that i mean if i was to total these ukuleles have probably a well over 107 hours of work wow yeah i mean everything was a lot of work research you know from the designs to the and i want to make a series of three but i wanted them to be different not three identical ukuleles i wanted to make every one of them have a slight distinction uh you know from the woods and the inlays and the materials and the rosettes that's it's it's really thoughtful you know you're not just cranking out stuff you're not just putting it out every single one has your heart and dedication in it right right and that's the goal i want to and i think it's for me as an opportunity to push myself you know to to get my mind thinking of how can i create something that's you know it's the next one is even nicer and you know just keep going keep your creative juices going but then you know the community like responds to that like oh man this is awesome and you know we really appreciate the thought and creativity that you've been putting into these so it's very unique very very unique oh yes yeah and then the cases also the labels are made out of ancient spruce i don't know if you guys noticed that yeah oh that's what that is yeah try it like hold hold one of those cases up if you would so here you have the label with the same type of designs so this one is number two out of three and there you go all right so we're gonna we're gonna close out here with uh cory and kalei jamming a little bit more on these and we'll see you guys next time look out for these to show up on the website mahalo like subscribe and thank you peter thank you for having me it was great really special awesome thank you everybody [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] hmm [Music]

Channel: HawaiiMusicSupply

Views: 4,162

Rating: 4.9477124 out of 5

Keywords: theukulelesite, ukulele

Id: 2sSnqXnx5Hw

Length: 74min 19sec (4459 seconds)

Published: Wed May 05 2021