The big curiosity on eBay at the moment is this huge collection of ukuleles. Looks like an interesting set of ukes but the $55,000 price tag and the seven-word description are off-putting.

Strange ukulele-ish instrument.

Mya-moe resonator.

Ipana Tooth Paste: protects gums and makes you play the ukulele weirdly close to your face.

Doll outfits are more expensive than all my clothes put together: Barbie’s Ken A Go-Go

Music

The ukulele albums I’ve listened to most this year are:

Givers – In Light
Leftover Cuties – Places to Go
Emily Scott – i write letters i never send
Tune-Yards – W H O K I L L

But there are plenty more great ukulele songs released this year. I’ve made a Spotify playlist of some of them I could find on there.

And I’ve put together a Spotify playlist of my favourite non-ukulele songs of the year.

Both are a random assortment of tracks that happened to pop into my head. I’m sure I’ve left out plenty of stuff (and quite a few great uke albums aren’t on Spotify).

Books

I am, of course, going to be completely biased and suggest you buy a copy of Ukulele for Dummies.

On less self-interested note, I’d highly recommend Lil’ Rev’s 101 Ukulele Licks for anyone looking to do some ukulele soloing.

My copy of Ralph Shaw’s The Ukulele Entertainer has yet to wing its way across the ocean but – since it’s based on his blog posts – I feel confident that’ll be well worth the money.

On a non-ukulele front, and after some initial skepticism, I took the plunge and bought a Kindle. It’s part of my drive to get rid of as much junk from my life as possible. I’ve tackled the biggest problem (CDs) and books are next on the list (ukuleles are third – don’t know what I’m going to do about that). Best thing about it: you can hook it up to Instapaper and make it a whole lot easier to read long articles on the net.

If you’re worried about me being easily bought (a very fair position to hold) the stuff I got free was: Leftover Cuties, Emily Scott and 101 Ukulele Licks. I would have gladly paid full whack for all of them.

Two sweet looking (and very expensive) DeVine ukuleles: DeVine 1 and DeVine 2.

1928 National Style 3 Resonator.

John Wayne lunch-boxalele.

Young man with ukulele.

Mr Kazookeylele is selling a genuine Kazookeylele.

aNueNue are continuing with their signature ukes with an electric ukulele styled after, Canadian uke rockers, Lucky Uke.

Six foot five Tangi ukulele.

Two cases of multi-instrument attribution: one described in it’s title as tiple, cuatro, ukulele and mandolin, and on that looks like a hybrid of electric guitar, mandolin and ukulele.

Heindel ‘Black Beauty’ soprano: gorgeous back, not so sure about the front (via Phredd).

Ukulele photo from 1894.

In the war of the guiatar lookalikes I think the cutest are the Tomo Strat and Les Paul. In a similarly guitar-like vein is this electric Tiki Idol (via Phredd).

1930s Maybell.

Manuel Nunes uke from the early 1900s. The ivoroid tuners look strange to me but they’re apparently an original upgrade.

Photos: May Singhi Breen shoots pool, The Wilde Twins

Beansprout and Mya-Moe hook up to make a banjo ukulele.

Uker of OZ banjolele.

Lightnin’ Bug resonator.

Felix the Cat ukulele (via Ukulelia).

I feel the need to point out that it wasn’t my idea to include picks in the Ukulele Starter Pack for Dummies. By the way, the book included that is a shortened version of the full Ukulele for Dummies book.

- Martin 5K
- 30′s 2M
- Martin Style 3 (I think this is the one I’d go for)
- 1932 Martin 2K

And this one covered in beads. I’m not sure how it could play, “like a million dollars,” and sound, “fantastic,” with all that stuff on it. But the artist has been on Oprah so it must be good.

Decorated resonator baritone (via Phredd).

Kapono 8-string baritone.

Miniature ukuleles.

UkeBag.com has some very fetching handmade ukulele bags.

Kanile’a are mostly known for their finely crafted but hideously expensive ukuleles. But now they’ve brought out a budget range of Islander ukuleles (including the Islander MSS-4). A few interesting things about it: it has bridge pins, it doesn’t have the Kanile’a logo but a hideous ‘Islander’ logo (which is probably a smart decision as they might not want the Kanile’a logo associated with cheaper instruments), and the name is already taken.

This post on Not Playing Guitar about ugly amps got me thinking. Kala’s ukulele amps have had stick for being under-powered and over-priced, but there’s no doubt it’s prettier than the standard ‘black breeze-block’ look. So does having a good looking amp or uke encourage you to play more?

8-string “Erickenbacker” ukulele.

At first I just thought Luna ukuleles were making ukes that weren’t, to say the least, to my taste. But seeing their Luna Peace ukulele has convinced me they’re doing it specifically to wind me up (thanks to Phredd for the link).

aNueNue ukuleles have been adding to their line of signature ukuleles including (friend of Uke Hunt) Shigeto Takahashi; (child prodigy) Sungha Jung and (Thai uker) Singto Namchok.

Pictures: 50s girl group, Girls With Ukulele.

Does anyone have any experiences with Kamoa ukuleles? I’ve had a couple of people ask and I don’t have the first clue. If you’ve got an opinion, let everyone know in the comments.

Photos: 1930s duo, Bessie Love, arcade ukulele, 1927 ukulele girls.