I love bang-for-the-buck guitars

I've been on a bit of a guitar-buying kick lately.  When it comes to a really good-quality instrument at a low price, I have a tough time saying no.  (I've actually written an entire post on my affinity for budget instruments.)

Guitars have such a wide variety of shapes, styles, and sounds, that it's tough to limit yourself to just one.  As a [mediocre] slack-key player, having multiple guitars is also convenient because I can leave them in different tunings, and simply pick up the guitar for the song I want to play.  (Something I wouldn't have the luxury of doing with higher-priced guitars.)

Here is my humble collection of bang-for-buck guitars I've collected along the way:

Quick & Dirty Tutorial: How to play "All of Me" by John Legend on ukulele

Here's a quick tutorial on how to play my rendition of John Legend's "All of Me":

Nahenahe Tenor Ukulele

This is a 1993 Nahenahe ("Nahe Nahe") tenor ukulele.  I haven't seen many of these on the web, so I thought I'd document mine.

So you want to learn slack key? Here are the best places to start!

So you've been seduced by the sweet sound of Hawaiian slack-key guitar music, and as a do-it-yourselfer, you're looking to learn how to play.  Or maybe you're already a guitarist, looking to expand your repertoire. Either way, here are my three definitive slack-key resources:

Review: Pano Tuner - My favorite iPhone tuner app

Pano Tuner is simply awesome.  And best of all, it's FREE!

Budget instruments?--Yes please!

I love bang-for-the-buck instruments.

Growing up, I remember musical instruments being a serious investment.  They were very expensive, and therefore only reserved for those dedicated to practice and committed to lessons and/or performing.  (They weren't something you had the luxury of buying to “try out” or just to “fool around on when you have time”.)  And as a result, if you decided to take the plunge, chances were it meant it was probably the one instrument you were stuck with.

On the other hand, attempting to buy a "cheap" instrument meant you'd probably end up with something that more closely resembles a toy than a real instrument.  Something where the quality was either too poor to play “real” music or so unplayable that you'd give up on learning out of pure frustration...