El Gato Primo (IW#122)



I hope you  have a friend like my friend Old Viejo Bones, aka Lovercat aka Mister Señor Morejon Gonzales.  He is a rock.  One of the four best musicians I know, an amazing visual artist, a loving friend to my kids, an ardent activist for social justice, and just an all around splendid human.  He can play anything you put in his hands, he's the kind of person that could play you a tune on a folding chair and you'd ask him to play four more.  He introduced me to country blues, and served as my mentor and facilitator as I was learning to play music.  He played banjo in the jug band that we were in back in the early 2000's in Brooklyn, NY, and continues to inspire me musically.  Go check out the album he recorded with his musical partner Fatboy Slim here.

So he sent me a drawing of this cat a while back, and I dug it so much that I had to make him a little instrument with it on it.  I had not used the laser cutter to make instruments yet, but I knew I would never be able to freehand this amazing drawing, so I decided this was the time.  I used the laser cutter to engrave the image on the piano soundboard spruce that I used for the top.  It came out pretty well.

The rest of the baritone uke is all piano wood, of course.  Poplar, which I really like working with.  It bends well and sounds pretty good, and there is a ton of it in old pianos, so I have been working with it a lot over the last few years.  

It's a nice little uke.  Sounds especially good when Old Viejo Bones himself plays it.


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