Beansprout #1000 Is Done!

Last Saturday, we had a zoom party for the 1000th Beansprout musical instrument. FYI, the numbers work like this: I started Beansprout with Heidi and Rob Litke, where we made maybe 125 instruments. I then worked for Gordon and Char at Mya-Moe, working on 2500+ ukes. We kept the Beansprout name for the banjo ukes during that time, about 100 or so. We then restarted Beansprout in 2017 and picked the numbering back up.

Here is the writeup I used for the uke:

Well, this is it. #1000. A big milestone for me and I appreciate all of you who tune in and read these posts. This ukulele is a comfortable hybrid of a classic Beansprout tenor and my Kingdom Era designs. It feels right to look to the past with this, while also acknowledging what I want to do more of in the future. The back and sides are made from curly Oregon Myrtle and the top is curly Port Orford Cedar, both from our friend Kevin at woodfromthewest.com. The neck is Alder, a local wood that I salvaged from a cabinet shop. The fretboard, headplate, bridge and binding is Oregon Walnut. I especially like the bird’s foot purling as a decorative feature, which I also sent down the fretboard and headplate. This is a design element I learned from the ukuleles I studied from the 1890’s, as is the pin bridge, headstock shape and fretboard shape. It has Gotoh tuners, fluorocarbon strings, bone nut and saddle, radiused fretboard and a K&K pickup. It comes with hardshell case, strap, strings, tuner, humidifier and free shipping anywhere on planet Earth. Thank you for all of your support, I am very thankful to live this life and you are the reason I get to keep going.

We tried to record the party, so folks could watch it later, but I messed it up and it never got saved. Bummer. The good news is, we did sell the uke, which will help pay for the shop/house painting that needs to be done this spring.

I have to say, I really like this tenor and might develop these ideas more.

Thanks for keeping the lights on,

A