By Sandor Nagyszalanczy I’ve played in rock n’ roll bands since I was 13 years old, typically serving as lead singer and rhythm guitar player. But in the mid/late 1990s, I met a couple of talented musicians who were as…
By Sandor Nagyszalanczy Since this is my first installment for this new online feature, I thought it appropriate to tell the story of my very first ukulele. In 1956, when I was just two-and-a-half years old, my mother, father and I…
STORY & PHOTOS BY SANDOR NAGYSZALANCZY | FROM THE SUMMER 2018 ISSUE OF UKULELE Whether they’re made by artisan luthiers or manufactured in large factories, most ukuleles are born from a desire to build and sell the instrument itself. But…
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY SANDOR NAGYSZALANCZY | FROM THE SPRING 2018 ISSUE OF UKULELE If you’ve ever had the privilege of playing a vintage ukulele strung with old-fashioned natural-gut strings, you know what a warm, mellifluous sound those strings can…
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From the Fall 2017 issue of Ukulele | STORY AND PHOTOS BY SANDOR NAGYSZALANCZY To many, vintage Hawaiian ukuleles look fairly alike: All of them are soprano-sized and most have thin-waisted, Spanish-guitar-shaped bodies built from koa wood. They differ primarily…
From the Spring 2016 issue of Ukulele | BY SANDOR NAGYSZALANCZY Quick quiz: Among the four common sizes of ukuleles—soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone—which one is tuned differently? Answer: the baritone. While the first three are tuned in standard “C”…
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From the Fall 2016 issue of Ukulele | STORY AND PHOTOS BY SANDOR NAGYSZALANCZY When you think of ukuleles made on the American mainland during the “uke crazed” 1920s, brands such as Martin and Gibson are likely the first to…