For Your Viewing Pleasure

     For the amateur pilot/ukulele enthusiast who has everything, we now present the Aero-Uke (and this one actually is for sale). Featuring a removable tail-piece and separate altimeter and air speed indicators, the Aero-Uke has virtually no cargo space, and is therefore best suited for air shows and exhibitions. The lack of a cockpit makes navigation difficult, and the absence of any kind of landing gear adds an extra level of adventure to even the most routine flights. What it lacks in airworthiness, however, it more than makes up for in tone and playability. Roger, you are cleared for takeoff.

     From the early 1930s (or thereabouts), the KeyKord is tuned as a baritone ukulele, and played somewhat like the autoharp. Apparently, the only chords anyone needed back then were C, D, F, G, Am, Cm, Dm, Em, Gm, A7, B7, C7, D7, G7, Ab7, Eb7, Cdim, Ddim, Edim, and Ddim7. Perhaps that has something to do with why the KeyKord was not favored by blues musicians. In the '50s, similar key-operated instruments were marketed as "Arthur Godfrey Ukes." Kaycraft also made a banjo version of the KeyKord, but, fortunately, very few of those still exist.

     Originally built as a musical instrument, this unique specimen was later used to investigate the velocity of sound in a bagel (eventually determined to be approximately 256 meters/second). Amazingly, this single-stringed delicacy has been kept in tune for over twenty years! It is a tribute to the engineering of the bagel that, although it is deviating from its original roundness, it still retains structural integrity. Cream cheese available upon request.