Sancho Panzer

Sonny Daze cigar box ukulele by Russ Kemner

A package arrived. Inside was a box with the Sonny Daze logo.

What was inside was so awesome . . .

. . .that I quickly overcame my shock at the logo's resemblance to the Southwest's dreaded Kokopelli:

(Kokopelli's so overexposed he should sue his agent, although there's no way he would because, if you know anything about Kokopelli, you know that Kokopelli's pretty okay with exposing himself).

Sancho is made from a cigar box of the Sancho Panza brand, out of Honduras. It's odd that when it comes to Central America you hear a lot about Nicaragua and El Salvador, but for some reason you don't hear much from Honduras. I assure you that people in the vicinity of me and Sancho are now hearing plenty out of Honduras.

Sancho is EXTRA FUERTE. Sancho is NOT kidding around. SANCHO WANT TO TALK TO COCKEYE.

Sancho looks and sounds terrific. Sancho also smells terrific—what is so bouquet-riffic as a fresh ukulele?

As you might surmise from my choices of ukuleles, I tend not to be a huge fan of wooden objects, especially those below, say, 110 proof. But some objects demand to be made exceptions. Sancho has an up-front tone, perfect action, and the intonation is solid all the way up the neck. I wish the same could be said for all my ukuleles. The luthier, Russ Kemner, says he has built about 50 instruments, but you'd think he'd built a thousand, to judge by this one.

The fret markers feature a keyboard theme, reminiscent of the infamous scarf of Mike Damone , as expertly portrayed by Robert Romanus, <PLUG> now appearing in the film Mojave Phone Booth </PLUG> .

Sancho has a nicely shaped head. People often say the same about me.

Sancho was made only last month (24jun2006). You can still smell the lacquer. ("Lacquer? Damn near killed 'er!")

Sancho is my first concert ukulele (the rest are sopranos), and is already becoming one of my favorites (and I am someone who has a strong general preference for banjo ukes).

My congratulations to Russ for building a fine instrument. A man couldn't ask for a finer Sancho. I hope he keeps making them. (Russ doesn't have a website yet, but when he does I'll include a link from this page.)