Sam Ku West

[Peter Krebs]

I was listening to Grass Skirt’s Sam Ku CD today and was reacquainted with what a phenomenal musician he was. Just lovely touch and tone. The recordings seem to sit best in some sort of E tuning - perhaps it’s C#m? My ear isn’t super great yet at hearing some of the subtle differences.
Anyone have a moment to suggest a good starting point tuning-wise to figure out some of this stuff by ear? Thanks!

[Joe A. Roberts]

The tuning is probably A major, but an issue you are likely to encounter is that a lot of recordings from that era will not be in tune with A440.
One tip would be to find a lick that uses the open E string and try to tune your guitar to that, or pitch shift the track to your guitar using Audacity or some other audio software.

[Scott Thomas]

Yes, agreed on everything you said about Sam Ku. I also have the Grass Skirt collection. Those recordings were made in the late twenties. Recorded C#m tunings came out in the circa early/mid thirties. I recall a discussion as to who was first, Sol Hoopii or Sol K Bright, but in any event, I’m reasonably confidant Sam Ku used high A Major tuning (EC#AEC#A) high to low.

Edit: Looking back, Sol Hoopii was the first to record C#m in 1933 according to historians cited here:

viewtopic.php?t=113807&highlight=sol+bright

[Peter Krebs]

Great insights. Thanks, fellas!

[Lloyd Graves]

Anyone have a copy of this collection they'd part with? I've always been interested but as far ii can tell, it's long out of print.

As a newer fan and student of old Hawaiian tunes, it's frustrating that the music is so hard to come by.

When I started in banjo, there were so many old recordings, and most of them are still in print.

Anyhow, thanks.

[Sebastian Müller]

I did not learn a lot of his repertoire yet but what I heard sounds pretty much like A Highbass !