Ukulele building class unstrung by theft

October 16 was the day the music died.

A thief entered the Southwestern College Computer Assisted Design and Drafting (CAD) lab and stole 16 ukuleles in various stages of completion. Students had only been working on their instruments for nearly two months.

“I came in Tuesday morning, they were gone, all the projects were gone, all of the unfinished necks, all the fret boards, all the molds, and both sets of [concert and tenor ukulele] plans,” said John Smith professor of CAD. “Everything related to the course was gone.”

Class was cancelled for the semester and all 16 students will leave empty-handed.

Mesa College marine biology major and guitarist Joey Boucree found out about the course via a flier in the mail.

“It has been my dream to make a guitar, so I figured (a ukulele) would be a good start,” he said. “I have one ukulele at home, but one you hand made would be awesome,”

Smith said he put a lot of his own money into the non-credit course to make it happen. He bought ukulele kits for each student. They had mahogany for the neck and body, and walnut for the fret board.

“In stock alone I spent $400 to $500 in materials that I was going to try to recoup from material fees,” said Smith. “Along with tuners and frets and not really money for my time spent, I have about $1,200 out of my pocket.”

Smith said that he thinks it was an inside job because the door was locked when he arrived and the thieves only stole ukulele parts.

SWC campus police are investigating. Campus Police Officer David Felix said officers have checked local pawnshops.

“It is kind of interesting when somebody steals something like that and nothing else around it like laptop or a TV,” said Felix. “(Thieves usually steal) anything not nailed down, usually they take the whole shebang.”

Smith said he sees no reason to dwell on the incident.

“I can speculate all day as to who took it and why they took it, but that certainly torpedoed the class,” said Smith. “It is someone who knew what they are looking for and knew where everything was.”

Smith was originally inspired to teach students construct guitars after he attended a workshop in Las Vegas. After doing the math, he concluded, smaller is better.

“An ex-student built a ukulele and I could not let that go by, so I had to build my own,” said Smith. “It is a pretty popular instrument, so I wanted to teach a class.”

After building his own ukulele he was hooked and wanted to share the joy with his students.

Smith and his students may have had their semester die, but the veteran professor has not caught the last train for the coast. Someday, he predicted, SWC will hear the propulsive rhythm of hand-made ukuleles.

“I was really bummed out and I still am,” said Smith. “You can’t be bummed out too long, that is self destructive, so I said well here, we’ll start over.”