Shelf wear?

I went to a music store with my daughter yesterday and they had a large selection of ukuleles. So we were looking them over. I tried out one in particular that caught my eye, and a couple others just to see how they sounded. I noticed that a few of the shoppers were grabbing guitars off the wall and going into the little practice rooms and jamming away on them. The one, a brand new ukulele that I sort of liked, you could see between the frets where it had been played. In other words, it had been test driven a lot. My own ukulele didn't start showing like that for a month or two after I bought it and I play every day. So we always advise new people to go to a store and play a lot of ukes before they buy something, to see what they like. At the same time, would you buy a "new" uke that has a lot of "shelf" wear from everybody and their brother coming in and trying it out?

Rllink said:

I went to a music store with my daughter yesterday and they had a large selection of ukuleles. So we were looking them over. I tried out one in particular that caught my eye, and a couple others just to see how they sounded. I noticed that a few of the shoppers were grabbing guitars off the wall and going into the little practice rooms and jamming away on them. The one, a brand new ukulele that I sort of liked, you could see between the frets where it had been played. In other words, it had been test driven a lot. My own ukulele didn't start showing like that for a month or two after I bought it and I play every day. So we always advise new people to go to a store and play a lot of ukes before they buy something, to see what they like. At the same time, would you buy a "new" uke that has a lot of "shelf" wear from everybody and their brother coming in and trying it out?

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If there was obvious wear and tear..I would not mind if there was a price adjustment ......as it is technically a used model...good point .....


In fact Matt at Omega knocked me about 30 quid off a shop used Zedro Soprano earlier this year...without asking ...so that was cool...

The original question is far too broad to answer.

In general, would I buy a Uke with shelf wear? Depends.

Rllink asked:

would you buy a "new" uke that has a lot of "shelf" wear from everybody and their brother coming in and trying it out?

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If it's wear as in "wear and tear", worn strings, polished frets, grooves in the fingerboard etc. then probably not. A little sign of use on the strings and a few fingerprints ... I'd hold out for a new set of strings and a shine with a duster. Apart from that, I'd definitely ask myself, "Why have so many people rejected this instrument? Is there something wrong with it that I haven't noticed?"

Quite often in music stores (at least when I worked in one), the wall hanger would be selected from a batch because it was one of the better examples, and would be specially set up to tempt the punters. If this is the case, I'd rather have the one on the wall than an untouched instrument from a box. My wife's car is an "ex demonstrator" with low mileage that had had the entire BMW extras catalogue thrown at it. Same price as an unadorned model, and with the added advantage of being driven for a couple of thousand miles to sort the usual new car faults out. Same thing.

kypfer said:

"Why have so many people rejected this instrument? Is there something wrong with it that I haven't noticed?"

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It may be more like:

Customer: "Man, this uke is excellent, I'll take it!"

Salesman: "Right sir, I'll just go fetch you a newer one from out the back"

2 easy answers.
I like it. I'll take it.
It's too beat up.

kypfer said:

Rllink asked:If it's wear as in "wear and tear", worn strings, polished frets, grooves in the fingerboard etc. then probably not. A little sign of use on the strings and a few fingerprints ... I'd hold out for a new set of strings and a shine with a duster. Apart from that, I'd definitely ask myself, "Why have so many people rejected this instrument? Is there something wrong with it that I haven't noticed?"

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As the owner of a retail ukulele shop, that's not always the case. For example, you sometimes get people to can play come in with no intention to buy, pick up an instrument and want to impress you, their girlfriend or anyone else who will listen.

If it's a demo model with obvious wear and tear, I would expect a discount.

If you are ever in Toronto go to the 12th Fret. It is a guitar store of international reputation that has everything from $100 cheapies to $20,000 vintage Martins all hanging on the wall for everyone to just pick up and play. They sell mandolins, banjos and ukes as well. If all else is equal I want to be able to play it first. Normal "self wear" as you put it means the strings are strerched and settled and it gives a good indication of how it really sounds. Dings or scratchs usually get a discount.

All of my ukes that I own and play either have or will get user wear, no big deal. They are playing instruments, not display instruments.

hoosierhiver said:

As the owner of a retail ukulele shop, that's not always the case. For example, you sometimes get people to can play come in with no intention to buy, pick up an instrument and want to impress you, their girlfriend or anyone else who will listen.

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That is a good point as well, Mike. I went in there to look at ukuleles, but I wasn't really looking for a ukulele. I also wasn't trying to impress anyone. I'm just not an impressive ukulele player at this point. But I was curious. This particular uke that I'm talking about was a solid maple concert. I can't say that I even want a solid maple concert, but I wanted to hear what a sold maple concert sounded like, so I played it. It had an electric pickup, and I was curious what a solid maple concert sounded like plugged into an amp, so the salesperson plugged in in and let me try it out. So as a person who sells ukuleles for a living, should the curious refrain if they are not seriously thinking of buying a particular instrument? I have to admit, I felt a little guilty when I left. The salesperson was very helpful and I certainly didn't make any attempt to not play whatever was offered up to me, but at no point was I seriously thinking about buying anything. On the other hand, I guess if one had jumped out and grabbed me, well who knows? I guess I tried to convince myself that the salesperson made me do it to make myself feel a little better. What do you think?

Rllink said:

That is a good point as well, Mike. I went in there to look at ukuleles, but I wasn't really looking for a ukulele. I also wasn't trying to impress anyone. I'm just not an impressive ukulele player at this point. But I was curious. This particular uke that I'm talking about was a solid maple concert. I can't say that I even want a solid maple concert, but I wanted to hear what a sold maple concert sounded like, so I played it. It had an electric pickup, and I was curious what a solid maple concert sounded like plugged into an amp, so the salesperson plugged in in and let me try it out. So as a person who sells ukuleles for a living, should the curious refrain if they are not seriously thinking of buying a particular instrument? I have to admit, I felt a little guilty when I left. The salesperson was very helpful and I certainly didn't make any attempt to not play whatever was offered up to me. I guess I tried to convince myself that the salesperson made me do it to make myself feel a little better. What do you think?

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I think in general people should ask first, take your coat/jacket off so your zipper doesn't scratch it up and don't scratch up the top with your fingernails.

Another perspective is a better salesman would have sold you a ukulele. As stated a demo model if worn should come with a seriously discounted price tag. I always look for fingerprints on my new out of box items, instruments are a little different.

~AL~

Inksplosive AL said:

Another perspective is a better salesman would have sold you a ukulele. As stated a demo model if worn should come with a seriously discounted price tag. I always look for fingerprints on my new out of box items, instruments are a little different.

~AL~

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Well, if the salesman had a better customer, maybe he would have.

From a purely business perspective the fault lies with the salesman never the customer. He had a potential sale as you were interested he just didn't set the hook to finalize the deal. Of course you did say something about feeling guilty and him being really nice so you just might go back to him for something else.

At least that's how I understand it.