How many ukes are enough?

Booli,

I can't argue with that, but as rappsy said, it really does help us see what's out there. I'd never have considered a Webber if it wasn't for a fellow UU member. I've grown fond of it.

Adam

For me one was enough. The rest of them are ones that I wanted. I didn't need them. Well, I didn't even want some of them, I just ended up with them.

acmespaceship said:

I think it's like dating. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince... and you have to play a lot of ukuleles before you find the uke you can love for a lifetime. Eventually, many of us find The One True Uke (or a small harem) and the UAS subsides.

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I am simply floored by such an apt metaphor. I like you.

acmespaceship said:

Does that mean we found the right uke, or does it mean we grew up and stopped chasing rainbows? I don't know. I still lust after the occasional pretty new soundboard, but I am experienced enough by now to know that buying another uke will not make me happier beyond that quick initial thrill, nor will it make me a better player.

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Maybe chasing rainbows does not lead to enlightenment, but pursuit of the Rainbow Connection may be fruitful in other, as-of-yet undefined ways...

acmespaceship said:

But 5-strings. I do not have a 5-string yet and I think I might like a 5-string.

Falling in love with every nice uke that comes along is much less disruptive than trading spouses every few years. I tell my husband this. Same with kittens. I get my endorphin rush with kittens and ukuleles, and this is better than many alternatives.

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-re: alternatives-

Once upon a time, I was obsessed with keeping fish-tanks. I had over 20 fish-tanks and was eventually breeding guppies and fancy goldfish and selling them back to the pet store for credit on supplies.

There was a period of almost 8 yrs where I saw little-to-no TV at all, nor did I miss it.

I saw so little TV not because of the 'burden' of fish-tank maintenance in my 'fish room' (yes 'fish room' ), but specifically because I would sit and WATCH the fish swim, and in a short time after watching, it became a sort of Zen-like meditation. I felt at peace, and like I was able to understand their behavior. I felt almost like a 'fish-wisperer' LOL

I would have kept at it but moving to a new home, as well as not seeing a clear path for the future other than a thousand-gallon outdoor koi pond, which in the Northeast USA is a major hassle to keep up in the winter and significantly more expensive than even the 20 fishtanks that I had at the time...I had to make a clean break when I moved.

The fish-keeping was my endorphin rush, my natural oxycontin high, and defense against feeling the stressful effects of life. During that time, I also read everything I could find, went to aqua-biology and marine-biology seminars all over the USA, talked to as many folks as possible. It was a real, and very deep passion at the time.

Now, ukulele does this for me. :music:

acmespaceship said:

I think it's like dating. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince... and you have to play a lot of ukuleles before you find the uke you can love for a lifetime. Eventually, many of us find The One True Uke (or a small harem) and the UAS subsides.

Does that mean we found the right uke, or does it mean we grew up and stopped chasing rainbows? I don't know. I still lust after the occasional pretty new soundboard, but I am experienced enough by now to know that buying another uke will not make me happier beyond that quick initial thrill, nor will it make me a better player.

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Booli said:

I am simply floored by such an apt metaphor.

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:agree: I was going to post some thoughts but I feel that acmespaceship has pretty much nailed it.

I have a lot of ukuleles and I tell people that ukuleles are like shoes in that they serve different functions and you wouldn't wear running shoes to a wedding. I have a few tenors that serve different musical purposes (low G, high G, a Mya-Moe tenor that sounds more "twangy" than my Kamaka tenor and sometimes, for some songs, I prefer twangy, and a few other tenors that just sound different from each other), a few ukuleles that are designed to be played in adverse conditions, like camping outdoors, a few baritones (one is steel string, one is tuned DGBE, one is tuned GCEA). So in part the ideal number for you is the number of ukuleles that adequately cover for you all the circumstances in which you want to play them.

You should play your Kamaka every day if that's what you want. I don't avoid playing high-end ukes for fear that they'll wear out or get damaged. Ukuleles are meant to be played. Luthiers consistently tell me that they love seeing wear and tear on the ukuleles they've built because that means the owner is playing (and enjoying) them.

My first year about 4 years ago I went up to 16 ukes, then culled them down to 4. I then started playing bass uke and mini electric bass the last couple of years, I'm up to 14. Then I started playing tenor uke again a few weeks ago and I'm up to 7. My approach to UAS is; I got it and I'll flaunt it, but last week I decided to save up for two new Nikon D500 camera bodies so instruments will have to wait a few months.

Just to maintain a balanced view, there are advantages to having multiple ukuleles, too. Variety is one of them, tunings also. My tenor is tuned in Bb (FBbDG), one or two of my sopranos in C (GCEA), I swap one of them now and then, and at least one soprano is in D tuning (ADF#B) at any given time. That can be a little confusing, and potentially slow down learning, but it's like having different spices in the kitchen cupboard. It also emphasizes the strength of these instruments as some sound better in this or that tuning. I don't quite feel the same way about having ten ukuleles of the same size in the exact same tuning, but even in that situation different ukuleles will have different voices.

Ukulele is music instrument. UAS looses its valance. Music is difficult. Because it expresses our emotion but we can not see it. We often forget music.

free pic

Joke:
(Possibly)

valde002 said:

...

New Kamaka concert. This is in it's own case and seems to be special. My first high end koa ukulele. It is from 2013 I found out from the sticker inside. Probably not for daily use, but for special occasions. Will it get ruined if it is for daily use? Not sure what frequency people play their koas.

I like concerts, have been thinking about another one to put a low G on. Something for daily use. Like cedar or spruce top? Any thoughts? For the jazz ukist in me.

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For me, the answer to your "how many?" question has been three, for several years now. I've swapped #3 out a couple times but have settled on what works for me, described below. All koa, and all get near-daily use, although the soprano experiences periods of neglect since I'm happiest on concert scale.

Low G: Kamaka HF-2, Martin fluoros with a Fremont Soloist squeakless wound G string. My oldest uke, possibly the best sounding among the bunch.
Reentrant: Kamaka HF-1L longneck soprano (concert scale on soprano body), Martin fluoros. My most recent acquisition, and if I could only have one uke, I think this might be it.
Backup: Kamaka HP-1 pineapple soprano. This is the travel/beach/backup if another is in the shop (yes, it happened once) and a keeper for sentimental value.

Not sure if it counts as wisdom, but what I've learned in my 8-year uke journey is simply "what do I like?": I like koa, I like unfussy/no bling, and I prefer Kamakas over the other K brands. I haven't had the need to experiment through actual ownership, since I spend a lot of time at a local shop with lots of ukes, but it's really rare any more that I try something out that makes UAS kick in. On the nice-to-have list might be a National Resonator wild rose model, and a Kamaka HP-1L longneck pineapple, if either came my way and the funds were there. But nothing I can't live without.

Picker Jon said:

How many ukes are enough?

Just one more!

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For the math geeks out there, this can be expressed mathematically.
How many ukes are enough is defined as N+1 where N is the number of ukes you currently have.

vinceherman said:

For the math geeks out there, this can be expressed mathematically.
How many ukes are enough is defined as N+1 where N is the number of ukes you currently have.

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Sometimes, it's N+x, where x is the number you're currently drooling over. Just sayin'.

haha!

Well I just bought another one. From HMS. A Koaloha. One part of me is afraid that either the prices on these hawaiian-make ukes will go up significantly, outpricing these for me; or that koa wood will be hard to come by. I guess I missed the pre-uke fever and now they are hard to obtain. Kinda of like when there is a 2 for 1 at the grocery store and only the boxes of what you want are gone...

I'm totally an impulse buyer when it comes to such things as ukes. I research the crap out of them, can't ever decide what I might want, then see something that looks neat and go MINE!

It's a good thing my budget is never more than $100 or so...

one .
that's why I have about half a dozen, just because I can. I don't have any that are too precious to play, but my Collings comes close.

valde002 said:

Which 5 did you end up liking the most? Are they the most varied? Higher end? Felt better? I dont want to own a bunch of cheap ukuleles, but also don't want to break my bank with lot of high dollar ones. 5 sounds good!

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It took me all that additional expense to settle on my preferred sizes and tunings. Eventually I settled on Tenors tuned low G and Concerts tuned high G, so I wish I had the cash in place of all my Soprano and Baritone purchases.

My preferred five are three low G Tenors (Risa LP, Kala ASOV-T and Ohana TK-42, the latter two with Fishman passive pickups installed), and two high G Concerts (Deering Goodtime Banjo and Hudson HUK-MC, an all solid mahogany Kala by another name which plays really great). I basically use the Concerts for Clawhammer and the Tenors for everything else. Having a Goodtime, a Risa LP and three traditional ukes covers all sorts of different sounds, and I hope it will be a long time before UAS starts again. The Kala ASOV-T plays great in re-entrant Bb and the Risa can also be tuned down should I ever want some variation.

To be honest, I don't really want my other instruments which fortunately are mainly cheaper laminate bodies but there is a solid mahogany Kala Soprano, a non-cheap Lanikai Soprano and a Risa Stick Soprano in that group.

To borrow a phrase from A.A. "One uke is too many, a thousand is never enough." Don't mean to trivialize the AA program, just establishing a parallel.

Six. The answer is that six ukes are enough.

zztush said:

Ukulele is music instrument. UAS looses its valance. Music is difficult. Because it expresses our emotion but we can not see it. We often forget music.

free pic

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I love the graphic (it made me smile) and totally agree, for me it's all about the music.
Though I did kiss a few frogs before I found my princess.

In a "minimalist" (kinda) approach, while still maintaining the broadest possible variety, my answer would be three: One reentrant soprano for that typical ukulele sound, one fine tenor strung linear, and one baritone for lower tuning, possibly the Pono UL4 with steel strings to add a completely different sound.

I was going to tell you to enjoy your new Kamaka as much as possible, but I see you're already adding a KoAloha, and that's great, too. Many of us had to go through several ukes to find out what we like, and to me, it is precisely the variety I enjoy, finding out about differences, often nuances, in tone, build, woods, finishes, etc.