Do you still play your first ukulele?

Do you still play your first ukulele?

  • Yes, I still have it and play it!

    Votes: 37 43.0%
  • No, I no longer have it.

    Votes: 33 38.4%
  • No, though I still have it somewhere.

    Votes: 16 18.6%

  • Total voters
    86
  • Poll closed .
Got my first uke on my 10th birthday in 1951. It is a WWII era Martin O. I didn't know any better, and it didn't get all the care it deserved, but it is still in very sound shape and looks decent, albeit a little worn. Still loud and proud. I'm pretty sure we didn't have much money that year because my Dad just built our house, so he gave me his uke. Needless to say, it's now a family heirloom.
 
oops, did this wrong. Can't figure out how to delete the comment. Sorry, newb here.
 
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my first uke was a $7, orange-colored, no name uke from Japan, purchased from Long's Drugs at
the Ala Moana Shopping Center, circa 1960. My grandmother got it for me because my 6th grade
teacher, Mrs Wong, would be teaching her class to play the uke and sing for other classes :)

I had to visit a classmate up the street to get a handle on G7 and other chords!!

Anyway, that was, what?, almost 60 years ago! when I graduated High School and wanted to buy a
uke to take to College in Chicago, I had to choose between a Martin and a Kamaka. I decided on the
Kamaka because it was 'cheaper', you know $28 instead of $35! :) Oh Well....

anyway, by the time I finished college and returned to HNL the little orange uke was gone. so, long story short, unfortunately, NO I no longer play my first uke. Many, many fond memories however, since I learned practically everything musical (uke-related) on that $7 investment!

keep uke'in', everyone!


At $28 a pop, bet you wish now that you'd bought a hundred of those Kamakas. :)
 
My first uke experience is very close to the OP's. It is my only concert, it is a solid top, and I need to get it out of storage and restring it.
 
My first uke was purchased late June of 2013 on a whim with no intention of playing it, was just going to hang it next to my Fender Telecaster guitar, which the uke was designed after. Then I received a postcard for a uke play-along, so I practiced a bit and found it was too small for me, a soprano, so I immediately drove over to Sam Ash and bought a tenor. I sold the soprano and kept the tenor for about 11 months, then traded it in with a couple of others I accumulated for a Kala KAATP-CTG-CE, which I still play, one of my best ukes.

Mahalo Tele style (to which I added the pickguard)
Mahalo tele pick guard.jpg


Lanikai Quilted Ash (to which I added a Fishman preamp)
Lanikai for sale.jpg


current Kala (completely stock)
Kala KAATP-CTG-CE 2.jpg
 
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Do you still have and play your first ukulele?

No, but I actually have two first ukuleles and I do still know their whereabouts. The true "first" that I got a million years ago for my 7th birthday, which to the best of my knowledge has been sitting untouched in a San Francisco basement since the mid-1970s... long story that I've recounted a few times on UU but the short version is I tried for some 30 years to get it back with no success!

My other "first" uke, an Ohana mahogany soprano that I bought as a "placeholder" - if I made it through my first 8-week uke class without giving up, I could upgrade - I ended up giving to a friend, along with a pink Dolphin so that she and her little girl could learn together. Needless to say I made it through that class and many more, and have had more than enough upgrades!
 
My first Uke was a Pono AT. Purchased from HMS when on holiday in Hawaii. I still play it. Great ukulele at any price. I have three more tenor, two of which are more money but the AT really stands up both sound and build quality to a lot more expensive models. Very well built and it loves flurocarbon strings. I'm very happy I got a ukulele of this quality as my starter. It's kept me playing. I could see at the very beginning it was a serious instrument.

...And gang at HMS are awesome.......
 
My first uke was an Austin soprano I got from a rewards program at work. It would have retailed at about $80, so your basic entry level laminate mahogany. It didn't have any markers on the fretboard or the side, so it was a little difficult at first. I got some fret stickers from ebay and it played pretty well. I carried with me all over the house. A couple years later my sister got married and asked me to perform the ceremony. For their honeymoon they went to Hawaii and she picked me up a uke there as a "thank you." Before I was able to pick it up she began playing it and became hooked. So, I "traded" her my first uke for that one so she could still play one. I don't know how much she plays it, but she has promised to return it to me if she gives up or upgrades.
 
Yes. A friend gave me her Mahalo pineapple soprano just before she died. I had no intentions of playing the ukulele but I learned two songs to sing her the following week and then sang them at her memorial. I didn't touch the uke for another year.

Then I started playing and everyone who picked up this old ukulele would say"I like it." It has character and has definitely been played. My friend never played it much but she got it from someone else. It wasn't an unloved uke. I have kept that uke next to my bed for three years and played it before I got up in the morning. Mostly I use it to work out theory. I've realized I need a better uke to keep next to my bed.

The Mahalo is set up great, Frets are smooth, action just right, friction tuners hold. They don't make em like this anymore. But you can only get so much tone from laminate, and playing up the neck is unsatisfying. So it will be moved to sit next to the computer, or used as a beater. I have too many ukuleles now but I can't get rid of this one. I'm glad I have this opportunity to pay homage to the one that started it all. Mahalo!
You were doubly gifted. Wait, triply?
 
I dropped mine, cracking it completely.
 
Mine was a Mahalo - which I spent ages setting up properly. It sounded great.... eventually. I gifted it to a friend wanting to play when I bought my next Uke.
 
Mine is a Lanikai LU-21C which had horrible, carpal tunnel inducing action on it when I got it. I took it to a guitar shop to have the action lowered and now it plays like a breeze. It also has some kind of "X" factor which I can't explain. My other ukes aren't any more difficult to play but my Lanikai is almost more pleasurable to play. Maybe it's because it was my first uke and it's a sentimental factor. I think it sounds pretty good too, not at the same level as my other ukes, but it doesn't sound cheap or lame like some starter ukes do. I was going to try and sell it at one point when I got my other two ukes but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I think it's a keeper and I probably play it about 40% of my uking time.

Interesting - I got a couple of Lanikai LU-21Cs from Butler Music as gamblers specials, did setup work on them, sold one and gave the other as a gift. I thought they sounded better than any $25 uke I've ever encountered. Amazing bang for the buck - I wish I'd have hung onto one.
 
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I bought a solid cedar/rosewood Ohana soprano from MIM a few years ago as my first uke. I love it and play it regularly. Since I had been playing stringed instruments for awhile, I decided to spend a bit more money to buy something I thought would be worth keeping. I don't plan on selling it. It was a great gateway drug...
 
My first was a Makala MK-S soprano. I thought it was a great little uke and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the model to someone looking for an entry-level instrument. It did end up being the 'victim' of my earliest experiments in amateur lutherie - bone nut and saddle and friction tuners were all installed. Eventually, it was time for me to move along and it found its way to the local charity shop. Hopefully it got rehomed.
 
Bought a Cordoba 15CM - haphazardly tossed it into a papasan and snapped the neck right of the body! Got it glued back by a luthier friend, put some Aquila reds on it...my wife plays it occasionally and I dropped a cheap pickup into it to see if I could. In the first position it plays alright, up the neck it's too far gone. Mostly a wall hanger but I can't get rid of it! It went on too many adventures!
 
Some interesting responses so far! Slightly surprised how many of us still have, and still play (again), their first ukulele. For myself, I'm also intrigued by how differently I perceive my first uke. Experience and practice do change us. :)
 
My first uke was a Ka-Lai Hawaiian pineapple Uke (with the pineapple on it) given to me by my Hawaiian Godmother, Nona. It hung on different walls in different houses with the same strings for 50 years! Then, I decided that I wanted to sing more, so I took it down and, Glory be, it still played. It's a bookshelf uke in my music room now.

The first uke that I bought is a Kala KASEM soprano. I play it once in a while, but I decided that I prefered concerts and above so it's mostly a wallhanger now.

I don't have time to play any of 'em anymore, and I seldom sing with them -- ahhh, well . . . :eek:ld:
 
Yup. A Cordoba 20TM-CE which I love. Though I'm toying with adding another uke of a different size just to play around. Either a concert or baritone. Or maybe both. Or maybe another tenor. Sigh. Yeah, there are just so many different options, I can't decide. For the moment I'm focusing on just learning to play better while I go down the rabbit hole of sound samples.
 
Yes, my first uke didn't play very well - but it seems to be OK now......... :biglaugh:
I think that is funny, because whenever I take my first out to play it I think, this old cheap thing sounds pretty good.
 
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