What's the best price for a ukulele

Hluth

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For those who build ukuleles to sell them, one of the important things to consider is the price point. I can think of two categories that are at play: basic ukes where your volume is greater than your price and high-end ukes where your price is greater than your volume. I sell between 40 -45 ukuleles a year for an average price of about $1400. Looking at the big picture, that is a mid to high price point. Kamaka, Collings and others sell their instruments at an average price a little higher than this. Imported ukes have risen to about $250. Custom builders can go considerably higher, but have to work longer to develop a market. This means I have to make about one each week and am limited to the amount of trim and finish I can afford to use. I have chosen this price point because I’m relatively new to the market and at 67 years old, I don’t have the luxury of developing a solid custom market with time. I believe that a good handmade uke is worth more than a Collings, but it’s sometimes hard to find customers who understand that. Here’s a picture my latest offering, it’s a baritone that took just under a week to build and sells for $1450.

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I prefer to make fewer, but more expensive instruments. I could make 100 cheap instruments per year and get the same at the end but there is enough crap in the world.

ps- your uke looks nice!- i like that Kay Kraft guitar like shape
 
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Thanks for the compliment Beau, but I think K craft's are really ugly guitars
 
Lovely looking beast. I wish I could afford to splash out on something so lovely. I'll have to just stick to my mass produced models till the lottery win :)

It must be hard being a maker if you are building in a vacuum. In other words, not building to order. Do you just build and then hope to sell, or do you only build when someone has expressed an interest?
 
I prefer to make less, more expensive instruments. I could make 100 cheap instruments per year and get the same at the end but there is enough crap in the world.

ps- your uke looks nice!- i like that Kay Kraft guitar like shape


Fewer. Sorry Pedant Alert ;) but I had a moment when I thought that you made only cheaper or more expensive than $1400.00 .

My fault . Well , and yours too ......;)
 
Do you just build and then hope to sell

Word of mouth is the best advertising, and a lot of effort towards customer satisfaction so that players will write favorably about your stuff. Beyond that it requires a good professional looking web site loaded with meta tags, a Facebook presence, and selling at ukulele events. My wife manages a music venue in the same building as my shop and we co-produce ukulele festivals as well. I also created and host the Top 50 Ukulele Sites, and it drives a lot of traffic to the web site. You have to make a pretty good effort at selling if you don't want to become a starving artist.
 
Word of mouth is the best advertising, ...

Well, please allow my mouth to help spread that word, Hluth. I went to one of your ukulele festivals and played about a dozen of your instruments, some new and some used.

All, without exception, were the very best ukuleles I've ever played. Tone was consistent from top to bottum, intonation as good as anyone's. Robust tone, capable of great volume with never a harsh sound. Lovely woodwork and joinery, and impeccable finish work (though I don't remember seeing any with a gloss finish). And each and every one of them played easily.

There were a few very high-end, big-name (the biggest) ukes there. Yours were by far the best.
 
Ceejay -- Beau is from Oz, they murder the Queen's English differently than we murder it in the U.S., which is different again from Canada, or Great Britain. The distinction between "less," and "fewer" isn't important to everybody, and even grammarians argue about this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_vs._less ...
 
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Add $450 to the price and make less. Your work looks finely executed. People ought to be prepared to pay for it..

So thinks everybody and anybody who works for a living :eek:...Perhaps you highly gifted artisans need to get out of the garrets and into the real world a bit more....:eek: cos the reality is that people are more money savvy these days and weigh up quality and quantity a bit more shrewdly (or tightly lol)

....in your shop your Ukulele is a hand built BettahowlRoseUltHTinguitarTimBuck....to your average punter , it is vastly more pennies than a KalaOhanaBrunswickTanglewood...a which can be picked up , played , compared and blah blah.....

I blench at the prices of a lot of the Luthier made machinery on here ....I also suspect that a lot are sold more for their "exclusivity" than the buyers performance potential...and that's fair enough , it's their dosh . I am not decrying the Luthiers and their artisanry ..I much admire their skill and craft . But the question was asked and I have given , non - confrontationally I hope , one possible answer .

I would not pay upwards of £500 quid for a ukulele ...there just isn't enough wood in it ....and I base that on my Deering Goodtime ...plain jane , unvarnished ,but built to play and sound as good as you can get . All for less than £700 .....alright ...it may not be hand built .....but hand built has some pro's and cons ....I know ...I've seen my hand built shelves ..LOL

This is purely my standpoint and personal view and is in no way a denigration of those who build and buy hand made Luthier instruments ...all power to their arms ,planing and strumming ....it is just a point from a scruffy average herbert representative of the UK section of ukelele players as to why some people don't ....YMMV (apparently)
 
Deering Goodtime ...plain jane , unvarnished ,but built to play and sound as good as you can get

Wow. More power to you if you really think that your entry-level, factory made banjo is "as good as you can get." But legions of professional banjo players would disagree strongly with that statement. (Full disclosure: I own a Deering Goodtime)

Clearly, luthier-built instruments aren't for everyone, and mass produced instruments are intended for the masses. But to tell "highly gifted artisans" to "get out of the garrets and into the real world" is an insult to artisans everywhere.
 
The Jeremy Clarkson of UU strikes again :)
 
Actually I believe that any luthiers in their garrets should make immediate plans to relocate. It would be far safer to have your heavy machinery on ground level.
Miguel
 
I would not pay upwards of £500 quid for a ukulele ...there just isn't enough wood in it ....and I base that on my Deering Goodtime ...plain jane , unvarnished ,but built to play and sound as good as you can get . All for less than £700 .....alright ...it may not be hand built .....but hand built has some pro's and cons ....I know ...I've seen my hand built shelves ..LOL

This is purely my standpoint and personal view and is in no way a denigration of those who build and buy hand made Luthier instruments ...all power to their arms ,planing and strumming ....it is just a point from a scruffy average herbert representative of the UK section of ukelele players as to why some people don't ....YMMV (apparently)
Holy Cow ceejay! It's not about the wood!! It's about the hours and hours it takes to build something like these along with the experience it takes to get there. It's about upgrade in tonal and visual quality built into a custom made instrument. Most builders work on a pretty slim budget and I guarantee they are not making a killing and I bet most are barely scraping by. You gotta have a wife with a good job in town! I recently sold a bocote/yellow cedar concert that I showed here on the LL. I got $750.00 for it. It was worth much more for sure but I am a relatively unknown builder except for my little town so I cannot command a higher price. But, I'm gettin there. Every custom instrument that I own, mostly dobros and guitars, just blow the doors off of "factory" produced instruments and I've owned a bunch of them. I've played the Deering Goodtime but put it up against a Huber and tell me that again!
terry harris
 
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You know, maybe it's just me, but it does seem as if CeeJay sometimes just likes to stir the muck up to see where it goes ...
 
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You are correct... Such comments are clearly meant to be inflammatory... I must also have missed the election where you were voted representative for the ukulele community in the UK. Tell me, when did that happen? Back in 1994 when I began building for the ukulele market here because I don't remember meeting you or reading your manifesto? Your remarks are both offensive and inaccurate. Premium materials for a ukulele alone cost upwards of £200 and you clearly have never played a bespoke instrument of any note particularly banjos. This is not the place to light your fire!
 
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So thinks everybody and anybody who works for a living :eek:...Perhaps you highly gifted artisans need to get out of the garrets and into the real world a bit more....:eek: cos the reality is that people are more money savvy these days and weigh up quality and quantity a bit more shrewdly (or tightly lol)

I just pulled one part of this quote, but the whole thing so provocative. If you look at the big picture it's more about the world we live in today. Corporations are driven by profit and have managed to make most things cheap and unattractive these days. There was a time before this "more is better" mindset took over when everything was handcrafted and meant to be kept for many years. Today you can hardly find furniture without particle board at its core, or a product made of metal in which the very lightest gauge possible is used. It's also a time vs. money thing where the value of something is based on how long it takes to make it. It use to favor the "time" side of that equation allowing for quality goods, now it's about the money side and the result is a plethora of crappy goods.
 
I have played a few of Jerry Hoffmann's ukuleles and they are fine instruments indeed. Not only are they very well crafted, they also have new innovations in styling and construction, as well as that wonderful pin nut that accepts any and all strings, just great stuff!

Jerry, I do hope to own one of your ukuleles one day, I just don't have the means at the moment. It's not that I would not pay those prices, I just can't right now.
I do think that your current prices are more than fair, even quite a value for the quality.
I would charge what the market will bear.

Keep up the great work!
 
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