Which good ones go unplayed

DownUpDave

DownUpDave

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Some of us buy ukes and these lovely instruments sit in the corner feeling unloved and unwanted. For what ever reason the desire to "have" was the strongest part of the purchase and they never made the A team. Mine are as follows.

Koaloha Opio concert ( played it a lot when new but realized I am a tenor guy)

Gianinni Baritone (see above.....tenor guy, hoping to like playing Bari some day)

Loprinzi super soprano ( I do enjoy playing it but not as often as I should)

What are your wall flowers????? The thread about "How many have you played today" Got me thinking about this
 
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Hey I'm sending you a PM about something in your OP.

Anyway mine are a Moku spruce/hog tenor. It's actually a nice instrument but the neck shape is really not to my liking.

then there's an Alulu tenor solid acacia high gloss. Sounds fairly nice but low in volume.

Then a black Fluke tenor with wooden fretboard. I actually ended up preferring their plastic fretboard. It's easier to play on. Sound is very nice.

Then a concert Firefly. There is nothing not to like about this guy except its a concert and I just don't do a lot of banjo at this point. It's cool and sounds great though.

These guys really don't get played and are waiting for me to get motivated to finding them a good home. All of them are worth owning for someone. I'm just really lazy about this sort of thing these days. When I was young and broke selling my stuff was a lifestyle. :p

Nothing else is worth mentioning.
 
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Probably the only one which isn't played at least twice a week is the Flea Soprano. It spends a lot if in-the-trunk(boot) time, so its time is usually limited to the "waiting while spouse shoos" situations.
 
Yes, that thread got me to thinking too. When my new Mainland showed up, the Makala went upstairs to the spare bedroom. But the strings were shot on it, and I stripped those off. I didn't even give it a thought for weeks, because I was playing the new one. Then, last week I put a new set on the Makala, and for some reason I keep going up there and tuning the new strings, then strumming a few bars of Gilligan's Island, then I go back downstairs. Does that count? I'm essentially getting the new strings to settle in, nothing more. And why I'm doing that, I don't know.
 
I've been clearing out the dusty corners. In the last week I sold a Scott Wise Tenor (delicious sound) and a Risa LP Cherry Sunburst (Beautiful). I put a 1930 National Tri-cone Tenor Guitar on consignment at a local luthiers shop as well as an off brand electric guitar. Currently selling a Scott Wise Baritone and a Kala Solid Body U-Bass.
That will leave me with two 6 string acoustic guitars (Martin and Blue Ridge), a Kamaka Tenor, Kamaka 8 string tenor, Mya-Moe Resonator, Mya-Moe Lap Steel Resonator, a Big Rusty tenor resonator (on loan to a friend), a tenor banjo strung up as a baritone banjolele and some novelty ukes.
 
I really don't have many ukes, just three. (A fourth will be coming fairly soon.) The one I don't play is a Kala KA-S. And no, it isn't expensive and it doesn't have beautiful tone, but it served me well for over two years playing just one uke. It's a really good instrument for its price. Maybe I got lucky with it; even the action is good and it came from Amazon. Martin M600s sound great on it. But when I play a soprano, I play my Kamaka pineapple.
 
DownUpDave said:
Some of us buy ukes and these lovely instruments sit in the corner feeling unloved and unwanted. For what ever reason the desire to "have" was the strongest part of the purchase and they never made the A team. Mine are as follows.

Koaloha Opio concert ( played it a lot when new but realized I am a tenor guy)

Gianinni Baritone (see above.....tenor guy, hoping to like playing Bari some day)

Loprinzi super soprano ( I do enjoy playing it but not as often as I should)

What are your wall flowers????? The thread about "How many have you played today" Got me thinking about this
Click to expand...

I actually play all of my Ukes three or more times a week.

But I might be a little too heavy in Spruce tops and need to change out strings.
 
Right now I have one player and three wallflowers. The three unplayed are my KoAloha crown bridge tenor, my Kanilea island inlay tenor and my Kamaka tenor. All three are great ukes, I just prefer my MB. I do feel bad about them being unplayed though and plan to sell all three this summer.
 
Have to admit, since getting the Clara, my Ohana retro soprano and cedar/redwood concert have been lonely. I will get back to them, but for now, the honeymoon period continues...
 
Ukejenny said:
Have to admit, since getting the Clara, my Ohana retro soprano and cedar/redwood concert have been lonely. I will get back to them, but for now, the honeymoon period continues...
Click to expand...

Well said about the honey money period. There is nothing so enchanting as the sound of a new uke that you are in LOVE with. It is like a drug you just can't seem to get enough of.

All my ukes at the moment are keepers but I seem to go through.......mini honeymoon periods with each. I call it "conditioned ear or fussy ear" where I seem to like one particular sound and will stick to playing that one uke. A day or a week later I might like Low G instead of the re-entrant I was just loving. So I mix it up as the mood strikes me.
 
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Tune your Gianinni baritone with a low D as a first and fourth, and pull the first string up to an E Dirk from Southcoast Strings is the person who piqued my curiosity. My other one is conventional tuning and has become somewhat of an orphan.
 
I have purchased and sold a number of ukuleles.
Usually they have that honeymoon period of play but then I seem to keep going back to my Koaloha Concert.
I have tried different sizes, styles, makes etc but the Koaloha just brings a smile EVERY time I play it.

Its funny, I 'want' more ukuleles but can't justify them sitting in their cases.
I have moved on to making rather than purchasing... perhaps I will strike lucky and make 'the one'
at least this way I can have (almost) any shape, size, style and wood I can manage. and if/when I don't like it.....make another!
 
I think I now have over 20 stringed instruments, so it gets difficult to give them all the time of day. My pocket Rubin is often decoration, but I'll pick it up and strum it every so often. I just finished a DIY uke I received as a gift. A combination of cheap materials and amateur building skills make it prime for a wall decoration as well. My first uke, a Cordoba 15cm, took a tumble and the neck separated from the body. A tech friend of mine glued it back, but it will never play the same again. I can't get rid of it though. I have also been neglecting my classical (Mexican made Tres Pinos) and my electrics. They get a lot of play when I'm jamming with friends, but right now I'm not doing any colabs so they sit in their cases. I still love having the options and I still break them all out from time to time.
 
MickeyD said:
I think I now have over 20 stringed instruments, so it gets difficult to give them all the time of day.
Click to expand...
I have 34 string instruments. I haven't touched the half-dozen electrics lately, nor the dulcimers, nor the Cümbüş o'uds for too long, nor the banjo nor dobro enough. The banjo-mando and banjo-uke don't see a lot of action either. But they're there, just in case! I *have* been running through the mandos and 'uke-like objects a lot recently (well, they're mostly still pretty new) and even the half-dozen old acoustic guitars. But it's mostly newer-to-me stuff that gets played more.
 
I don't play my Kala KA-C anymore. It was my hospice uke, but not now. I spend money on it experimenting. I've experimented it into unplayability, for now. The others get the snot played outta them.
 
I seem to get on a roll with one exclusively for a few weeks at a time. Then for some reason I'll pick up another, get obsessed with that and do the same thing. Rinse and repeat. So yeah Dave, at any given moment, all but one in my collection tend to be wall flowers; or in my "case", case dwellers.
 
Dave, can you clear your PM box thingo? Wanted to send you a PM....
 
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