What's Your Least Often Played Uke?

For those who have two or more Ukuleles, tell us which Uke in your collection is least often played, and why you think that is.

For me, it's my Baritone. I think it's probably because of the traditional Baritone stringing, DGBE. I just want to play the tunes I know on my other Ukes and in the same key, and I don't like the different fingerings, it messes up my memorized melody lines, etc. I plan on re-stringing my Bari to Low G Island tuning in the near future.

My DIY ukulele kit uke by far. Simply because I am no luthier and the materials were pretty bad. The frets were placed in so badly that even a glance at it sideways would show that a few of them were much, much higher than the others. I still haven't been able to make it playable. But I'm not sure that counts because it's pretty much wall art now. I'd say my Rubin Pocket uke, because I play tenor and that thing is tiny.

At the moment I just have the one uke, but when I previously owned 3 I would always get them all out together when I played and enjoyed switching between them, so none ever really remained unplayed. Thats partly why I like to own a few at once and when looking at a new purchase I always consider how it 'fits in' with my other ukes

My least played uke is the Schoenhut 'Oak Mahogany' soprano Flea copy. After 2 months the so-called 'frets' on the vinyl fretboard were nearly completely worn down up to the 9th fret. In it's manufactured state it sounded dead and had little, if any sustain.

I could not bring myself to throw it out, so I converted it to a sort of soprano scale uke bass,or sub-octave uke tuned G2-C3-E3-A3 with a worn out set of Aquila Thunder REDS, but the intonation on those giant fat strings on a 13.75" scale is really terrible past the 4th fret, even though it is kind of a fretless now, you have to compensate A LOT with your finger positions. Now it lives in the closet.

Second to that is my $30 Mahalo U30-BK soprano, which actually sounds and plays very nice since I filed the nut slots to fix the intonation, but being a soprano (and I play mostly tenors and baritones now) is a bit tight for my fretting hand, and having only 12 frets in total is kind of a problem because there are few songs that I cannot play on it because I really need 15 frets. If I buy another soprano, I'm going to look for one with like 17 frets or more.

My Kala KA-S. It's really a good uke for the price, but I play the Kamaka pineapple when I play soprano because it has much better tone.

My first uke was a Lanikai spalted mango tenor. It's beautiful and I like its sound. I usually gravitate to other ukes more, though I'm not exactly sure why. Right now, I think it may be the strings. I have Worth browns on and want to try South Coast soft mediums. Thanks for this thread; I need to make the move.

I try and play them all. If there's one I notice has been out of the rotation for a while, and I don't really miss it .... it gets sold or traded.

Every time a thread like this comes up it reminds me to play my soprano, which is the most neglected of my three ukes. The other two are concerts and that's become my preferred size... for now, anyway!

My least played is my vintage plywood birch Harmony with a plastic fretboard.

I consider giving it away every few months.

But, every once in a while there is a song that only sounds "right" when it is played on the Harmony.

I only have 1 so....

I don't play my....
Hilo -- I couldn't let my friend throw it away. It's icky.
Polk-a-lay-lay -- cool to look at though
Hawaiian Ukulele Company concert -- my first one. I can't get rid of it
Plastic Flamingo soprano -- hello? It says flamingo. Gotta keep it
Lori Espanol concert -- way too top heavy and not enough frets
A really old one, brand unknown -- it's just a wall hanger. But it was a lovely gift.

I occasionally play my mainland tenor and my flea.

My Moore Bettah is my workhorse.

My first uke, a Lanikai Lu-11, I hardly play, it was fine to get me started and plays and sounds decent, I just have others that sound a lot better. I'll always keep it though...

That would be my fluke. The frets on the plastic fretboard aren't as prominent as the other ones I play. Makes a difference to me for finger picking. I should probably just sell it, even though it is a nice ukulele.

I'll also point to (but not finger, heh heh) my first 'uke, a cheap but bright Kohala KT-STPD with built-in removable tuner -- removed, its lacuna serves as a sound port. But a gCEa soprano just doesn't do it for me any more. I more often play its cheaper near-twin KD-SPI strung with Aquila Soprano Fifths set 30U to GDae or a very similar Ohana SK-10CR (but with worse intonation) strung backwards to a#FCg. Those are my mando-'ukes. My other least-played 'uke is the small-voiced Harmonia UKLL2N baritone now tuned as a plectrum banjo to CGBd. I hope it may urge me to use that 'standard' tuning on my Orlando 5-string banjo but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe next month...

Of course all my good axes are now packed for evacuation so I find I *must* play these left-behinds. Gotta play something...

My Lanikai LAO-T. It was one of my first ukes. Looks great, but sounds like crap. It's my beater that I leave at school to play for kids sometimes.

Right now, it's actually my best (best sounding, best workmanship) ukulele, the Barron River tenor.

The reasons for that are all somewhat silly, too.

For the most part, it's simply because of its value and uniqueness, which make me worry about bumping it into something or put it on the desk unprotected (the high glass finish makes me more cautious, though I'm not sure if that concern is even justified). So I only take it out of the hard shell case when I know I won't get interrupted and I'll be able to practice for a while.

The fact that it is in the case adds to that. Much easier to pick up the KPK tenor that is in a usually half-opened padded gig bag or the KPK soprano that sits on a side table (the soprano is also playable pretty much everywhere, I don't need to sit properly, and it is tiny). I recall reading in a guitar forum that putting a guitar into a case is a sure way to skip practicing on it frequently. That applies to me.

On a psychological level (and this is the silliest reason of them all!), I also feel that my current skill level isn't where it needs to be to do justice to such a formidable instrument, so I feel "unworthy". Too strong a word, but you get the idea. It's just the thought that I should save the experience for later when I'm a better player. I know, it's silly and backwards, because practicing on a great instrument is an excellent approach.

Finally, I sometimes get the idea I should stick to sopranos, because they are the most original of the different sizes, offer the best portability, and are the least guitar-like; when that happens, I focus intently on just sopranos for a few days, until inevitably I start missing the more mellow sound of the tenor(s) and the higher string tension (makes picking more comfortable and "feels better" to me) and focus on tenors again for a while. It seems to be an endless cycle of shifting preferences for me.

I should make that custom tenor my most played ukulele. If it collects some dings, that's okay. In the end, most instruments that are actually used will.

I rotate through all the others, but my least played is my tenor. It's not really sonically what I'm looking for from a uke.

Definitely my outdoor uke. What a disaster that sucker was, i know some people love them but for playing classical and early music fingerstyle is was just not happening. I ended up giving it to my 5 year old and even he got sick of how horrible the intonation was (ready set go for the flame wars )

Kiwaya KS5Koa. Great uke, I am just finally accepting that a "standard sized" soprano is not something I'll ever play very often. I just don't find the body comfortable to hold.

My U-Bass. It's such a cool instrument, but I get bored playing it by myself. The "normal" ukes all get played regularly.