Finally found an excellent ukulele shop in Minnesota

I've been lurking on this forum for a while, and was just about to order from one of your three most recommended sellers, but the strong advice on this forum is to play them for yourself. It's not that easy in MN, there are a few shops, but none that I found with much in the way of inventory.

Then I found an on-line seller called Riff City Guitar and was surprised to see that they are in St. Joseph, MN, about an hour north of Minneapolis / St. Paul. Their on line store is extensive so I gave them a call to see what would be available in their store to play. They assured me that they had a few dozen ukuleles in the store, but if there was anything in particular I wanted to try, just drop them an email and they would make sure it was available.

I did just that then drove up there on Saturday. First, wonderful people. Extremely friendly, knowledgeable and made it so comfortable I wanted to hang out there all day. Second, the shop was bright, clean, organized and fun to explore. But most importantly, the ukuleles. I didn't count, but there had to be three dozen on display, and true to their word, they had brought in a couple from their warehouse (just down the street) that I had requested in my email that weren't already on display. They had nearly every uke in Kala's line, plus Martin, Fender, Gretsch, Cordoba, maybe others.

Whether you buy from the store or on line, they inspect and set up every instrument before it's sold. And here in the northland, where we have our furnaces running a solid five months out of the year and it is DRY, I think you could make an argument for not shipping in from a warm, humid climate, especially in the winter, and Riff City is a great option to have.

I have no ties to this store and no association other than being a first time extremely satisfied customer, and my experience there was so positive that I wanted to give them a nod here in the forum.

I'd been so envious reading all of your posts about going to shops and trying uke after uke, and I finally got to do that this weekend; what fun.

I left with a Kala KA-ACP-CT solid cedar top/acacia with slotted headstock and I couldn't be happier. I've already been trying to figure out how soon I can justify driving up there again; it's just the kind of place that makes me want to give them my business.

Thanks to Ellen and Seth and the rest at Riff City for a flawless experience. If you want to check them out:

https://www.riffcityguitaroutlet.com/

Congratulations on both finding a great music store and buying your first ukulele. That Kala cedar top is a great instrument that gets a lot of love and respect around here. Enjoy it and play the heck out of it. Welcome the UU as I see this is your first post........it's a good one too

DownUpDave said:

Congratulations on both finding a great music store and buying your first ukulele. That Kala cedar top is a great instrument that gets a lot of love and respect around here. Enjoy it and play the heck out of it. Welcome the UU as I see this is your first post........it's a good one too

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Thank you! It's not my first, I have others acquired from Craigslist and eBay, but this was the first time I was able to choose from a selection and not just roll the dice and buy the one in the ad. So much fun. Thanks for the welcome, I've learned a lot here already.

Welcome from the east metro!

I need to make a stop up there. Almost did it last fall to look at acoustic guitars, but got a late start heading to my son's game against St Johns. Now that I'm also into ukes, I definitely need to make the trip.

Congrats on the new kala!

Piggybacking on this old, old post as it popped up in a search as I tried to help another local MN player.

"Friended" a couple fellow MN peeps here, hope you don't mind!