UAS: Is there a cure?

Larry U

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Or...do I want to be cured? :confused:

I bought my first ukulele in December 2015; an Oscar Schmidt OU2 laminate concert. My second was in January 2016; a Kala KA-SRT/MA solid spruce/rosewood tenor.

Just this morning a placed an order with Mainland Ukuleles for a Mainland Solid Mahogany Long Neck Concert Pineapple Ukulele. Although this particular model has been out of stock for a while, I got an excellent deal on a "scratch & dent" one that has a small finish flaw on the headstock.

That's three. I wonder if I'll be able to stop there? :D
 
I think there is a point of saturation and sobering up, but you're not in the K brands and custom stage of your UAS yet, so, no, you'll keep doing this for a while yet. :)
 
In my case, it's relative poverty that keeps UAS in check. No more money means no more Ukes. It's that simple.

Fortunately for me, The Ukes I already own pretty much cover all the bases and I can't even remotely find a rational justification for any more.

If I were to win the lottery though, the new house would definitely have a large music room and my new hobby would be filling it. :)

Until then, I'm quite content with what I've got!


Scooter
 
Getting a really nice uke that plays like a dream helps...as does playing a lot of ukes. Now that I've tried out a broad spectrum of ukes, I know what I like. But..that doesn't stop me from looking at the Marketplace, ebay, and the good online shops just about daily when it's slow at work.
 
I purchased my first brand new uke in Jan 2015. It was a high end K brand. I mistakenly thought buying high-end as a starter would prevent me from buying more. Also, our Canadian dollars is so low, I figured this should protect me from the UAS virus.
Our dollars keeps falling ever since and I just keep telling myself let's not calculate the exchange rate.
Trust me, this is a very serious virus and it can only get worse but you will have a lot of 'friends' welcoming you at the UAS outpatient waiting room.
No there is no cured. It just gets worse.....
 
For my sake... I hope it is a disease never to be cured ;)

In all seriousness though, I have had a few ukes come and go, until I found what I really want... but there is always... one more!
It is hard to not always have one more! Something else with a certain feel, look, sound that you want! My last acquisition was a sopranisimo from Ohana... itty bitty little thing.
It fits in my bag and goes places with me.

I sort of "earn" my ukes! Some people reward themselves with certain things at different milestones.
Often for me, it is a uke!
 
The better Uke you buy, the better and faster you will improve because you would want to keep playing !
That's how I justify my UAS
 
Well you could go to a psychiatrist but that will cost you more than the UAS so you might as well enjoy the UAS.
 
My first uke(s) were bought in November last year, I'll explain that multiple first purchase, I don't have transport & I don't have a music store nearby, so I needed to find out what size was going to suit me as cheaply as possible. So first was a tenor - too big (for me). Next was a soprano - a little bit too small. So a concert arrived next - this is my size.

So then it was just a case of getting slightly better quality uke(s) to play - that is also known as UAS. :)

I now have all the ukes I need & want, so my UAS is over, (I'm sure it is......) ;)
 
Yep. The cure is called "spouse."
 
Then you just tell her that the premium instruments can be resold or traded, so it makes good economic sense to buy them on your discovery journey. ;)

(I actually feel it is true, and if I lived in the US, I would probably embark on that trip, too.)
 
I think that some people like to surround themselves with ukuleles, but in our case, neither of us care to have our house decorated contemporary ukulele. So there isn't that aspect of it driving me.
 
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I think the other thread with "how many ukes are too many" was a great one, and it got me thinking quite a bit. Not just about ukes either, but minimalism in general.

I've just started my ukulele journey and like so many of you I find myself suffering from UAS. So far I've limited myself to look at other ukes, research about them, look up luthiers etc etc, but I've been close to buying more ukes many times. That thread actually put a stop to at least the buying part. I am very happy with my current concert, and as I wrote I will likely not buy so many more ukes. One plastic, because I dont want to bring my nice uke outside (and we go hiking etc), and one more that's gonna be in low-g. But I am going to wait with that one, and let the research go towards that - and be content with just reading/looking for a while.

As a bonus, Im gonna go through alot of stuff in our house and get rid of things we dont need. We have far too much things in the western countries, hopefully some of my stuff can help someone else.
 
As a bonus, Im gonna go through alot of stuff in our house and get rid of things we dont need. We have far too much things in the western countries, hopefully some of my stuff can help someone else.
I'm in full agreement on that. Particularly now that I'm retired, and my wife will soon be, I'm realizing that a lot of the things we've accumulated over the years are simply not used or not appreciated. One of my other hobbies is collecting fountain pens, and I think it's time to start thinning out the collection and disposing of all but the best. And, of course, the proceeds can be used to fund ukulele purchases! (At least I'm using my ukes, which is more than I can say for the bulk of my pen collection.)
 
That thread actually put a stop to at least the buying part. I am very happy with my current concert, and as I wrote I will likely not buy so many more ukes. One plastic, because I dont want to bring my nice uke outside (and we go hiking etc), and one more that's gonna be in low-g. But I am going to wait with that one, and let the research go towards that - and be content with just reading/looking for a while.

I think if I could go back in time, with the knowledge I have now, I would also keep my first ukulele for at least a year before looking into "upgrading" it. Especially when starting out, there are so many other factors that influence the sound and the experience (lack of ability being one of them), and plenty of cheaper approaches to try out (different strings, tunings, getting a proper set-up if needed) that can yield improvement and that don't lead to having too many instruments.

On the other hand, though, going the other way (not to extreme degrees) is also something that I felt benefited me, just differently. I have no regrets and I do enjoy my instruments. It allowed me to refine my preferences more, and it gave me a better idea of what it is that I want from a ukulele -- in terms of sound, construction, playability. I wouldn't have been able to learn that if I hadn't experienced different instruments. Higher-end instruments are a different league, which is both a positive experience and a bit of a curse, like moving from a small place to a large house, or from dial-up to highspeed internet: It's hard to be satisfied with "less" again, because you now know what bigger/better/larger/faster is like even if you weren't missing anything before.

Then again, I believe unless you're into bling, it's possible to get a high-end instrument (sound, playability) at a mid-range price, provided it doesn't have to be koa. Koa makes it more costly. But for other woods, I speculate that you can get a very good quality instrument for around $500. After that (koa aside), the returns start to diminish more noticeably. They diminish before also, but I'm not sure where exactly the sweetest spot is -- it probably depends on the person and what someone wants.

Anyway, for me the biggest UAS contributor was my indecisiveness about the "best" size for me. It's still a factor now, though I'm more aware of it being a bit of a self-deceiving mechanism on my part to justify buying more stuff. If I did it again, I'd get a good concert, and then practice -- no shopping until much later. :) But I only know that because of the UAS.
 
I love having UAS. In the first year of playing uke I went through 16. Now I've settled on 4, but I always look at more possibilities. Also, now that I've been playing bass ukes, I'm up to 8 with my eyes on maybe one more, just for fun.
 
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