Have you ever purchased a uke based on looks alone?

mikelz777

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The thread about ukulele bling has me wondering how many people out there have purchased ukes based on looks alone. With so many people having to rely on the internet for uke purchases I'm guessing that it is probably fairly common. When I think of my own experience, 2 of my 3 ukes were purchased based on looks alone. (Though one of those was a solid acacia and I kinda wanted an acacia uke so that was a bonus.) Granted, both were purchased from a reliable seller so returns wouldn't have been an issue and both were from respected brands so I was reasonably assured that the uke would sound at least good if not great. One of those I didn't even know I wanted until I saw it and it burrowed itself into my mind until I had to buy it! ;) Now I have another uke I didn't know I wanted calling my name. My resistance is waning by the hour.........

How many of you have purchased a uke based on looks alone?
 
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I recently bought the orange colored soprano travel uke made by the Flight company, very inexpensive (which didn't hurt), but primarily based on its "cuteness"!
Turned out to be a very serviceable instrument too!
 
.......How many of you have purchased a uke based on looks alone?

Well, maybe not looks alone.....but as Choirguy knows I'm a sucker for carbon (or linen..) fiber instruments, owning a Composite Acoustics GX, an Emerald X7, Blackbird Farallon, and most recently a Klos Tenor Ukulele. So I didn't get the Klos just based on looks, but I wouldn't have jumped on it if the body had been painted solid brown or white.
 
Yes...........most time I am not so shallow but I just couldn't resist. I love curly koa and I love flamed maple. I saw a used Kimo tenor for sale on FFM with a koa top and maple back and sides that i just had to have. It did possess two key playing components that I insist on in a custom, radius fret board and side sound port. But I had no idea if it would sound any good........got lucky, it sounds great. Good thing as it would have been an expensive wall hanger:p

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Yes, my first was a Fender NoHea tenor. I had two $100 gift cards from Amazon and my wife suggested that I buy my uke from them. I had read that the best wood for ukuleles was koa. The description said that it was "all koa". I liked the fender-style headstock. The reviews were good. And since I knew nothing about ukuleles, I decided to buy it.

Because I liked its looks in the Amazon pictures. I decided I could live with the faux abalone rosette.

I have chosen one ukulele over another because I liked the looks of one more than I liked the other. But it was a choice between the same model, or similar ukuleles from two different makers.
 
Yeah, once bougth a Luna Tattoo.
Sold it again.
 
Yep. I bought a blingy Bruce Wei off ebay once. Had the resonance of a piece of 2x4.
 
Yes, in my first year of playing uke five years ago, I went thorough 16 mainly for looks, but I culled them to four that played and sounded best. I had Bruce Wei make me a really good custom uke back then, and I've had four more made for a certain look knowing they would be really good, and they have been. I've even bought a couple off his eBay store that are also really good. Before then he let other builders sell through his eBay store that were not very good, which gave him bad reviews, so he stopped doing that a few years ago.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 9 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
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No.. but on brand alone a few times.. did not know what the uke will sound nor was it custom ordered... but went with the brand (Mya Moe/beansprout, MBU, Ono, Cocobolo, National resonator).
 
When I first started out, I tried a tenor (too big, at that time), a soprano (pineapple, because it looked different, but too small), a concert (because it was the inbetween size) - & then I saw a long neck soprano with a concert scale neck, which I had found to be comfortable for me to learn on.

So glad I got that long neck, as it was the one I most used in my first 6 months of learning. :)

So, yes, that pineapple soprano & my first long neck soprano were mainly bought on what they looked like.

(Since then it has been a combination of price, sound quality, & then looks - but I'm not one for bling.)
 
I haven't myself, but I have a friend who did. I gave him a painted Mahalo cheapie to start him off; he had been a guitarist once so the basic principles were already in place. He wanted a better instrument, having mastered the basics on the Mahalo, so his wife (A non player,and non musical) decided to treat him to a 'better one'. She bought online; the uke he got was from a well-ish known manufacturer and was more bling than sound!
Thick with varnish and over braced to death, it is a good looking, but very poor sounding instrument. The body has no resonance whatsoever, just a dull thudding sound when plucked.And no set up, of course,from a mass produced thing; (I had set up the cheap Mahalo prior to giving it to him.)
I got my first luthier built uke about the same time, and I opted for build quality and good sound,so it is a plain looking thing that sings like a bird. He disparages mine as being 'a cheap looking thing' whilst trying to coax a decent sound from his overbuilt thud box of an instrument. But he insists that his 'looks like a good instrument' and mine 'looks cheap and nasty'. Oh well, each to their own!
 
not necessarily about 'bling' as some of the plain instruments look fantastic if its a good bit of wood, but yeah appearance is important.

I think for every price point/size/wood variable there are now so many instruments to chose from looks are going to factor in. If its a choice of looks OR sound then it should be a no-brainer, but usually you can get both. So why not get something you enjoy looking at as well.
 
Yes and no. I bought a beautiful Kanile'a Honu because 1) it was beautiful; 2) it was a Kanile'a. So, that wasn't actually on looks alone, but I would not have bought it without the great looks. I also bought a beautiful Tikan spalted mango concert uke I saw on eBay for $90. It looked flashy and sounded nice, but after a while, I realized it was just a bit too much "flash" for me. I bought it from a man in FL who I think imported them and sold them on.
 
not necessarily about 'bling' as some of the plain instruments look fantastic if its a good bit of wood, but yeah appearance is important.

I think for every price point/size/wood variable there are now so many instruments to chose from looks are going to factor in. If its a choice of looks OR sound then it should be a no-brainer, but usually you can get both. So why not get something you enjoy looking at as well.

This post sums things up nicely for me. Recently I've been interested in a solid mahogany concert but I couldn't find one with a look that I liked. My now gone first uke was a mahogany laminate with a satin finish and I think mahogany looks better with a satin finish. That automatically eliminated all glossy ukes. The one I liked most had a faux tortoise binding which I couldn't get past. I just didn't like the look. Another had beautiful looking wood but it had zero adornments so it was too plain. Another looked great in every way but it had friction tuners which was a deal breaker for me. I considered a custom build by a builder who sells on Ebay so I could get a look that I would really like and he came back with a price I would be willing to pay but when I listened to sound samples of ukes that were sold under his name, about 8 out of 10 had a sub-par sound I wouldn't be happy with so with those odds I didn't want to take the risk. I was coming to the conclusion that I'd forgo a uke (I don't need :)) before settling for a look I didn't love when I found a totally different beauty I didn't know I wanted that's now calling my name. I'm still on the fence about it. It's a nice sounding laminate which would be a new type of addition to my current collection (2 all solids and a solid top laminate) and the wood grain is stunning. My PayPal balance from selling some of my old junk would cover most of the cost so I'm tipping towards a buy. It's at a small town music store about 45 minutes away from me so I would be able to go there and hear it in person before a buy decision if it gets to that point. I'm asking for some additional pictures which I should be getting later today. If it happens, this would be another buy based only on looks (but a respected brand) for me.
 
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No, that would be dangerous for me. There are just too many beautiful ukuleles out there. I would never stop if I started buying them just because I liked how they look. But the looks is my first consideration when I am buying. Then I have to do some research, read some reviews, ask the seller a bunch of questions, wait for a month to see if I really want it or if it is just a passing thing, so never based on looks alone. I would not buy a ukulele that I didn't like the looks of though. I don't care how great it is, or how much people rave about it, how prestigious the maker, if I don't think it looks good, I'm not buying it.
 
Yes. I have bought two online. Locally the choice is limited.
LaCole
 
I would have no problem buying a Kinnard, a Beau Hannam, or a Moore Bettah ukulele based on looks alone (assuming I had just won the lottery, of course)! ;)
 
Yes. I have bought two online. Locally the choice is limited.
LaCole

I didn't know that buying by looks alone meant buying on line. Because I've bought all of mine on line, but not just because of the looks. There were other factors.
 
I didn't know there was any other way. I always buy for looks. What else is there? A ukulele is a ukulele. They all play the same notes. Even when I went to Elderly Instruments, I hardly touched the ukuleles. I just looked and said "I'll take that cedar baritone." And when I ordered a bespoke ukulele from a luthier, I just specified what look I wanted it to have and I left all the other aspects of it to the craftsmanship of the builder.
 
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