Valerie
Well-known member
Since I really rambled on this post, I'll put the question first, and if you really want to read my ramble, you can scroll down:
Any suggestions for a uke that:
-Is 300 bucks or less.
-Has good intonation all the way up the neck-- This trumps everything for me- I'm not particular about wood and such. I know so little anyways, I'm not sure what type of wood I would like.
-Is a tenor or concert (I'm leaning towards tenor because I love finger-picking and am guessing that the wider neck of a tenor will make that easier)
-Has good set-up: no fret buzz or positions that don't sound (don't know the right word for that- when a fretted position just thunks/ is really hard to sound unless you place your finger just so.) Otherwise: sound is very forgiving to beginners.
-And this is just a glamor thing really, but I like wood instruments to look like wood- not painted pink and stuff.
***
And here's my rant-like background...
Alright, so I ordered my first uke (it's still in the mail) before I joined this site (wish I had found you guys sooner...)
Anyways... I bought a lanikai lu-21 standard. I paid about 55 bucks for it plus s/h. At my local music store there was a uke for about 12 bucks that sounded like a toy and I figured if I spent about four times (around 50 bucks) I'd be getting a good beginners instrument that has good intonation, maybe not the best sound and tonal range- but far better than the tinky toy sounding uke at the music store.
But now I realize that 50 bucks is still rather cheap, and I'm afraid it's going to sound cheap, and make playing on it a real pain. I don't have perfect pitch or anything, but I can tell when something isn't in tune and when it's out of tune I go a bit crazy. I've this really cheap guitar that has horrible intonation and I played it for all of 20 minutes before it became perminant wall decoration (it does look pretty hanging there...)
Further, I didn't really understand the different sizes of ukuleles when I bought the LU-21 and now kind of wish I had gotten one with more frets (either a concert or a tenor).
I don't want to jump the gun or anything... But I'm getting one of those Bush stimulus checks, and am thinking that maybe I'll use it to buy a good starter uke. Cause I've got this sinking feeling of buyers remorse that I just bought something I'm not going to be able to play.
Any suggestions for a uke that:
-Is 300 bucks or less.
-Has good intonation all the way up the neck-- This trumps everything for me- I'm not particular about wood and such. I know so little anyways, I'm not sure what type of wood I would like.
-Is a tenor or concert (I'm leaning towards tenor because I love finger-picking and am guessing that the wider neck of a tenor will make that easier)
-Has good set-up: no fret buzz or positions that don't sound (don't know the right word for that- when a fretted position just thunks/ is really hard to sound unless you place your finger just so.) Otherwise: sound is very forgiving to beginners.
-And this is just a glamor thing really, but I like wood instruments to look like wood- not painted pink and stuff.
***
And here's my rant-like background...
Alright, so I ordered my first uke (it's still in the mail) before I joined this site (wish I had found you guys sooner...)
Anyways... I bought a lanikai lu-21 standard. I paid about 55 bucks for it plus s/h. At my local music store there was a uke for about 12 bucks that sounded like a toy and I figured if I spent about four times (around 50 bucks) I'd be getting a good beginners instrument that has good intonation, maybe not the best sound and tonal range- but far better than the tinky toy sounding uke at the music store.
But now I realize that 50 bucks is still rather cheap, and I'm afraid it's going to sound cheap, and make playing on it a real pain. I don't have perfect pitch or anything, but I can tell when something isn't in tune and when it's out of tune I go a bit crazy. I've this really cheap guitar that has horrible intonation and I played it for all of 20 minutes before it became perminant wall decoration (it does look pretty hanging there...)
Further, I didn't really understand the different sizes of ukuleles when I bought the LU-21 and now kind of wish I had gotten one with more frets (either a concert or a tenor).
I don't want to jump the gun or anything... But I'm getting one of those Bush stimulus checks, and am thinking that maybe I'll use it to buy a good starter uke. Cause I've got this sinking feeling of buyers remorse that I just bought something I'm not going to be able to play.