Hudson ukulele?

Just a general question, but has anybody had much experience of Hudson ukuleles? I don't know if these are only sold in the UK but one of my local music stores (Crane's of Cardiff) sells a huge number of ukes, and guitars and other things, made by Hudson. The thing is though that I can't find a manufacturer's website or anything? I heard that maybe Crane's owns the brand, but I don't think that's true? I've seen them, and held them and even had a strum on one. They're quite nice but I'm not sure, for the money they want for them you could buy a known brand. I just wanted to get other people's opinions and experiences. Any info would be cool!

Cheers guys...

I know their cars kind of went out of popularity back in '56

My guess would be that Cranes DO own the name, and apply it to generic ukes they buy in. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you would have to form your own judgement on whether or not they are worth the asking price. My own decision would be to stick with known brands.

Ukantor.

Hi RaRC,

The Hudons look to me as if they are built on the Kala pattern. That make me suspect that they are either made by the same SE Asian facility, or that the pattern has been copied.

It is very common to have a small number of factories in China or Korea (and sometimes Romania) producing large numbers of instruments to a limited number of designs. These are rebranded by companies such as Ozark, Ashbury, Hudson, Countryman, Stagg etc etc etc.

If it were me, I would either go and play one in person to see if they're any good (as I think you said you have), or consider a Kala uke from Southern Ukulele Store on ebay, or from Rigk at Ukulele.de. Kala have solid quality control.

Oops, Ukantor beat me to it. In fewer words too!