Should you buy a ukulele from a store that doesn't sell ukulele strings?

cletus

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Personally, at this point I would not. It just seems that the retailer is really not that interested in ukuleles as "legitimate" instruments, if they don't even carry a variety of strings.
 
If they had good 'ukes at good prices, sure, I'd buy from them. But I'd also put in a request that they carry some strings and give them a few of my favorite brands to look into. They may be testing the water on carrying 'ukuleles, and with a little help, just may become a legitimate outlet for you.
 
I hear what you're saying Cletus, but it's just a matter of supply and demand. Asking someone in Phoenix to stock a large variety of uke strings would be asking alot. And like what Kevin said, if they had the right uke for the right price, I'd buy it.

Have you checked out Acoustic Vibes in Tempe? He doesn't have a large selection, but he has a few different ones. And he has some nice higher end ukes. Heck of a nice guy too.

What kind of strings you looking for? I have a few sets that I might not ever use, I'd let you have em.
 
Personally, at this point I would not. It just seems that the retailer is really not that interested in ukuleles as "legitimate" instruments, if they don't even carry a variety of strings.
Sam Ash only carries GHS strings. The guy tried to tell me, "That's what everyone uses." I smiled and walked away.
 
The Sam Ash in Atlanta carries several brands of ukulele strings. I know they carry Aquilas and DaDorios, and I think one other brand. I was there today playing the baritones and had a conversation with the manager. He told me he has taken up the ukulele after playing the guitar (half-heartedly) for 30 years and is having a ball. He took the uke up this year after noticing how much they were outselling guitars (percentage wise) all last year. He said it was so much more relaxing for him than playing the guitar. He seemed to like only having to worry about 4 strings.

Anyway, he noticed me rocking out on the baritones and asked me if I thought Aquilas were really better than other uke strings. I gave him the standard answer that they are generally louder, but not as mellow, and that I have them on all my ukes because I like loud. He said the Aquilas he stocks way outsell any of the others, so he figured there must be something to it. I got the impression that to some degree its up to the manager what they carry from the Sam Ash catalog.
 
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Most stores in Hawaii carry a rather thin selection of ukulele strings compared to guitar strings. Generally, its GHS and Aquila...sometimes D'Addario or Ko'olaus as well. So, I usually just get mine from MGM. So, I'm not suprised that ukulele stores in other places, where ukulele may not be as popular, don't carry too many different string brands.
 
Living in the Big City, you would think it would be easy to find Worths or Aquila strings. Not so. So far, I have bought all my strings on the internet. Many music stores here will carry Martin Ukulele strings, but I haven't heard one positive review on them, so I haven't bought them. I just plan ahead and have extra strings handy just in case. I don't hold that against the store. If they have a ukulele I like, I would still buy it from them.

–Lori
 
Living in the Big City, you would think it would be easy to find Worths or Aquila strings. Not so. So far, I have bought all my strings on the internet. Many music stores here will carry Martin Ukulele strings, but I haven't heard one positive review on them, so I haven't bought them. I just plan ahead and have extra strings handy just in case. I don't hold that against the store. If they have a ukulele I like, I would still buy it from them.

–Lori
I am with Lori on strings.. I buy in batches online. If I am lucky I can split an order with a few friends and save on the shipping.
 
There really aren't a lot of stores that carry strings over here. The store I bought two of my ukes from only has Aquilas (and seems to think they're the only strings out there, they looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if they had Worths), the store I bought my other one at had none. I haven't found any other stores that carry strings at all.
I picked up some D'Addarios and some GHS at a music store in Toronto when I was on holiday there, but haven't tried them out yet. I was really surprised to find them, though!
So, to summarize my ramblings, yes, I would go ahead and purchase from a store that doesn't carry strings.
 
Living in the Big City, you would think it would be easy to find Worths or Aquila strings. Not so. So far, I have bought all my strings on the internet. Many music stores here will carry Martin Ukulele strings, but I haven't heard one positive review on them, so I haven't bought them. I just plan ahead and have extra strings handy just in case. I don't hold that against the store. If they have a ukulele I like, I would still buy it from them.

–Lori

I also have a hard time finding Worths locally. I find that suprising since they are the favorite strings of many people in the ukulele community. However, one local guitar store that I like said that they stopped carrying it because their supplier stopped carrying it. So, it might not just be the retail end, but also the supplier side that isn't stocking many ukulele strings.
 
I am with Lori on strings.. I buy in batches online. If I am lucky I can split an order with a few friends and save on the shipping.

Also, speaking of group buys, the flashlight and knife forums that I visit often do group buys on things in order to save on shipping like you said, or to negotiate a bulk discount. Usually one person is in charge, and iniiates the purchase after a number of members have pledged to buy. That person then collects paypal from everyone and ships out the items after he recieves them. This is useful for small parts such as o-rings, and good for people who live overseas that need these items, and retailrs just charge ridiculous shipping costs for them, or refuse to ship overseas alltogether (sometimes for good reason.) Not sure how well this would work for things ukulele related though, since the only small item I can think of is strings, and MGM charges very fair string shipping prices...now I'm just rambling...but will post this anyway in case someone thinks of a situation here where this would be useful...perhaps a group buy of wood bridge pins for Kanileas?
 
The reason a lot of stores don't carry Worth strings is that the minimum order is something like 1,000 packages. Even if a store gets them at wholesale (let's say 50% of retail) that would run them about $9,000. That's a huge outlay for most of the stores.

Jon, I know that Worth lost their distributor a while ago so no one was carrying their strings. However, I believe a new distributor started selling them last year or the year before last.

BTW, I bought $120 of strings at the last Elderly sale. Shipping was free for $100+ orders. I have a lifetime supply right now...
 
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It is impossible here to buy strings from a store- thankfully eBay helps me out!
 
It wouldn't even occur to me as an isssue to be honest. If they have the uke I want at a price I can pay I'd buy from them. Strings I can order separately.
If I got into a conversation with the store owner I might suggest popular brands just to be helpful but it wouldn't be a make or break point for me.
 
I don't really care that they don't carry uke strings since I'm using only classical strings or flamenco strings. More than that, I often combine different tension for my set of strings that I put on my uke, so it happens that I buy single strings to make my combo of strings.

For me buying online is the best solution.
 
The store I work at always carries D'Addario ukulele strings. I know we can get GHS strings and Martin strings but don't stock them. It's all supply and demand...not a huge uke community in VT I guess. It's for this same reason we only carry a couple different brands of ukes...Fender, Oscar Schmidt and Ibanez (although we can get Ovation and Lanikai). We carry these lines because we stock Fender guitars/basses, Washburn guitars (who own Oscar Schmidt), and Ibanez guitars/basses. I've been trying to talk my bosses into adding Lanikai to the lineup (as I think they're generally quite a bit better than the Ibanez ukes) but so far no luck. The Lanikai LU-11 and the Ibanez UKS10 are at the same price point and the Lanikai sounds sooooo much better. There still hesitant to add another uke because they're not sure the demand is out there.
 
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Personally, it's not an issue. If you find an instrument that feels good, plays good and has a tone you like, get it even if the establishment does not carry any accessories for it. As far as string go, get 'em online. There is a wider array of choices and some sites have singles. Here's a listing of sites that have been mentioned on UU.
 
Should you buy a ukulele from a store that doesn't sell ukulele strings?
Yes, you should. It is through purchases that retailers become aware of what is selling. If no one buys the ukes, they don't sell ukes. Or accessories.
I've seen two of my area retailers, one chain one independent, recently increase the quantities and brands of ukuleles they have in stock as they notice how they're selling. And I promise, it's not me buying them all up.
When you encounter an instrument you want, you get the instrument.
Just like I count on our friend the internet for information, I count on it too for me being able to get the variety of brands of strings. Elderly has been my go-to since they do have sales sometimes. Sign up for their email.
 
I'd have to agree with cletus that a store that carries ukes but not uke strings tends to give the vibe that they don't care enough about the uke. Luckily, nearly every music store that sells Kala around here also stocks Aquila strings (even though they're half the price from MGM even with shipping). This has only happened in the past year or so, so I'm glad they're catching on. I don't expect anyone to have Worths or Fremonts or Ko'olau Alohis, but it's a lot more reassuring when the seller has at least one GOOD string option in stock at any time.

Any dealer of a higher-end ukulele brand is likely to carry a decent variety of strings. Couldn't imagine a store with a wall full of KoAlohas and Kanile'as but only GHS strings.
 
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