HOLY UKULELE! where did they come from?

I went to Sam Ash yesterday to help a friend buy a guitar, and I was BLOWN AWAY by the number of ukuleles they now carry! They must have had like 20 on display.

I bought my first uke from Sam Ash a little less than two years ago, and I only had two Oscar Schmidt ukes to choose from. AND the ukes were displayed for everyone to try in the acoustic room. Now, not even two years later, there are about 20 ukes of all different makes and they are all tucked behind the counter where an employee is at all times.
Seems like America has got a case of UAS.

oh, and to add to this story, shortly after I bought my first uke my mom actually met Mrs. Ash at the hospital where she works and my mom told her i bought a uke. Mrs. Ash said that her husband Mr. Ash has been looking to discontinue ukes, but Mrs. Ash told him not to because she thought they would catch on again soon.
I imagine there are a lot of I-told-you-so's happening in that household.

I heard one of the Ash boys attended a store clinic in FL featuring ukes recently. It was very well attended and Sam Ash has been on board since then. Since then, Kala and Sam Ash have teamed up at a couple of events (there where Kala guys at the Sam Ash booth at the NY Uke Fest)

Sam Ash is a very savvy store, and I agree with you, ukes are catching on in the states

The one in Carle Place? I was happy to see a big wall of ukes behind the counter. Even a year ago they only had maybe one playable uke in the whole store, but now they have lots of decent Kalas and Lanikais. I'm glad that some stores around here are finally giving uke players a chance!

Same here in Indy. I believe the manager is a uker.

haha I like uke players gaining power in the business world.

Now all we need is a uke playing president and we can take over politics too!

Same in my area. Morgan Music has been in our area for many many years, very prominent guitar store, and to my knowledge never carried any ukes, but maybe one from trade in or such. The other day when I was in there, they are now carrying a very impressive line of the Kalas, and accessories. A young man I talked to said he had been trying to get the Morgans to carry a line for quite awhile and they finally agreed. It will be interesting to see how the line does for them.

Yeah, my local Sam Ash has increased its uke inventory recently. They have a couple Mexican Martins, a handful of Kalas and the usual array of Oscar Schmidts and Fender. With the Kalas at a big store like Sam Ash, a buyer can get pretty lucky with his purchase. A smaller store can be more selective and the individual instruments before hand. But with the selection Sam Ash (and others) can offer, there's a lot of good stuff to be found.

I went to one of a few guitar stores in Bangkok to purchase one of the ukes I passed up on buying before.

I still didn't know much of ukes. I just knew I needed a few. I bought a Oscar Schmidt bell shaped uke because it was on sale.

I learned its overpriced vs. prices in the states. The sale was not a bargain.

Of note however was during the short time I was there, 4 customers out of the 7 customers there looked at the ukes mostly. In fact, I had to wait "in line" for a few minutes to look at the 5 on display.

I think Jake is the one who is generating the interest. Or is if the effect of the long recession and a need to be "creative"?

I enjoyed your "Hawaiian Superman" and I'll give you ten extra points for the Harry Pothead drums. hehehe

My local Sam Ash has definitely increased their Ukulele inventory in the past few months. A pretty decent selection of low to mid-range ukes.

Jeff

There have been several news articles about how the economy has tanked but one musical instrument shows tremendously increased sales. Guess what it is.

I was just in the local Guitar Center the other day, and saw a sign behind the counter saying, "Check out our recently expanded ukulele selection in the acoustic room" so I went back there. They had Lanikai, Cordoba, and Fender. I think that might have been it. Nothing great, but it's better than what they had a couple of months ago when I went in there.

nscafe said:

I was just in the local Guitar Center the other day, and saw a sign behind the counter saying, "Check out our recently expanded ukulele selection in the acoustic room" so I went back there. They had Lanikai, Cordoba, and Fender. I think that might have been it. Nothing great, but it's better than what they had a couple of months ago when I went in there.

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If they had Lanikai, Cordoba and Fender then they had nothing spectacular but not exactly crap either. Up until recently music stores tended to have a dusty Mahalo or Hilo soprano tucked away somewhere for $30, and if you wanted an actual decent uke you had to go online. Somebody who wanted to play the uke but hadn't come here to do the research would still walk away from that GC with a thoroughly decent instrument.

dianalele said:

Now all we need is a uke playing president and we can take over politics too!

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Sam Ash Richmond Offering Ukulele Love!

The good folks at Sam Ash Richmond, Va. are doing great things with ukuleles. I have been working with Sarah Massey, Sales Mgr. at the Richmond store putting together a monthly uke jam. We just had our first meet this past Tuesday evening. It was great. We had a wide range of people-young kids, teenagers, older folks, men and women, etc. We have named our group the River City Ukulele Society. Our plans are to meet on the second Tuesday of each month.

The Richmond Sam Ash folks have been extremely supportive, offering their facility and their people to help make this happen!

As a Ukulele Underground member, I have been waiting for this for several years here in Richmond. We have had no uke activity at all until now.

We now have a group Facebook page for a central meeting place for our folks. We already have pictures and videos up from our first jam, if you want to check us out -

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=102326603154686&ref=ts

As a large ukulele group, U U members should send a positive word to Sam Ash Music for their vision and support. Let's encourage them to even offer more selection and variety of ukes!

:shaka: