unclekeoki
New member
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2010
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- 3
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I was wondering if anyone else has had 'interesting' experiences with the ukulele builder Sonny D? Recently I had kind of a bad experience with this guy. To begin with, he was extremely rude to me. At first I took this as a craftsman's eccentric demenor, however, later it just seemed par for the course. One of my friend's had an old Sonny D ukulele, that I thought, sounded very good. So I looked up the guy on the internet and tracked him down to a small, beat up shop in Waipahu. I talked with him and we arranged a price for what I wanted, which I paid. Everything seemed fine, and I got a receipt from his wife. When I called back at the prearranged time, I found they hadn't finished my uke. Personally, I'm skeptical that they had even started it at this time. I was told to call back in a month. When I came back they had finished my uke, however, it was nothing like what we had originally talked about. There were multiple small defects, and it was a figure 8 ukulele and not his 'famed' bell shape. Again, I'm very skeptical that he even made this uke for me. I think he either made and sold my uke to someone else, or never made my uke at all and was just passing off something he happened to have had on hand in the shop. After some tweaking, I have gotten the uke to sound pretty good. I can't complain with the sound of the uke at all, it is musically superior. What I do have complaint with is Sonny D himself. I found him to be extremely misleading, one might even call it lying. Buyer beware when dealing with this man. Get everything in writing and I recommend that you NOT pay him up front for anything! If you have to put down a deposit, keep it to a minimum. Has anyone else had a similar experience, or does this guy just not like me very much for some reason?