Looked at Uke today- advice?

I had a long day looking at ukes. I almost *hate* my taste in quality because it leads me to be very discerning! Most of the ukes were made in Indonesia and Korea as well. I live in Korea btw) There were lot of sopranos and concerts. The only tenor I found (which was the size I was leaning to) was a Chinese Yamashiro that had a beautiful sound and was gorgeous. (so difficult to find any info online) It had great volume and a wonderfully warm sound as well. Solid spruce top with mahogany sides and had a built in pick up. Here's a pic of a similar one-

http://www.musicmeca.com/front/php/product.php?product_no=11897&main_cate_no=1638&display_group=1

The price tag was 500 and he said he would go to 450. Came with a soft padded case and nothing else. Nothing. I do worry about the setup because obviously the gentleman didn't know anything about the ukes at all.

Most of the other ukes were junk and there was another Korean one that had a decent sound...

I'm really in a dilemna. I'm thinking I should order online just to be safe. Any recomendations?

There are two schools of thought:

Buy something inexpensive, because even if you're sure you'll stick with it, you don't know what your taste in instruments will be until you've played for a while, or...

Buy something good, because it'll be more of a joy to play, and it will retain its resale value if you decide to move on.

Personally, I'm in the second group. I know people who have burned through half a dozen instruments in a relatively short amount of time because they bought cheap until they didn't.

I'm not sure what your price range is. Is that 500 dollars? Surely it isn't 500 won, which my currency converter says would be just under half a dollar US. Assuming you're in the second group, I think you'd do better to find a reputable dealer online. I don't know anything about Yamashiro. Might be great, might be much less than that.

If you're in the first group, I'd suggest getting one of the cheap concerts to play for a while. Even if/when you upgrade, you might be able to pass it along to a friend. Playing with other people is fun!

-Pete

About 450 US dollars equivalent.

Want to buy online...check out Musicguymic (MGM) on ebay and check out Mainland Ukulele. Both are great online people to deal with, just not too sure about the shipping costs.
I would not go with a cheap uke just to see if you like playing. The uke will sound real bad, you will think its because you can't play and you will give up. Get a good quality uke, around $150 - $300 and you will by much happier. Both of the guys I mentioned have tons of ukes, very good ones, in that price range!!!

Happy shopping!!!!!

I'm with knadles on this one. Buy the highest quality instrument as you can afford. Don't be lured by the bling. My Kamaka is blingless (although the koa itself is beautiful), and it just sounds wonderful. Every time I play it, I fall in love with it all over again. If you have a good ukulele, you'll want to play it as much as you can.

Aloha Seoulsister,
Nice user name and very creative...you should be good at the ukulele then....some good advice has been given already....If you want a premimum uke and a mid range price, buy a second hand premimum
hawaiian ukulele (Koa) for about 500.00 you can find a nice one if you're patient and look hard.. Hawaii's Craigslist, Flea Market Music, Ebay, our marketlace on UU forums...It's a definetly risky, because you
cannot ty them before buying them..but ask the seller specific questions...how it sounds, bright or rich, why is he selling, condition, playability, comfort etc...Good Luck I hope this helps..Happy Strummings!
MM Stan....let us know what you get..

seoulsister said:

I had a long day looking at ukes. I almost *hate* my taste in quality because it leads me to be very discerning! Most of the ukes were made in Indonesia and Korea as well. I live in Korea btw) There were lot of sopranos and concerts. The only tenor I found (which was the size I was leaning to) was a Chinese Yamashiro that had a beautiful sound and was gorgeous. (so difficult to find any info online) It had great volume and a wonderfully warm sound as well. Solid spruce top with mahogany sides and had a built in pick up. Here's a pic of a similar one-

http://www.musicmeca.com/front/php/product.php?product_no=11897&main_cate_no=1638&display_group=1

The price tag was 500 and he said he would go to 450. Came with a soft padded case and nothing else. Nothing. I do worry about the setup because obviously the gentleman didn't know anything about the ukes at all.

Click to expand...

The price you're quoting - what is the denomination? Dollars? Yaun? Yen? Something else? Just wondering for a conversion to US dollars.

I can attest to MusicGuyMic's attention to quality - I got a Kala Cedar top/koa side/back tenor from him, great setup, shipping, and the price, including semi-hard case was $349 US (shipping to US was included - that is probably not the case if he ships from Hawaii to Asia...)

But if the $450 price for the Yamashiro is equivilent to USD, then you'll get a better known instrument from Mike, at a better price. (For all I know, Yamashiro may even make ukuleles for Kala, but we can't do a direct comparison, the kala is known, the Yamashiro is not.)


-Kurt

The $$$ was the equivalent in dollars. I think I will order online just for the sake of peace of mind.

Just a quick note: I just ordered from MGM and got free shipping. I agree with everyone who has said not to get a cheap uke. The better your beginner uke sounds, the more you'll want to spend time with it, learning the chords and enjoying the sound.

I started out getting a cheapie guitar when I first started playing and simply wasn't satisfied and upgraded so I do think getting a better end uke is a good idea. I am trying to be discerning and not make a snap judgement- i hate buyers remorse but hope to have it ordered beginning of next week or sooner. yay!

Great! Let us know what you pick out!

-Pete

I had the same problem when I decided to take up uke. All the info I found kept harping about how cheap and easy a uke is. But the more I read about the cheaper models, the more I knew it wasn't for me as a first instrument. It's like the difference between a plastic and a wooden clarinet. I wanted solid wood. At the time, the Koaloha pikake soprano was about that much. Now there are even more choices out there. There's MGM on ebay, Mim's Ukes, Ukerepublic, Mainland, and a ton of others that are awesome to buy from. Of course we prefer to play before buying, but music stores are decades behind what's actually going on, so they don't have decent selections at all. Let us know how it goes!