uke shortage!?!?

cb56

cb56

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After our saturday afternoon gig, my wife and I traveled an extra 45 min out of our way to visit a local music store to check out their uke selection. It's kind of a local version of the big box stores. They have 3 stores in our area. They stocked, Kala, Makala, and Luna brand ukes. All lower end models. Nothing impressive really. I asked the sales guy if they had any more ukes and he said no, but they had them on order. He said that around christmas that they had sold out and re ordered 3 times and that they just can't keep them in the store! Apparently ukes are a hot item right now.
I did bring in my Ubass (they had never seen one) and the staff was just blown away by them and said that they are going too have to get one in stock!
I should get a commission.
 
g'day cb

they're a molten hot item here in Tasmania. Talking to the guys at our biggest music store here in Launceston yesterday and they had 45 ukes in 10 days ago and all sold out!!!!! Let me tell you, Launceston is a small city...not even large enough to qualify as a "city" by conventional standards standards...more a large town. Unbelievable. Member Lexxy's signature that "Ukes will one day take over the world" could be happenning right before our eyes!!! Let's hope they can at least do something about the tragic stuff going on in the Middle east at the moment...
 
People around Toronto are buying up the low end Mahalos, complaining they're toys than two weeks later can't put them down.
The revolution won't be televised, it'll be broadcast on youtube.
 
This is good! The Uke will soon be used as a way to bring about World Peace!! :D
 
Yes there is a shortage of many models for example- Mainland cedar,rosewood -soprano, concert gone again, Kala U Bass, gone, Kala Acacia, gone, Kala Thin body, gone, several Ponos, Ohanas, aNuiNuis, Big Island etc. They will be back though.
They are moving quite fast as more people discover these instruments. The US $ is worth less now so we have been shipping much more abroad as well.
There is also problems with getting a supply of quality tone woods to the factorys and the time it takes to produce these instruments. Many of these woods come from N America, Africa, Central America etc. and have to be moved to Asia then stabilized before using it. More time!
More should be coming in spring/summer but if you see a model you like I wouldn't wait too long even consider pre ordering.
 
hoosierhiver said:
Not only is there a uke renaissance here in the states, there are alot of countries now discovering the uke for the first time.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping this will lead to more Uke stuff in the UK...I know there is some, but it seems like every other week there is a festival of some kind in the US..yes, I know it's huge, but the closest thing I have to a festival coming up is a workshop for beginners in my home town...
 
joeybug said:
I'm hoping this will lead to more Uke stuff in the UK...I know there is some, but it seems like every other week there is a festival of some kind in the US..yes, I know it's huge, but the closest thing I have to a festival coming up is a workshop for beginners in my home town...
Click to expand...

Joey

Last year there were three major festivals in the UK. That's more than anywere else of comparable size. The Cheltenham Festival was huge. I am sure that this year will be just as good. Cheltenham will have James Hill, UkuleleBartt, Krabbers, The Re-entrants, Steven Sproat, etc.

There will also be festivals in Dublin, Belgium and Paris. All of these are closer than travelling across several states in the US.

Many of the US festivals are quite small affairs too. We are very well off in the UK. Losts of smaller events too.

We are also so well off for shops.
 
Ken Middleton said:
Joey

Last year there were three major festivals in the UK. That's more than anywere else of comparable size. The Cheltenham Festival was huge. I am sure that this year will be just as good. Cheltenham will have James Hill, UkuleleBartt, Krabbers, The Re-entrants, Steven Sproat, etc.

There will also be festivals in Dublin, Belgium and Paris. All of these are closer than travelling across several states in the US.

Many of the US festivals are quite small affairs too. We are very well off in the UK. Losts of smaller events too.

We are also so well off for shops.
Click to expand...

:O That shows what a Newbie I am...didn't even know these exsited..ah well, you learn something new everyday!

When abouts is the Cheltenham one? I could possibly get to that one!
 
The walls are almost bare at my local shop. A shipment of Ohanas is arriving soon. The owner said he talked to the Lanikai rep who said they imported something like a half million units into the US this Christmas.
 
hoosierhiver said:
Not only is there a uke renaissance here in the states, there are alot of countries now discovering the uke for the first time.
Click to expand...

Mike,
Save me a few tenors, we've decided to leave today and get a room in Nashville.
See you tomorrow!
 
I'm hoping beyond hope that the dealer with the Kamaka I'm eying still has it by the time I get the necessary funds ;P if not I'll be searching around quite a bit... thats the only downside to the uke revolution ;)
 
Just for grins I looked at a few web sites and same situation. Most mid level ukes are out of stock.
 
My wife did research online to help her decide on what her first uke should be. She chose a Kala pineapple but we couldn't find any available in our local stores (Sam Ash and Guitar Center) or online. It was even listed as out of stock on Kala's website. Luckily I was going to be in Honolulu so I called a few stores and found one at Easy Music Center (they actually had a few) and carried it back with me. So my suggestion would be to call around if you know exactly what you want and then see how much it would cost to ship. Of course if you want to try out a few before buying, this won't really work.
 
Well, my wife and I drove to Nashville Indiana yesterday. Stayed the night in a nice hotel and checked out the town this morning. At noon we went over to Mainland ukes and spent closed to two hours checking out ukes. came home with a red cedar/rosewood tenor!
 
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