Why does a concert cost much more than a soprano?

jorgs

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I'm no luthier, but it seems that the labor would be similar. And it seems that the material cost difference would be minimal.

Most factory ukes from Asia don't charge much more. Consider the K's and other mainland hand-made ukes--the cost goes up by the hundreds. Why is that?
 
You might try asking this question in the luthier's forum. Luthiers might be able to answer that question about their own ukuleles.
 
Because people will pay it. Inherent value of any object is no more than another person is willing to pay for it.
 
There is a little more material expense with a concert and you need a larger piece of wood for the top and back. Larger cuts cost a lot more even with just one inch width difference.
 
I can tell why I charge more for concerts than sopranos. I can resaw the wood for the tops and backs of sopranos in one piece, the tops and backs of my concerts have to be bookmatched. For my sopranos, the only bracing in the lower bout of the top is the bridge patch, for a concert I add two fan braces. These braces need to be hand fit to go over the bridge patch. There is at least two hours more time spent building a concert for me.

Brad
 
The short answer is that the larger the top the harder it is to meet that fine line between "overbuilt and muffled" and "sounded great until the top split." :)

The inexpensive Asian ukes aren't significantly more expensive for larger sizes because they're all overbuilt anyway. My Kala solid acacia pocket uke (not exactly cheap, even) is plenty overbuilt - it weighs almost as much as my KoAloha concert!

The one thing that does drive me nuts is why longneck sopranos seem to be more expensive than concerts! There I guess it's just a rarity thing. I sure wish the rest of the world would hurry up and discover that a concert neck on a soprano body is ukulele as God meant it to be so they will become more available!

John
 
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