Good deal? Opinions would be appreciated.

AncientMatingCalls

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I just came back from a local shop. They carry mele's, which is surprising here in wi. I was checking out a trad mahogany tenor. It felt great, and I want to stress this because it may be a critical aspect in my decision. The neck just played very well, even with the high action it had. It will probably play better much better after a set up. It really blew the mele koa tenor i played, out of the water. The sound on the mahogany was nice also. A nice mellow tone you would expect from mahogany.

Well, I was looking it over thinking "I may have found my next uke." then I saw them. Cracks? On the back of the body. Not terrible, but obviously with any crack comes concern. I pointed it out to an employee. He looked and said they would adjust the price

$299. That's $110 off of their original price.

Im really interested in it, but I feel apprehensive because of the cracks. I guess what I'm getting at is, how difficult are cracks to repair? Is it something that might cause concern even beyond repair?

Thanks for reading my long post.
 
Yeah, new mele with cracks. Just curious, what about my post is difficult to understand?
 
I would be concerned. Where are the cracks located, how many, how wide? I would guess repairs would run $100 or so not knowing the extent of the damage.
 
I just came back from a local shop. They carry mele's, which is surprising here in wi. I was checking out a trad mahogany tenor. It felt great, and I want to stress this because it may be a critical aspect in my decision. The neck just played very well, even with the high action it had. It will probably play better much better after a set up. It really blew the mele koa tenor i played, out of the water. The sound on the mahogany was nice also. A nice mellow tone you would expect from mahogany.

Well, I was looking it over thinking "I may have found my next uke." then I saw them. Cracks? On the back of the body. Not terrible, but obviously with any crack comes concern. I pointed it out to an employee. He looked and said they would adjust the price

$299. That's $110 off of their original price.

Im really interested in it, but I feel apprehensive because of the cracks. I guess what I'm getting at is, how difficult are cracks to repair? Is it something that might cause concern even beyond repair?

Thanks for reading my long post.

I love Mele but why were there cracks on a new uke? that would have me concerned? I have bought two Meles with cracks. One from Mele and got a $600 discount and the other was used from a gent in Arizona. He told me he never humidified it.

For the record the Mele mahogs sound so much better than the koa ones IMO.
 
I would be very concerned. If it has stresses going on in it, it can get worse, and unplayable. They would have to come down at least half before I would even think about it. And that would still be a big "if".. If you can get Mele to repair it, or replace it after the purchase, it might be worth the trouble with that discount..
 
Hmm, this is disappointing. I thin one of the reasons I like this uke so much is the neck just feels great.

There does appear to be some warping of the back which would probably account for the cracking. One employee never noticed the cracks and it seemed as though I was the first to bring it to attention. Another said it came from mele like that. Now I have played this uke before, and although I didn't pay careful attention then, I didn't notice it. So I'm not sure which employee to believe. Though my gut tells me that it did not come from mele like that.

This is quite a dilemma.
 
just get you a new Mele from Mele without cracks and with a guarantee.. problem solved.
 
another thing is that Meles are supposed to NOT NEED a setup as they are setup by Mele in Hawaii... basically thats what they do there as they import the ukes....
 
Hmm, this is disappointing. I thin one of the reasons I like this uke so much is the neck just feels great.

There does appear to be some warping of the back which would probably account for the cracking. One employee never noticed the cracks and it seemed as though I was the first to bring it to attention. Another said it came from mele like that. Now I have played this uke before, and although I didn't pay careful attention then, I didn't notice it. So I'm not sure which employee to believe. Though my gut tells me that it did not come from mele like that.

This is quite a dilemma.

i really like the Mele neck. I would contact Cheryl at Mele and tell her haolejohn sent you (I hear she gives a better deal when that is said). I am sure you can get just as good of a deal.
 
Don't buy it!!! Unless you are an expert in repairs. I'm curious what the humidity in the shop is.
 
Right, simple enough. But from my experience with the meles in this store, their neck shape tends to vary from uke to uke. And a big part of what I liked about this uke was the neck profile.
 
Right, simple enough. But from my experience with the meles in this store, their neck shape tends to vary from uke to uke. And a big part of what I liked about this uke was the neck profile.

was it thinner? I have owned 6 Meles and all but one had a thin neck. My 6 string had a thicker neck. They also have a truss rod which helps with the neck profile.
 
Don't buy it!!! Unless you are an expert in repairs. I'm curious what the humidity in the shop is.

Well it is a very reputable shop that carries a large amount of high end acoustic guitars. So I assume that they keep the humidity level in check.
 
was it thinner? I have owned 6 Meles and all but one had a thin neck. My 6 string had a thicker neck. They also have a truss rod which helps with the neck profile.

Yeah, it was thin. But also it had a flat profile not so much of a u shape.
 
my first six string came from Az and it had a nice little crack along it's back. It was repaired for like $40 and that uke sounded so nice. I think the cracks are notas bad as we make them out to be. My mainland has two repaired cracks in it and it doesn't affect the sound at all. In a year and a half the cracks haven't grown and the uke is never humidified.
 
would seem to me the price should be definitely substantially lowered because the resale lowers a lot... but actually if you humidify it and also superglue it .. probably would be fine if you really like it.
 
Like said above, cracks can be repaired sucessfully. I have an Acacia that I bought that had a crack in the top even. I made a deal on it that was pretty much a giveaway. I repaired the crack, and it is now my favorite go too uke, and sounds awesome. But, again, that is a simple crack with no underlying issues. An unknown like that, would make me keep looking unless it was a REALLY good deal (half off or more). For them, it should basically be a write off anyway.
 
Well it seems that the general consensus is that this would be a risky buy. I guess I'll just go with a new one and hope the feel is there. The trad mahogany is on sale on their site currently.

Thanks everybody.

On second thought, I think I'll see if I can drive them down further.
 
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I'm not sure that I'd shop at a store where they thought it was okay to sell new instruments of any type that were cracked. Sounds like they don't know what they're doing and surely they can send that uke back to Mele and get a new one. Why take a risk? cheers, g2
 
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